On Wed, 26 Mar 2008 09:10:50 -0700, Veronique wrote
(in article
<5706f8c3-b357-44fb-af71-b9dd48090a7e@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>):
> On Mar 25, 8:21 pm, Jerry Bauer <use...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> On Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:10:46 -0700, Veronique wrote
>> (in article
>> <fe26227d-4244-4f05-abf8-268141090...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>):
>>
>>
>>
>>> On Mar 25, 7:27 pm, UaNe...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
>>>> On Mar 25, 9:02 pm, Dover Beach <moon.blanc...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>
>>>>> I'm looking at the list of 100 books, and I'm thinking that although
>>>>> I've read some of them (I couldn't be arsed to count) I read them a
long
>>>>> time ago. And you know why?
>>
>>>>> Because I can't focus on anything anymore. Here is my reading so
far
>>>>> this afternoon, after I got the taxes to the CPA. I started by
>>>>> wondering about the book S**** Pit. Can't remember what triggered
it.
>>>>> Oh, yes I do -- I heard a recording of Sylvia Plath reading her poem
>>>>> Daddy on some XM channel. So I started thinking about crazy chicks
and
>>>>> political analyses of crazy chicks.
>>
>>>>> So I used one of my gray-market library cards and found a 1979
article
>>>>> about the difference between the movie and the novel (S**** Pit,
that
>>>>> is), analyzed in political/feminist terms. The woman who wrote
S****
>>>>> Pit was sort of lefty and it was unclear whether that was partly why
she
>>>>> had been committed. That article made reference to the Children's
>>>>> Bureau publication from 1914 called Infant Care. So I read that.
Well,
>>>>> partway. It got boring about how to fold diapers. I got through at
>>>>> least 10 pages, though. I noticed that Julia C. Lathrop was the head
of
>>>>> the Children's Bureau. In 1914? A woman was head of a gov't agency
in
>>>>> 1914? So I looked her up and it turns out I really should have
known
>>>>> about her because she was in with the Jane Addams/Alice Hamilton
>>>>> Hull-House crowd.
>>
>>>>> So back to my online library account. I looked up Julia Lathrop and
>>>>> found some correspondence between her and a working class woman from
>>>>> right around 1914-15 and it was just riveting, and heart-breaking,
>>>>> because I swear conditions for poor women in Chicago have actually
>>>>> gotten worse in the last 100 years. Then I got led off into a
puzzler
>>>>> about the Progressive Movement and the conflict between the radicals
and
>>>>> the reformers, and found some material that described the criticisms
of
>>>>> the Settlement House programs, which were assimilative and promoted
hard
>>>>> work and sobriety and a bunch of other conservative, unpopular
stuff.
>>
>>>>> Then I needed some M&Ms and I thought about how I really probably
would
>>>>> have been better off if I had just sat down and ground my way
through
>>>>> some more of Plath's poems, and just thought about those, but my
head
>>>>> just constantly explodes and with teh Intarweb being universally
>>>>> available I now cannot stay focused on anything.
>>
>>>>> I'm sorry, what were you saying?
>>
>>>> Yes. I'm not much for abstaining from anything in an organized way,
>>>> but lately I've been staying offline for the bulk of the day, just
>>>> checking email and surfing a bit once in the morning. It's been a
>>>> great victory. Though I've been feeling more like being outside in
>>>> the sun, doing some sort of physical something rather than reading a
>>>> book. The other day I spent the whole damn day driving around not
>>>> buying a boat, which was another great victory, of a sorts.
>>
>>>> Huh. I wasn't even trying to ramble, there. It's worse than I
>>>> thought.
>>
>>> I planted tomatoes. Did I mention that?
>>
>> I thought you talked with a nun.
>
>
> What?
You DRINK?
|
