Francesca Forrest's Blog, page 84

Also, the latest in osprey_archer's posts from the Society for Improved Dictatorship

This one is on rebellion as mental illness: "How to Be a Better Dictator: Much Madness Is Divinest Sense."

It is so much easier to help patients who already accept their own insanity: they are far more amenable to replacing their bad thoughts (“I’m unhappy because society is so unfair; only revolution can make me happy”) with good ones (“I’m unhappy because my brain chemistry is broken; I know this must be true because only a person with a defective brain could be unhappy in a society as wonde...

Princess of small creatures

Last Thursday wakanomori and I were in the town of Turner's Falls, and we saw this fabulous mural (photo is his).



So much story in there. I'm ready to like this lady of small creatures right away.

Two sounds and a thought

I am having trouble posting--not technical trouble; inside-my-head trouble. Nothing is in my Goldilocks zone. It's either too one-thing or too another-thing. WELL GOLDILOCKS, I'M ALL OUT OF LUKEWARM PORRIDGE SO YOU'LL JUST HAVE TO ACCEPT THIS.

Sound One is the dawn chorus of fishes, which ann_leckie reblogged on Tumblr. How about that! Fishes sing to greet the day, just like birds. I am sure there are places where people set out in boats before dawn to hear those songs.

Sound Two is the woodco...

Five Colleges Student Film Festival

A friend of mine was featured in a film that was shown at a student film festival this past Friday. The film she was in was really moving--it talked about her experience being separated from her kids while she was incarcerated** But that film wasn't the only good one--all of them were excellent, and some of them I really loved. Most of them are available for viewing on Vimeo, so I can link to them. Some are very serious, others are more lighthearted.

The first one that really struck me was cal...

I got an email request to sign a petition

Last night I got an email asking me to sign a petition (if you sign one petition, you will forever be sent these emails asking you to sign others) This one had the subject line "biggest petition for bees EVER," and my mind went in an odd direction:

Many are petitioning for bees, but our petition is surely the biggest. We really, really, really want some bees. We've petitioned three times before unsuccessfully, but this time, we collected signatures all winter. There is no one in a 50 mile radi...

a deleted email

Many are petitioning for bees, but our petition is surely the biggest. We really, really, really want some bees. We've petitioned three times before unsuccessfully, but this time, we collected signatures all winter. There is no one in a 50 mile radius who hasn't signed our petition. Even babies have signed. Even the newly deceased. We will be delivering our petition to the keeper of the bees tomorrow. It is our sincerest hope that this time, at last, we will be granted bees.


source

confessions fifteen minutes after the day

The day just finished, some kind of anger-cloud settled over me and just waited for things to attach to. First I was angry at a stupid story on NPR in the morning (the second in a series of scaremongering stories about bats and viruses). Then I was angry at a client of mine that hasn't paid me. Then I was angry at my state (not US) senator.

My mind this day past has been a sterile place. Walking in my own thoughts has been like walking down a road lined with restrictive signs and people barkin...

A short, meandering story about books and childbirth

So I've been spending a little time volunteering with some high school students who are doing intensive online learning to collect the credits they need to graduate. They do get some facetime with teachers, though, and I'm there to help with writing and reading. For the state proficiency exam, you need to be able to talk about something you've read (you know the sorts of questions).

For a serious read, we've started working on Peas and Carrots, a really excellent book by Tanita Davis about two...

birch-seed birds

For some reason, birch trees like to drop their seeds in winter, and their seeds look like tiny sharp-winged birds.

Here's a birch-seed bird:



And here is a catkin, with the birds clinging to it in neat interleaved stacks--maybe fibonacci spirals; I'll have to look closer. Some of these get eaten by chickadees, but others take flight and then dive into the snow.

Black History Month: Bessie Stringfield, "The Motorcycle Queen of Miami"

The life and times of Bessie Stringfield came to my attention via wakanomori , via the owner of Small Dog Electronics, who is a motorcycle aficionado, but the text and photos below come from the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame page on her. The article there is written by Ann Ferrar, adapted from the book Hear Me Roar: Women, Motorcycles and the Rapture of the Road.

The life and times of African-American motorcycling pioneer Bessie B. Stringfield seem like the stuff of which legends are made ...

In t...