Magic Bullets and Miracles

It seems like every week, I read about some new miracle food/diet/exercise program in the news. What I think is interesting about this constant flood of information on the next big thing is the way in which these items are framed by the media, and the way people relate to them.

I see this most often with food. Red wine is good for you! You should eat more chocolate! Acai berries are nature’s miracle! Raw cane sugar is the new health food! Eat more fish! Eat less fish! These news articles often make it sound like everyone should just convert to a diet of insert food here immediately, and eschew any other information which might have been previously provided on healthy eating.

Almost inevitably, the article stresses the fact that this miracle food is extremely healthy, usually ignoring actual scientific studies which sometimes demonstrate that in fact, the food usually isn’t that much healthier than lots of other foods. The “benefits” of red wine can be found in plain old grapes, along with grape juice, for example. So-called benefits in chocolate require people to consume huge amounts of chocolate to get the desired magic ingredients, so much chocolate in fact that they would probably get sick.

What’s more interesting, to me, is the equation of thin=healthy which goes unspoken in these articles. Usually, the subtext isn’t that the food will make you healthy, it’s that the food will make you thin. This is especially true in the oft-touted juice fasts, which are supposedly “energizing” or “healthy” or “life changing” when really all they are is fad diets. People buy into them by the millions not because they want to be healthy, but because they want to be thin, and because we are all skilled at reading the subtext in advertising which touts “healthy” ingredients.

The thing about most diets is that they involve temporary hardship and restriction which results in temporary weight loss, followed by weight gain. Juice fasts are a classic example. Yeah, you lose a lot of weight on a fast. And then, when you start eating normally, you gain it all back. So you go on another juice fast. And gain. And another fast. And so forth, ad nauseum. Yo-yo dieting can be extremely harmful for the body, but most people seem to be ignoring this fact.

Now, I don’t happen to think that thin=healthy, I think that healthy=healthy, and that a big part of being healthy is eating a diverse and balanced diet, and exercising. It’s that simple. And, in fact, most actual authorities seem to agree with this position. Most people are also aware that lifestyle changes in diet and exercise patterns can result in weight loss and sustained weight loss. That’s not something that really interests me, but if it’s something that someone really wants to accomplish, drinking acai smoothies or going on a juice fast isn’t the way to go. It’s dangerous, it’s stupid, and more importantly, it’s not going to work.

Yet, these miracle solutions sell in huge volumes, and are popular with people at all education levels and in all social classes. I think that speaks to something deep within the American psyche, the need for instant gratification and for things to be easy, and the rejection of the correct, but hard, path. The rejection of science in favour of advertising hyperbole.

And, of course, the desperate longing to  be thin.

31 March, 2009 – 10:43 am | By s.e. smith | Posted in Everything, Food, health, size |

Heated Hemoglobin

Lorne…I mean Andy Hallet, is dead of heart failure at 33. This is an immense sadness (and a loss to the acting community), because Andy Hallet was an absolutely terrific actor. And a real trouper for putting on that green makeup every day for four seasons! Speaking of life and death in the Buffyverse, Alyson Hannigan had a daughter last week.

I’m glad to know that our invasion of Iraq has brought about the advent of modern laws, compassion, and general enlightenment. Oh, wait. No it hasn’t. Because if it had, Iraq would not be executing people for homosexuality on our watch. This, my friends, is why I am not a fan of sharia.

The OED3 is in full swing, and Examining the OED is my new favourite ultranerd hangout. If you love the OED (like I do) and are waiting with bated breath for the OED3 (as I am) or you just like the English language (which is pretty cool) you should definitely check this site out.

The madness in the American real estate market is far from over. Yes, that’s despite the much touted rise in home sales last month (which is really due to predatory sharks snapping up foreclosed homes). And no, the government is not approaching the problem in the right way, because propping up grossly inflated prices is not the answer.

For all the screaming about nationalization of banks, I would like to note that the only state-owned bank in the United States is doing just fine, and in fact appears to have largely escaped the credit crunch and other sundry delights of the financial crisis.

Economic status shouldn’t be a criterion for college admission, but everyone is aware that it is, even if colleges don’t always admit it. This year, they’re being much more open about the fact that they are deeply interested in the contents of family wallets.

