I Hung Some Hooks

Some weekends you feel like getting stuff done, and some weekends, you get that feeling and actually do things! Last weekend I scrubbed down the top of my stove (no photos; it still has stains that don't come off right above the pilot lights and a chunk broken out of one edge. But at least all the crumbs and cooking spatters are gone), and this weekend in addition to dish doing, dining room tidying, baby gift knitting (shh!), bathroom cleaning, bearded dragon handling and baby minding, I hung a hook wrack in my kitchen so I can hang my work bag out of Baby Girl's reach.

This Past Week

Just a few garden photos from last week. Two winter squash are growing, the pair of smaller unidentified vines (melon or cucumber, by process of elimination) are blooming a bunch, and I came home from work one day to spot a wild bunny hopping around.

The Part of Me that Writes a Blog Responds to the Daniel Tosh "Rape Joke" Controversy

The current controversy over Daniel Tosh being heckled at a live show that "rape is never funny" and his responding that "Wouldn't it be funny if 5 guys raped [the heckler] right now?" brings up several issues and responses from several parts of my brain.

Many of Tosh's defenders talk about the heckling and the backlash as an affront to his civil liberties, that freedom of speech means he can say whatever he wants.
To those who say "she shouldn't be heckling", the part of me that believes women are, shockingly! people too, says: she has the same basic human rights as he does, so just as he is free to propel whatever sounds out of his mouth that he chooses, she is too. He can perform, she can heckle, he can strike back, she could say something back to him, the government is not stopping either of them.
The Bill of Rights fan in me says: you seem to be confusing freedom of speech with freedom from critique. Saying what you want is legal, so is criticizing someone for what they said.

Some of Tosh's defenders are taking great offense at this being characterized as a threat. They insist that Tosh wasn't condoning rape, that the woman was in no danger of being gang-raped there and then, and it's not like if 1-5 guys did get up and try to rape her in the theater in front of Tosh and the rest of the audience that they all would have just watched.
The Law & Order fan in me says: not a threat? If the heckler had been raped at or after the show, Jack McCoy would try him for inciting it, like he did in an episode about a hate crime following a white supremacist rally or the like. Would charges like that get filed in the real justice system? I'm not a lawyer. I mention it to draw you to reflect on whether you think it's not a threat simply because no one followed through.
The linguist in me says: "wouldn't it be funny if X" means "wouldn't it cause pleasure, amusement, and probably laughter if X". This is not "interpretation" or "reading in to what he said", this is what the word "funny" means. So by saying it would be pleasurable and entertaining, how is saying "wouldn't it be funny if you were raped right now?" not condoning the rape of this woman.
The consumer of comedy entertainment in me says: if you saw this interaction while you were at a show for an envelope pusher like Tosh, and then some guys grabbed the woman and were getting ready to rape her, wouldn't you think that it was a stunt? Wouldn't it occur to you that the heckler was a plant and Tosh was doing a "rape sketch" as well as a "rape joke"? Only it wouldn't be the case. How long would it be, and how far would it have to go before someone realized that it wasn't pretend, and tried to stop the rape or called the police? Would Tosh have piped up when he saw some guys restraining her and said "hey, stop! It was a joke!"? When the audience started laughing at the woman being assaulted in front of them, would he say in to the mike "This isn't part of my act"? Would he call for security? I certainly hope so.
The former Intro. to Psych. student in me says: if you believe, should some rapists materialize, that the whole audience would jump to this woman's defense, you are sadly over-confident in the helpfulness of large groups of people. Ever heard of Kitty Genovese? She was repeatedly stabbed, then raped, then robbed, outside her apartment building over the course of half an hour. She repeatedly cried out for help. At least a dozen people saw or heard part of the attack, but the phone call that brought the police wasn't made until several minutes after the attacker was finished. It's called the bystander effect; the more people present, the less responsibility each person assigns him- or herself to intervene. Kitty Genovese died, by the way.

Some defenders say that this is being treated differently than it would be if Tosh had made a racist joke, that if he'd been making a lynching joke, and a black man heckled him, there wouldn't have been such an uproar if Tosh had responded "wouldn't it be funny if you got lynched right now?"
The part of me that lives in 2012 says: lynching is not the scourge it once was. While it was horrible and I am disgusted by the perpetrators, making a joke about a horrible thing that went on a lot 50 years ago and then wishing it on a contemporary person is not equivalent to joking about a horrible thing going on now and wishing it on a contemporary person. It is unlikely that that black man is concerned about being lynched by a stranger every time he walks down a dark street alone, or being drugged and lynched at a party or at a club or on a date, but these are situations where women must have their guard up against rape.

