DOESN’T SEEM FAIR…

Published April 29, 2024 by Nan Mykel

IT DOESN’T SEEM FAIR…

that the word black has so many negative meanings. They could/should push “Black is beautiful” more, I guess, but then that’s such a divisive topic, like turning over a rock to see if is covers a black widow spider.

I can remember my beloved dixiecrat grandfather saying of the maid, “The only thing black about Charlotte is her skin.” “Black humor” isn’t funny, and now I have “black mold” in my condo, which is much less funny than green. I shant include a photo of it so as not to add to the unfortunate pairing of the word with bad. I thought of calling the shades of black “rainbow”–so it would be a “rainbow man.” Then I thought of the link between “rainbow” and “homosexual,” so I went to Google for more info and found it: “Sexuality, or sexual orientation, has to do with who a person is or is not attracted to either sexually or romantically. There are many ways of identifying sexually, and a person may identify more with one sexuality than another at different points during their life” The Medical News Today article discusses what sexuality is and provides some definitions. To date, I guess there’s LGBTQIA+…

They could/should push “Black is beautiful” more, I guess.

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SPIDERS ON MARS?

Not really

Seasonal, spider-like features have been spotted sprouting through cracks in Mars’ surface. The European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter captured new images of small, dark features that resemble spiders scuttling across the Martian region known as Inca City near the Red Planet‘s south pole. This phenomenon appears when spring sunlight warms layers of carbon dioxide deposited during the dark Martian winter. In turn, carbon dioxide ice in the bottom layer turns into gas, which builds up and eventually breaks through overlying ice up to 3.3 feet (1 meter) thick, according to a statement from ESA.

IF THESE were really spiders on Mars, would we not have already sent Orkin aloft to make room for humans with souls? What is the policy if and when we come across another life form in outer space? (I would add a photo of the suspected spiders if my helper wasn’t sick nor I so lazy).

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WHAT I DO FOR FUN

I read in bed but I write at my computer because not even I can read my handwriting. Anyway, I guess this is a tricky way to get into my first entry. I was taken by the writing this week (in bed at night) of parts of

Dean Koontz’s Odd Hours, and I wanted to share a couple of paragraphs with you. They occur at the opening of Chapter Twelve, and had an effect on me in the middle of the night:

“Paw after paw silent on wet blacktop, the fog crept along the alleyway behind Hutch’s house, rubbing its furry flanks against the garages on both sides, slipping through fence pickets, climbing walls, licking into every niche and corner where mouse or lizard might have taken shelter.

“These earthbound clouds swathed nearby things in mystery, made objects half a block away appear to be distant, dissolved the world entirely past the one-block mark, and raised in the mind a primitive conviction that the edge of the earth lay near at hand, a precipice from which I would fall forever into eternal emptiness.” p. 86, Bantam Books. Then he ate a chocolate-Pumpkin cookie he had made.

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TYING UP ENDS

I once wrote a poem

called Tying Up Ends,

but never acted

on my Muse’s hint.

Now there’s so much more

to be confessed–yes,

flaws and selfish genes,

weaknesses galore.

I’ve so much unsaid,

and thoughts unproclaimed

if I started now

it would never end. Nan 12-12-22

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AT LEAST IT ISN’T THANKSGIVING

Published July 4, 2022 by Nan Mykel

This Fourth of July I find myself running short on love of country and of myself. Maybe that’s why I responded with so much warmth to an article about family love–either families of origin or chosen families of mutual support. It’s in the New York Times and maybe you can only read it if you pay a dollar a week to recieve it on the internet, like I do. Seems like the last time I tried to share I got blank squares on my site….If you can, try it: Chosen Families, by Melissa Kirsch. I’m not even going to try it, because I hate to see my messy posts when I do something wrong, so I’ll just try to convey some of her thoughts.

Melissa Kirsch writes in this morning’s ‘s This Morning’s column that despite an absent or unsupportive biological family–and even if it is intact–supportive relationships with friends and neighbors can provide welcome kinship. Many discovered this during the pandemic

She reminds us that both families of origin and mutually chosen families can serve as a lifeline to survival. As an example of this solution she discusses how many of our fellow members of the L.G.B.T.Q. population manage to survive and/or thrive. Outlawed out of existence in some states, many have been able to develop mutually supportive “chosen” families. That’s true for many of the rest of us, through luck or determination.

San Francisco Pride Message and Video

Published July 1, 2022 by Nan Mykel

Melanie Nathan, Executive Director of African Human Rights Coalition

https://oblogdee.blog

I’d like to refer you to Melanie Nathan’s San Francisco PRIDE posting of a rousing introduction by Melanie to a video greeting from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Dr. Filippo Grandi. Melanie wrote:

“No one should be attacked by their government, their neighbor, church, doctor, teacher, parent, sibling, friend, for being LGBTQI+. Yet this happens all over the world – even in America and worse yet – in the over 70 countries that call ALL LGBTQI+ people, criminals.”

Check it out.

Campus Pride Releases Shame List of Worst Campuses for LGBTQ Re-Blog

Published September 14, 2017 by Nan Mykel

What a useful post! I’m re-blogging.

O-blog-dee-o-blog-da

Screen Shot 2017-09-13 at 9.43.07 AM Campus Pride today releases its 2017 Shame List highlighting for the second year in a row a national listing of “The Absolute Worst Campuses for LGBTQ Youth.” Up from 102 campuses last year, the national listing includes 139 campuses that openly discriminate against LGBTQ youth in policies, programs and practices as documented on the site listing. Find the detailed list online at

According to Campus Pride, the 139 campuses have a learning environment that is not supportive and “not safe” for LGBTQ people, particularly transgender students, staff and faculty. Seventy of the colleges listed have received Title IX religious exemptions to allow discrimination against LGBTQ people and 32 campuses have pending Title IX exemption requests. This is up from 58 campuses last year holding discriminatory Title IX religious exemptions and 17 campuses having pending requests.

“The Shame List uncovers the religion-based bigotry that is unsafe, harmful and perpetuates harassment toward…

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