I wasn’t aware that the President of the United States is also the President of the American auto industry. Oh, wait, he’s not, and there’s probably a good reason for that, like, say, that the POTUS doesn’t have experience as an auto executive. Economic recovery: you’re doing it wrong.

Apparently the rest of the world agrees with me when it comes to looking askance on Obama’s economic plans. He may not listen to me (or to smart financial advisers), but perhaps he will listen to global government leaders.

31 March, 2009 – 10:04 am | By s.e. smith | Posted in Everything, interesting |

Truth and Consequences

There’s a great question in the most recent Savage Love from a reader who has a harmless, if a bit eccentric, fetish, and wonders what he should do about it. Savage provided some advice which I thought was pretty good: meet someone you like, start dating for awhile, get comfortable, and then bring it up.

Normally, that’s not actually advice that I would endorse. I think that being up front about fetishes is pretty important, because they can be a big part of who you are. And because people can be nasty and judgmental, and I know that I personally wouldn’t want to be dating someone who was repulsed by something that I like to do. (For example, I really like reading trashy women’s magazines in the bath tub. I don’t really want to date someone who has a problem with that. Although I wouldn’t mind dating someone with a bath tub, because I don’t have one.)

But I think that Dan Savage made a good choice when he offered that advice, because he was distinguishing between a fetish and a personality characteristic. Not telling someone that you were queer at the start of a relationship would be pretty shifty, because queerness is so integral to identity. Likewise, if you have an intense attachment to a particular fetish and you can’t get off without it, that’s the kind of thing that should be disclosed, straight up, up front.

But if, every now and then, you kind of enjoy being pelted with ripe fruit while naked, or having sex with women in swim fins, or whatever, that’s the kind of thing that could be a dealbreaker early in a relationship, but not after some time had elapsed and both parties had gotten to know each other. Rather than ruining a chance at a great relationship, it really does make sense to hold back on the full disclosure until you get a sense of the direction the relationship is taking.

On the flip side, though, I think that people have a responsibility to be more receptive when people talk about personal things such as fetishes, or when they disclose their disease status. People hide these things because they are afraid, and often because they have been shamed or humiliated in the past. If we were all open and relaxed when people made relationship-critical admissions, we’d probably be living in a world with more honesty, because people wouldn’t be afraid to be frank.

I’ve always said, and I continue to maintain, that hiding disease status is pretty high on my list of bad things that people can do, as is hiding sexual orientation. I think that it’s profoundly disrespectful to a partner to not share a rather critical detail like that, but I also know how hard it is to be frank with someone when you don’t know how they are going to react to something.

In the long term, though, it’s better for everyone. The one time that I was less than frank with someone about my sexual identity, that person turned out to have very wrong, very offensive, and very frustrating preconceptions about members of the queer community. In fact, he was the kind of person that I probably wouldn’t really like, let alone date, now that I am more confident in myself. I could have saved us both a lot of time right from the start, but instead I waited. As it turned out, the experience just turned out badly for everyone, because he got to maintain his erroneous and stupid ideas, since I inadvertently reinforced them, and once bitten, I was twice shy about being open with people.

I remember that lesson now when people disclose things to me which I find distasteful, or shocking, or deeply strange. Rather than reacting in a judgmental and ultimately non-productive way, I try being more open to what they have to say, explaining that I don’t know much and I’m curious and I would like to know more. I’m trying to do my part for society by showing people that it doesn’t have to be the end of the world when they talk about potentially hot-button issues with people.

My first response to Savage’s answer was “noooo! DAN! What are you doing!” When I sat and reflected on it, though, I realized that I was being kind of inflexible. Information comes in degrees and classifications, and everything about someone doesn’t need to be discussed at the earliest possible stage in a relationship. The important things do, but maybe it’s better to unpack things as they come up. I guess that’s why Dan Savage is the advice columnist and I’m the nitpicking critic.

30 March, 2009 – 10:33 am | By s.e. smith | Posted in Everything, gender, Sexuality |

Steamy Hydrangeas

Relying heavily on anonymous sources is becoming increasingly common in modern journalism, but some people believe that this practice threatens journalistic integrity, and makes it hard to get quotes from people who are accustomed to being able to remain anonymous or off the record.

