PicoBlog

Last month, I received an invitation to participate in a public debate about “gender and the definition of what it means to be a woman.” There was a time in the past when I would occasionally engage on this topic—for instance, see my 2017 essays Debunking “Trans Women Are Not Women” Arguments and Transgender People and “Biological Sex” Myths. But given the current anti-trans moral panic and legislative onslaught, I believe that such a debate will almost certainly cause more harm than good right now.

Whenever I want to illustrate that food is about so much more than recipes and restaurant reviews I pull out a note that I’ve been carrying around — both in my head and literally — for the past thirty years. On March 14, 1991, an irate reader tore off the cover of the Food Section of the Los Angeles Times and scrawled a diatribe across it. She was enraged because we had featured articles about two superb cooks.

Close to Ottawa is a beautiful example of an escarpment, a transition of one series of sedimentary rocks to another series of different ages and compositions. Think of a sedimentary bed that is first tilted and then eroded on the surface. The different sedimentary rocks weather at different speeds. Escarpments can also form by moving the earth's crust at a geologic vault. Actually, it doesn't have to be the earth's crust, you can find them also on Mars or the moon, but then we call them rupes.

Well Hearties! Only 4 more episodes left for Season 10! Time really flies! So far, I have really enjoyed this season! It had a bit of a slow start, but clearly we are in for what will hopefully be a strong ending! Overall though, I love the way the show is being written this year. It feels like the old days of When Calls the Heart, which I have really missed.

When my ex-husband Jamie first began to crossdress, I was unconcerned. We'd been together fourteen years; surely we could integrate this—whatever this was—into our relationship. If it was a means of self-expression, no big deal. If it was a sexual interest, we could rotate it into our sexual repertoire, as we'd done before with other interests of his and of mine, and as I'd done with other lovers in the past.

Welcome to our weekend conversation! Next week is AWP week! The annual conference (hosted by the Association of Writers and Writing Programs) will bring together writers, lit mag editors, small press publishers, representatives from MFA programs and others for a week of panel discussions, readings, parties and a gigantic book fair. This year’s conference will take place in Seattle. I’ve voiced my share of criticisms of the conference. (Here is an open letter I wrote to the conference organizers nearly one decade ago.

As someone who loves to cook and eat rice, I take my rice very seriously. It’s often the sun on my menu around which all other dishes orbit. Rice brings an incomparable comforting texture that goes with any meal; it counteracts the spiciness of dishes and helps carry the flavorful liquids of curries, dals, and stews. Rice can relax an upset stomach and calm things down. Even Paddington eats boiled rice with chicken when he gets a tummy upset.

More than a year has passed since Navy officers showed up at Regina Mullen’s New Jersey home to tell her that her 24-year-old son, Kyle, had died in the first phase of Navy SEAL training. But her phone still rings at all hours of t… ncG1vNJzZmismJq2pLHMmqVnq6WXwLWtwqRlnKedZL1ww8eaq2aho2KvtrDSZquemZOdtq%2BzjJ%2Bsra2imnq0scClqg%3D%3D

What is the point of conceptual understanding? I often find myself teaching something in the name of conceptual understanding but without a very clear goal of what I want students to learn. There can be a lot of “students might learn” or “I want students to think about” and not much “here is how this lesson will help students solve problems in the future.” I also constantly struggle to figure out whether procedures or concepts should come first.