San Francisco's Battle over Foreskin

We've voted on some awesome/strange things during my tenure as a San Franciscan.  Ultimately, I love the idea of voting on individual propositions, because it empowers voters to make direct decisions, rather than just voting for people who may or may not uphold their promises.

This one just may be the wackiest I've seen, however:

from

Proponents of a "circumcision ban" in San Francisco have gathered over 12,000 signatures in order to have this issue placed on the ballot (they'll find out in a month whether it will appear).  They argue that "To cut any body part off somebody who can't consent to me is just madness. You wouldn't cut off an ear or a finger or a nose."

This ban, if voter-approved, would outlaw circumcision for any male under the age of 18.  

Being female and never having had a male child, I haven't given a whole lot of thought to circumcision.  Guess I might have to, soon!  :)

Read the whole article here.

p.s. Take that, Trump.  And I hope you're not serious about running for president.

Places You Don't Wanna Go: Prisons, Jails, Hospitals

If I told you I'd taught at the high school, met with an observer, had a hair appointment, driven across three bridges, had a phone meeting, taught at the prison, and been to the office where I'm volunteering to pick up audio equipment--all today--would you believe me?

Well, 'tis the truth, and you better believe I'm hanging out with a glass of Cabernet right now after all that.  And the kicker is that I have to be at the jail two counties away at 7:30 in the morning.

Amidst all that havoc I listed above, my stepmom called and told me that my daddy is in the hospital!  They suspect he has a stomach ulcer. :(  I spoke to him today and he sounds just fine, and the doctors say it's all routine and probably not serious, but I still can't help but panic because a) I love my daddy and b) I'm an anxious freak.  Therefore, I've been googling all the things that could be terribly wrong with him.  My sister (the calmer Kiefer daughter to say the least) had to say "Claire--step away from the computer!"  I sure know how to work myself into a frenzy.

He's on a business trip in Minneapolis (of all places to get stuck in the hospital!) so my stepmom flew up there this afternoon just to make sure he's A-OK.  Fortunately she remembered to bring Alter-natius with her, since the real Ignatius isn't allowed on planes.  They texted me this pic tonight:

It may not be the real Ignatius, but at least my dad has a beagle in his immediate proximity.  And trust me--the stuffed Ignatius is a better choice as a hospital guest.  No one deserves to have the actual Ignatius in the building with them when they're recovering from surgery/birth/tests.

Please send all your positive thoughts to my daddy and cross your fingers that Friday (when I'm stepping on a plane headed to NYC!) gets here soon.

Weird news:  Tonight when I got to San Quentin, they were removing all ~1,000 beds from the H-Unit, in order to replace the springs on the metal bunk beds with a straight-welded "cookie sheet" slate.  Why?  Cause it occurred to the higher-ups that inmates could theoretically make shanks out of the "springs" in the frame (no, it hasn't been happening--I asked.  This is "preventative").  This is what the prison bunk beds looked like until today:

from, since I obvs can't take my own pics inside

and this is what they will look like from here on out:

Whew, what a relief that our state government is doing that.  Feels good to know that our tax dollars are being put to such good use!  

Catching my Eye(s) of Late

When I have something BIG looming over my head, I become the most easily distracted person in the world.  Suddenly, idiotic tv shows become appealing (ha, what am I talking about, "suddenly"), tasks around the house present themselves, and I even remember that I'm past due for an oil change (um, and my student loans).  It's remarkable.  And although I turned in my mammoth manuscript on Monday, here are some things that are (still) keeping me distracted lately:

from

WTF.  Do y'all know that my girl is gonna be FIVE next month?  And she's suckin' on a paci?  What's up with infantilizing kindergartners?  I wonder if she'll need her pacifier during her first book report.  Or before prom, just to calm her down.  Or to ease her pre-wedding jitters.  Gosh.

1. Tiny bow gold filled wire wrap ring

2. Bright blue Fleur de lis flour sack towel

3. fight the good fight print

4. There is no prison here original art

As I mentioned, I'm participating in the lovely Jessie's etsy swap!  I'm excited to be paired with the sweet Meredith from Thank You Ma'am.  And while I should be focusing on her favorite etsy pics, I can't but gaze at my own faves . . . four of which are these. :)  What are your favorite etsy finds these days?

My dear friends, the B's, are on an adoption quest, as you may well know.  And Summer's sweet friend KLaw has created this print to raise money for the (very costly) adoption.  Click here to buy the print and support the B's!

from/from

This really happened: On Monday night, as I was driving the short distance from the H-Unit to the East Gate of San Quentin (pictured above) after my (spectacular) poetry class, I almost ran over a deer.  That's right: a darlin' lil Bambi was prancing around the grounds of one of the most famous prisons in America.  I guess God likes to be funny sometimes?  While I appreciated the cosmic irony of this bizarre occurrence, I also thanked my lucky stars that I didn't run over the dang thing.  Not only cause hitting a deer would be emotionally traumatic, but . . . can you imagine a worse place to be stranded with a totaled car?

Annnnnnnnd my Micaela is having a giveaway!  Click here to win this sweet (and special) "Micaela" headband, created by the lovely & talented Gracienne. 