Young Sikhs in India are starting to reject ancient traditions associated with their religious faith, such as the characteristic turban. I can’t help but be sort of sad about the dilution of tradition, even if these men have sound reasons for their decisions.

Evidently, we have generously agreed to “consult” Pakistan before launching air strikes there. I’m glad to hear that we treat sovereign nations with whom we are not at war with such respect! Meanwhile, anti-American sentiment in Pakistan is on the rise, as is the belief that the Taliban doesn’t pose a significant threat.

The United States isn’t the only nation to fail to provide mental health services to returning veterans. In Australia, the Ministry of Defence is under attack for slacking on the job, with many veterans themselves calling for reform and better psychological services.

Evidently, the Governator is alienating many members of the Republican party, which is nothing new, except that with an election rapidly approaching, they’re starting to go on the offensive.

30 March, 2009 – 10:01 am | By s.e. smith | Posted in Everything, interesting |

The Week in Television

If you haven’t seen the latest, please assume spoilers. Also, to go off on a tangent for a moment, I am really starting to get pissed with Jezebel for putting Lost spoilers above the cut on Thursdays. And yes, they are spoilers even if the show has aired, because many many people do not watch things when they broadcast, at this point. As one poster put it in the comment threads, trumpeting “DUMBLEDORE DIES” everywhere the day after Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was published would have been a spoiler, even though the book was out, because people hadn’t read it yet. And, in fact, mean-spirited people did go out of their way to spoil the book for people, and I think that really sucks.

I have no problem with posting reviews/recaps/discussions which contain spoilers, but if spoilers could not be BLARED IN THE HEADLINES, that would be great. Like this post, I figure if someone hasn’t seen the latest, they can just scroll by really quickly and not read anything damaging, because the spoiler isn’t BOLDFACED AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE. There has to be a balance between dissecting shows after they air and not spoiling people. Jezebel completely spoiled Lost for me this week, and it makes me never want to read their site again. I certainly won’t be reading on Thursdays anymore, that’s for sure. Especially for famously plot-driven and twisty shows like Lost this should be a no brainer, and pretty much every Lost fan site ON EARTH has an explicit policy which deals with this sort of thing; reviews on io9, for example, don’t have spoilers before the cut. Lostopedia has a big ole bunch o’ crap at the top of the page so that if you land on it, you won’t see spoilers until you scroll down. This is how it should be, people!

Ok. on with the television.

Castle

It has Nathan Fillion, so I pretty much had to start watching it, but I have reserved my opinion on this freshman series thus far. The pilot was very rough (as pilots always are), and I’m not really sure where the show is going, at this point. The basic premise is kind of cute: you have a bestselling crime author who ends up partnering with a police officer for “research.” Fillion, as the author, plays a classic spoiled brat (with the twist of a teenage daughter), and Stana Katic, as the police officer, is smart, hard-nosed, and often unintentionally funny.

This week, I think I finally put my finger on one of the things that bothers me about this show. It’s that Castle (the eponymous hero) is always portrayed as much smarter and more on top of it than the police. Indeed, the show almost seems to insult their intelligence, with Castle figuring out the last minute brilliant twist, and them slavering in his wake.

Sure, Detective Kate Beckett tends to rock the interrogations and questionings, but the show seems to play on the idea that she has a good poker face, and that’s about it. Without her author hero, she would be totally lost and unable to solve cases. He’s the one who gets all the big breaks, and charms everyone, and the show almost seems to reward him for being a privileged brat. Maybe I just know too many privileged brats in real life, and that’s what makes this show so hard to relate to.

Lost

Woah, what an episode this week! It was kind of nice to return to a character-centric episode, after last week’s, which was a little bit all over the place, and some very interesting things happened in this episode.

Obviously, the big payoff was Sayid shooting Young Ben. It’s kind of the classic time traveler’s dilemma: if you could kill Hitler, would you? And since Daniel Faraday is MIA (hopefully we’ll be hearing more about that), and we don’t know how reliable he was as a source to begin with, we don’t know what the implications of Sayid’s action might be. Is Ben dead? Will Adult Ben die if he sets foot on the Island?

The typical setup for things like this is alternative timelines, which makes the most sense to me. If that’s the case, the show now has a irrevocably split timeline: 1977 on the Island with the Dharma Initiative, and the modern day. Is this how they’re going to play it? And, if so, how are the timelines going to reconcile? Or are they? Presumably the Purge isn’t happening now, which means that Dharma might actually be active when the plane crashes this time, which would be…interesting.