When it comes to consequences, Tosh supporters say he should get off scott-free, because punishing him would violate his First Amendment rights.
The capitalist in me says: any business that wants to remove their support from Tosh can do so, regardless of their motives. If a club owner was offended by him, that club is free to blacklist Tosh because they don't want to support his venom. If an advertiser on his show thinks Tosh is hilarious, but believes that their customers find Tosh objectionable, the advertiser can pull their ads and cut ties with Tosh because they don't want to loose market share. And Comedy Central can demand that Tosh publicly "apologize" because they are concerned about loosing sponsors. This is the free market at work.
Similarly, the part of me old enough to remember the Michael Richards (Kramer) racism fiasco says: after that rant and the backlash, Richards retired from stand-up. He crossed a line, his audience was alienated, no one compromised his First Amendment rights.

This Week in My Planters

That first squash is coming along nicely, about the size of a softball. All the more exciting are the blossoms on the other little unidentified vines. Will they be Crystal Apple Cucumbers or Delice de Table Melons? Only time will tell, but I'm excited. Also, there is a slight possibility that my Blue Jade Corn has come up after all this time; there are two corn-looking sprouts in the pot where I planted the (6) kernels in the Spring. They could also be weeds, but I'm going to wait and see. I know that the saying is "knee high by the fourth of July", but this is a dwarf variety (which is why I planted it in a pot), so it could still have time to get up to size and grow me a few deep blue little ears. Wish me luck!

An Ode to Queen Anne's Lace

Ever since I was little, I was quite fond of the wild flower Queen Anne's Lace (and unlike another youthful favorite, Dusty Miller, my enthusiasm for it has not faded with time). I took some photos of it blooming around town. I mostly see it growing next to parking lots, which makes me wonder why I've never been able to get any seeds started.

Top Ten Ways in Which I am a Stereotypical Little Old Lady

10. I enjoy going to tea.
9. Knitting is my favorite hobby.
8. I spend the winter wearing long underwear, and the summer carrying a sweater.
7. While in general a crime show fan, I particularly enjoy mysteries being solved by "women of a certain age" (as in Murder She Wrote, Miss Marple, Rosemary & Thyme, and Hetty Wainthropp Investigates)
6. I prefer to receive my utility bills in the mail, and pay them by sending a check.
5. I am a cautious driver; I'm not one to tool down a 35 mph road at 50 just because everyone else is, and I don't speed up to prevent people passing me.
4. When someone is not where I expect them to be, whether it's someone for work missing our appointment, or an online friend falling uncharacteristically silent on a message board, "what if they're dead?" (because seriously, how would I find out in these cases?) is unreasonably high on my mental "possible explanations" list.
3. I try to fix other people's problems by offering them a cookie.
2. When I use up something in a jar, I have the distinct feeling I should wash and save it, because an empty jar with a lid could be useful.
1. I am deeply concerned by kids in my yard.

Information Job Applications Ask For

While many job applications are fine with the work history information that would be on a resume (company, title, duties, city and state, and the months and years for your start and end dates), I've been surprised by some of the details that others ask for. Here's a list of the information to start keeping track of when you start you first job so that you can have it ready when you come upon one of these overly specific applications:
- the exact dates you started and ended each job
- the first and last name and job title of your supervisor
- the address and phone number of each place you worked
- starting and ending pay rate
- why you left each previous job

They may also ask for information like:
- if you have a criminal record (have the information on this ready to go)
- 2-4 personal and/or professional references (name, address, phone number, e-mail, company, title, occupation, how long you've known them, how you know them/what your relationship to them is)
- writing samples (for certain kinds of jobs)
- what date you're available to start work
- how many miles from the job site you live
- whether you currently have another job and if you would be keeping that other job if they hired you
- what days and hours you're available to work
- if there are any days coming up when you can't work
- whether they can contact your previous employers

Because Everyone is Dying to Hear About My Garden

Another week has passed and my vine has grown taller still. My mother said it looks most like a cucumber. With how many blossoms it's had, we'd probably have trouble eating that many 5-8 pound squashes, so I'm cool with that. Also in bloom, white Easter lilies, paler yellow daylilies, and 2 or 3 pink double poppies.