So, was this post long enough to make up for my absence the past two days?  Ha.  Hope you made it through! ;)

Uh-oh

You know an obsession has gone a little too far when:

from

Tosh.0's caption:  "Old Lady's Twilight Tattoo Almost as Repulsive as Old Lady's Buttcrack"

Scary morning

It started with a text from my sister (who lives in Georgia) at 7:41 am that said:

"Don't go anywhere near the Bay Bridge this morning--man with explosives!"


By pure fortune, or God's will/cosmic plan, we're off school today for Veteran's Day, so it was the one weekday I didn't have to cross the Bay Bridge in the morning.

Apparently, there was a "mentally unstable" man in an SUV threatening to either jump off the bridge or detonate explosives.  The standoff went on for two hours, and the upper deck of the bridge was, of course, closed down (which probably meant that like 50% of San Francisco employees were extremely late to work today).

He didn't have explosives, but he did have a gun (which he threw over the side of the bridge into the bay).  Check out this crazy article.  Thankfully everyone's okay.

The Beautiful and the Damned

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about my very favorite photographer, Sally Mann.  I was so obsessed with her in college that I wrote my thesis (which was a collection of poems) in response to her work . . . which meant I spent a lot of time with her photographs.  Sally Mann is a Virginia photographer whose evocative (and arguably, provocative) work is steeped in the South, and challenges traditional notions of privacy and propriety.

Night Blooming Cereus

Night Blooming Cereus might be my favorite of hers, though I definitely think that Mann's work is best taken in as an entire body (and not just as individual photographs).  She is best known for her haunting, beautiful, black & white images of her three children, who are often nude and photographed at their home or in nature surrounding their woodsy home.

Candy Cigarette

Untitled

(reminds me of Juliet)

Gorjus

Sunday Funnies

And this last one is from her book At Twelve, which explores girls in her town on the brink of womanhood, in that delicate balance between childhood and sexuality.  The photos in this collection are so eerie and so gorgeous, and perhaps speak more about the viewer's interpretation than the subject's intent:

Untitled, from At Twelve

Although Sally Mann's work is controversial--and there are many who virulently condemn her photographs as "child pornography"--I think she's fearless and brave and that her art is exquisite (google "Popsicle Drips" for an example of her more provocative work).

And now in weird news . . . 

Justin Bieber is now aka "Shawty Mane" and has released a rap video.  

And I'm not kidding.

"Horndog High"

So telling y'all about this bizarre news story I discovered today also means confessing that I spent the afternoon on my couch drinking coffee and watching The Mary Kay LeTourneau Story on the Lifetime Movie Network (sis, are you proud of me?). However, you should also know that I was at Freeman's house babysitting for 17 hours yesterday, so a lazy day was well-earned, I think.

Plus, I finally coaxed myself out of my apartment tonight and had dinner with my dear friend Anna (the most delicious margherita pizza and my new favorite wine--a sparkling rose--at Boot & Shoe Service, a darling little restaurant in the Lake Merritt neighborhood of Oakland). They were even playing great music (The Knife, MGMT, Sufjan Stevens), and it was dark with super chic deco. But I'm getting off on a tangent, and don't even get me started on Oakland, cause what's going on in my poor blessed city is for a whole different post.

All right, back to Ms. LeTourneau, whom I gotta admit has always fascinated me. Is it sick that I've always sort of rooted for her and Vili? And that I'm kind of happy for them that they're still married and have a family together? Hope I don't get fired and/or arrested for saying that. ;) In any case, after I finished the movie (another confession: it wasn't the first time I'd seen it), I did some e-investigating to find out what's going on with everyone's favorite molesteacher these days, when I came across more amazingly funny teacher sex scandal(s):

Check these ladies out:

(excuse the poor picture quality; it's from an old nydailynews)

What do they all have in common?

1. They were all teachers at Brooklyn's James Madison High School, later dubbed by news sources as "Horndog High."

2. They were all caught in sex scandals at school in the same week.

OMG, can you imagine how fun it would have been to be a student at James Madison High that year?? My friends and I would have had a BALL squealing about the following stories:

1. The one on the left is Allison Musacchio. Rumor has it that a female student was snooping through the teacher's phone and found her ex-boyfriend's (another student) phone number in the teacher's phone. When she reported it, officials found over 200 steamy texts & voicemails between Ms. Musacchio and the student.

2. The two on the right are Cindy Mauro and Alini Brito, and their story is even funnier! During a school talent show one evening, a janitor opened the door to one of their classroom's to clean, and found the two teachers naked on the floor together! HAHAHAHA!

But the antics at Horndog High continued . . .

(Lisa Guttilla)

Then, in January, a 14 year old female student came home from volleyball practice one day when her mama noticed a big fat hickey on her neck. Eventually, the student caved and confessed that she received the hickey from her volleyball coach, Lisa Guttilla. My mind can't really get around the fact that not only did this woman have an affair with a teenager, but she left physical evidence. Now that's a cry for help if I ever did see one.

And to top it all off, the very next week, James Madison's assistant principal was accused of sexual harassment and put under investigation. Now, as a disclaimer, I don't think any sort of sexual harassment and/or abuse is funny, of course, but all this at one school in a matter of two weeks? What on earth is in their water fountains??