I also found Sawyer’s behavior in this episode very intriguing, as he tries to cleave to the life he has established for himself. The moment when he voted to kill Sayid was pretty intense. Obviously, he intended to go free him, and probably thought that voting yes would be the best way to look inconspicuous, but that’s still a pretty intense thing to do, to vote for the death of a friend (sort of). Sayid, meanwhile, seems to be having some kind of bizarre religious/redemption experience.

I also feel obliged to mention, yet again, my irritation with female characters on Lost. Juliette seems really one-dimensional at this point, and I dislike the idea that the show seems to be propagating, that she and Kate and interchangeable, flipping back and forth between Jack and Sawyer like ping pong  balls. They are either the other women or the kept women, with no identities of their own. Gag.

Terminator

Once again, a very solid episode, which in some ways I liked more than this week’s Dollhouse. We’re obviously ramping up for the season finale (and hopefully just the season finale), which is very near to hand. For example, now we know who the “major male character” that would die is. Although I don’t know if I view him as major. Honestly, I’d kind of forgotten about him. I think they should have reintroduced him in a two-parter to remind us that he existed, and then killed him off once people remembered and liked him. Oh well.

It was interesting to see Cameron and Reese working together, although they obviously distrust each other. And I really liked to see John taking charge. It makes me think that there’s going to be a major breakaway, in which he will defy his mother and strike out on his own. I believe that he’s making the right choice to trust Cameron and Reese. Cameron because, well, she’s programmed to protect him, and Reese because he’s human, and learning from his mistakes. Oddly enough, that concept was referenced in the subplot with John Henry, when Weaver talked about the fact that once John Henry has been fooled once, he won’t be fooled again.

I’ve got Tristan to blame for getting so invested in this show in the first place, but my deep love of it makes me wonder: why aren’t more people loving it? This show should not be in danger of cancellation, because it is amazing. It is actiony, yes, but it’s also emotionally complex, with real character development, and real situations, even if they are within the framework of a science fiction world. I feel like a lot of people aren’t giving it a chance because it’s a scifi show, or maybe because it’s so plot-heavy that it’s hard to just jump into at this late date. It’s well worth the effort, though.

Dollhouse

“Drawer of inappropriate starches…”

So, I feel like this episode is one that I’ve seen before. “Band Candy” from Buffy, maybe, or perhaps “Tabula Rasa.” Could be “Spin the Bottle” from Angel. The point is, Joss has done the “incapacitate the characters/force them to express their true selves” thing before. Granted, it was done in an interesting way in “Echoes,” as the Actives and the non-Actives responded very differently, and quite frankly, it was a fun episode, it’s just that the core concept felt a bit stale to me.

And yes, I did like the idea of actives glitching to traumatic memories, and giving us a glimpse of their past. Adele and Topher going loony tunes was pretty amusing, and added some great comic relief to a pretty emotionally intense episode. It does feel a little bit early, almost like Joss is trying to get through the good stories before the show gets canceled, but on the other hand, he needs to advance the plot at some point, so why not do it now. And we are definitely in the Joss zone now, where really good television starts to happen, and I start really loving it.

One of the interesting things I’ve been noting in responses to this episode is that a lot of people seem to have a problem with the idea of Caroline as an animal rights activist. To the point that people now claim to dislike the character. Now, being a big fan of animal rights, and hugely opposed to animal testing, I happened to like that facet of her character, and I liked that she was trying to expose a very bad company.

Whatever one’s beliefs on animal testing (an outdated, vile, and scientifically questionable practice) might be, I think it’s clear that they were up to some seriously Not Good Shit, what with the mind-altering chemicals and the experimenting on fetuses. And I don’t think that bad companies should be allowed to get away with what they are doing, whether it’s tormenting animals for profit or selling defective body armor, and Caroline did the right thing by trying to expose them. I also think it’s pretty awesome of Joss to do, to give Caroline a very real persona, and I’m a bit surprised by how much it seems to have polarized fans. It’s a good thing I have a thick skin, because some of the comments I read about animal rights activists and animal rights in general on sites like Whedonesque were pretty horrific. Maybe Caroline’s story, as it unfolds more, will give those small minded bigots some room for pause, or personal growth.

(For more info on animal rights, and animal testing in particular, here are some resources: the National Anti-Vivisection Society, Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association/Veterinarians for Animal Rights, Research Alternatives to Animal Testing,  and the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine.)

29 March, 2009 – 10:49 am | By s.e. smith | Posted in Everything, reviews, television | Tagged , , , , , |

Heavy Machinery

The City is wreaking havoc downtown again, which means lots of opportunities for photographing heavy equipment. Expect more in the coming week, but I couldn’t resist posting this:

I don’t know about you, but I personally find that series of photographs pretty darn exciting. Man oh man, do I love heavy machinery.

28 March, 2009 – 10:42 am | By s.e. smith | Posted in Everything, Fort Bragg |

Hillcrest (Again)

Kremlin and I went on an abortive geohashing mission last week, and along the way, we hit Hillcrest Cemetery. I’m always intrigued by how things shift and change over time in a space like a cemetery, so it was nice to amble through again, although it was disturbing to note the intensity of damage to graves in the area. I would like to  imagine that all of the broken headstones were damaged accidentally or in storms, but there are a surprising number, and that seems to suggest vandalism.

I  like that this man has tools on his headstone. It’s quite unique, for this cemetery at any rate, and it makes me think that he was probably the kind of person I would have liked to know. It’s a bit hard to see in this scaled down image, but the carving details of ivy and flowers around the sides are also quite lovely.

Lily of the valley on a 19th century headstone.

This is a grave in the fenced area of the cemetery which holds some of the founding families of Mendocino. I’m kind of surprised that the Kelley House Museum people aren’t keeping up these graves. This ivy is going to start to cause serious damage in a few years.

Footstones heaped against a headstone. I guess footstones aren’t really in vogue these days, but I kind of like them.

More headstone-devouring ivy.

I am very intrigued by this carving detail, but I don’t know what it represents. The grave is Portuguese…if anyone know what’s going on here, I would love to know about it.

And, finally, an interesting twist on the phrasing of the old “God have mercy on his soul.”

27 March, 2009 – 10:36 am | By s.e. smith | Posted in Everything, Mendocino, photography |

Wiggly Ketchup

Do you ever find yourself viewing something in your fridge with a deep sense of skepticism, wondering if it’s still edible? Are you ever embroiled in vicious disputes with housemates/partners/parents/children about when food has passed the point of no return? You should probably be using StillTasty.

Every now and then, someone makes an awesome musical discovery, like finding a treasure trove of old jazz recordings.  I can’t help but think that’s sort of neat, and a great illustration of how quickly things can be lost.

Stabbing police dogs is, in my opinion, one of the least cool things you can do. So I’m glad to hear that a working dog who was recently stabbed in Los Angeles appears to be making a recovery. Seriously, people, don’t mess with police dogs.

Nothing like a nice, juicy resignation letter. This small novella from a (now former) AIG employee is a very interesting read.  I think that there are also some good points in here, not least of which is that the American public got caught up in a witch hunt over some (comparatively) small amounts of money.

I heart Wallace and Gromit, and the idea of a science museum geared around them makes me quiver with delight. I might actually be willing to travel to England, just for this.

27 March, 2009 – 10:05 am | By s.e. smith | Posted in Everything, interesting |

Untold Stories

I’ve been thinking a lot about the post at Shakesville that I linked to last week. For those of you with short memories, the post was written anonymously by a birth mother who wanted to talk about the emotional complexities of adoption and abortion. Within 24 hours, the post had scads of comments from other birth mothers, adopted children, prospective adoptive parents, and others. I read through all of the comments, and something about the post and the responses to it really resonated in me.

The issue that the post really highlighted was the fact that in all of the rhetoric about adoption and abortion, people never seem to talk about birth mothers. They also don’t think about them, and the post made me realize that I never really gave a thought to them, even though I read The Girls Who Went Away, which is a book all about the experience of birth mothers in the 1950s and 1960s.

Like many people, my response to being confronted with my own ignorance, or a gap in my logic, is usually to reject the information provided to me, convinced that other people may think like that, but this uncomfortable information or commentary doesn’t really apply to me. Strangely enough, that didn’t happen to me this time. I read through a wide array of comments and responses, and they filled me with the growing realization that there’s a whole side to this equation that I know absolutely nothing about, and that in fact I have kind of ignored because it raises uncomfortable issues about the practice of adoption and how we deal with children.

The next day, I happened to be in the bookstore, and I wandered over to the adoption section to see if there were any books by/about birth mothers. There weren’t. There were lots of lighthearted adoption memoirs, and manuals for prospective parents, and parenting books, but the birth mothers were silent. The anonymous mother was totally right: they are left out of the discussion altogether. Perhaps because many people would be very unhappy with what they have to say.

I’ve thought about adoption before, not as something I am interested in, but as a facet of life and of the pro-choice movement. I’ve always supported adoption as a concept, because I think it’s a choice which should be made available to women struggling with unwanted pregnancies. I’ve even thought to some extent about the issues involved in transcultural/transnational adoption, but somehow, I left birth mothers entirely out of my mental adoption narrative.

Or, when I thought about them, I visualized women who chose adoption because they thought it was a good choice, and I lauded those women for making a good choice. Juno presented a kind of idealized, carefree view of adoption which I thought probably wasn’t quite accurate, but I really did not stop to think about the fact that adoption is a very intense experience for the birth mother, and that it could have long term consequences.

“Adoption fucked up my head far worse than abortion,” the anonymous writer said, and it was a very eye-opening statement for me. In retrospect, my almost wilful blindness about adoption from the perspective of the birth mother seems almost laughable, except that it’s repeated throughout society, on every level.

The anti-choice movement is fond of saying that women who don’t want their babies should “just adopt,” and that there are many childless parents who are desperate for a child, who deserve that child. But, in fact, it’s not “just adopting.” It’s a lot more complicated than that. Adoption and abortion are both extremely difficult choices, and while everyone’s focusing on legislation to make abortion as difficult and emotionally stressful as possible, there’s not a lot of attention to birth mothers. One of the recurrent complaints from birth mothers in the comments was that they were given very inadequate counseling, and that none of them were prepared for the experience. Because all of the focus is on the people who are taking the child in, not the woman who is giving up her child.

If you haven’t read the post and comments, I highly recommend that you do. It’s a very long read, but it was very enlightening. I enjoy opportunities to have my horizons broadened, and to increase my depth of knowledge on subjects I am unfamiliar with, but this post was more than a learning experience: it was a total revelation.

26 March, 2009 – 10:54 am | By s.e. smith | Posted in Everything, social justice |

Humming Barracudas

Independent bookstores were already struggling long before the recession, thanks to the rise of big box discounters which appealed to the bottom line. Now, the situation is getting even worse, and it raises some interesting questions about what independent bookstores mean to their communities, and whether or not independent bookselling is going to continue to exist.

Seeing as how we can simulate pretty much everything else imaginable, why not simulate the basics of the human body for introductory medical instruction? It would certainly allow students to get more confident about handling bodies before they have to interact with real patients.

The Academy for Eating Disorders, an advocacy organization, has some new guidelines out on dealing with childhood obesity. What makes these guidelines freakin’ awesome is that the focus is on overall health, not weight, and the fact that bodies can (and should) be diverse. This line from the second paragraph pretty much sums up why our approach to the “obesity epidemic” is not working: “A substantial body of evidence from the eating disorder literature demonstrates that a general emphasis on appearance and weight control can promote eating disordered behaviors.”

In an intriguing turn of affairs, Senator Feinstein has proposed creating a new national monument in Southern California, effectively closing a big chunk of land to the development of solar and wind energy. Hello, collision of environmentalism and sustainable energy production.

Hooray for  baby clouded leopards, and an excellent set of accompaying photographs. It’s hard to believe that these squalling kittens are not, in fact, going to develop into nice friendly little lapcats.

Inevitably, there’s been a whole slew of stories lately on how people are turning to the sex industry to make money in hard times. I hate to break this to starry-eyed readers, but making a living in the sex industry is actually quite challenging.

The French, long famous for their ingenuity and determination when it comes to protesting, are holding a 3M executive hostage while they attempt to negotiate. I have to say, taking hostages is a rather innovative approach to dealing with wrath in the working class.

26 March, 2009 – 10:06 am | By s.e. smith | Posted in Everything, interesting |