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|March 9th, 2011, 07:04 PM
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Cyprus
Posts: 92
What are those?
Dear Pierre,
First thing to clarify: what we are going to discuss here is, obviously, about knotted rugs or carpets – using the terms "rug" or "carpet" as synonyms.
A carpet is a floor-covering textile.
Not all the carpets are knotted: besides the flat weaves there were also embroidered carpets.
Not all the floor-covering textiles should be interpreted as carpets: rich textiles have always been used to honor important personages so we shouldn't wonder if a brocaded silk is used as a floor-covering prop in a painting that portrays saints or royals.
The first problem in trying to identify knotted rugs, especially in early paintings, is to distinguish them from other kinds of textile.
The first two paintings do not look as knotted carpets. The first one is surely of Byzantine iconography.
Plate 162 of Gantzhorn's book (1) shows a Chasuble of Pope Boniface VIII with a very similar design. I searched the web for more information and it seem that the fabric was called "sciamito", a medieval fabric of particular structure suitable for lavish embroidery. Produced originally in the geographic area of the Middle East (Syria, Iran, Byzantium) has spread later in the Mediterranean areas subject to Islam. This particular item, embroidered with a technique "opus ciprense" (I would translate it as "in the Cyprus way") was probably made a Palermo.
Here's a detail of it:
see detail from the fresco for comparison:
Information and image from:
Plate 162 of Gantzhorn's has also some similarities to the second painting, The Armenian Royal Family:
This one is in Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, New York. It was made in Spain, 11th–12th century
Unfortunately I have to go. Tomorrow I'll be able to post more on the subject.
(1) Wolkmar Gantzhorn Oriental Carpets
Quoting a reviewer on Amazon: "a mildly goofy interpretation that claims Armenian Christian origin for oriental carpets, ill organized, with excruciating page layout, but the sources consulted and the rich illustration make an interesting read and as well an incredible bargain"
|March 10th, 2011, 06:49 AM
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 87
Hi Filiberto,
Well, yes indeed, especially in these very early paintings, it is sometimes difficult to tell,(without being able to give a close look to the original), whether the painter represented a textile, decorated tiles (ubiquitous in Renaissance painting) or a proper rug. I suppose that the curvilinear design of the motifs in the first two «rugs» brings water to your mill and speaks perhaps for a brocade or a velvet. On the byzantine origin of the motif (with deep Roman roots) we agree.
There are many other puzzling questions for which I would love to get an answer or a creative hypothesis:
I find it very hard to see in the type 2 and 3 «animal rugs» the work of urban workshops (naive motifs, low knot density, no borders) and fail to identify any obvious Islamic influence in the motifs which could just as well have been the work of Jerome Boschs six years old son.
I have a special liking for Fabriano's forked-tail, squinting alien below:
How could these spontaneous, naive motifs have appealed to the urbanized, sophisticated, at times even a trifle effete political elite of 13th-14th century Middle East, be it Kurd (Ajjubid), Turkish (Seljuk), Turco-Mongol (Ilkanide, Timuride), Armenian or even to the rude Mamluk leaders? What about the stark contrast with other contemporaneous rugs like the extant ones shown at the end of the essay or like most fragments attributed to the Seljuks?
Would a tribal or village origin for «type 2 and 3» not seem more likely? Could the motifs give us any clue about the people who wove these rugs? How did these surprisingly «un-commercial» carpets end up in Italy (woven in villages near one of Venices Middle East trading posts?).
Why did a fair number of painters (or their patrons) appreciate this style so much and prefer it to more sophisticated contemporaneous rugs?
|March 10th, 2011, 11:48 AM
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Cyprus
Posts: 92
Wait, Pierre. Before going further I'd like to elaborate on my post of yesterday.
You presented two depictions: a fresco from a church in Bulgaria (ca. 1258) and an illumination from an Armenian manuscript (ca.1250) located in Jerusalem.
I produced two textiles with motifs very close to the paintings. Pope Boniface VIII was elected in 1294 and died in 1303 so his chasuble should have made (in Sicily or Cyprus) in that period. The "samite" fabric of Spain instead is at least a century older than the illumination. It is probably of Muslim manufacture.
Looking for rugs in Armenian miniatures I found this one:
The Armenian Archbishop Jean of Cilicia, 1287.
That should be a rug. Nothing useful, though, apart for a detail that has nothing to do with rugs: it's the classical Chinese dragon-with-flamed-pearl on the Archbishop garment that is quite surprising.
A Chinese textile used for an Armenian Archbishop's clothes.
This reminds us once more how textiles and motifs - especially the luxury ones - traveled freely and were used even in spite of their different religious origin.
|March 11th, 2011, 03:30 PM
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Cyprus
Posts: 92
As we saw in the thread "A contribution to the discussion of animal rugs" (by the way, excellent work, guys) the use of zoomorphic repertory on several forms of mediums was quite widespread in East and West. But there was a change in Europe:
Hence, in my opinion, the style of some of the rugs in "animal paintings" is so European that makes me thinks they were of western production.
It could be the case of Benozzo Gozzoli's Annunciation (FIG 20)
so close to the Spanish Alpujarra rug:
An excellent channel for Spanish rugs in Italy was the Spanish court of Naples and its relations to the other Italian courts, often by marriage – like with the Sforza of Milan, the Gonzaga of Mantua and the D'Este of Ferrara.
Also rugs like FG11:
let me highly suspicious.
At first I thought that Gaddi's representation of the rug wasn't credible. The fringe was on the wrong side but, given the direction of the composition, it appears to be a rug that has been cut – unless the non-visible part was rolled behind the counter. And there are visible rows of knots, so, it's a believable and coherent representation of a knotted rug.
But the lack of borders, the heraldic stylization of the motifs, and especially the heraldic "Cross Potent"
(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_potent)
- or perhaps it's a version of the "Jerusalem Cross" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_of_Jerusalem), makes me doubt of this being an Anatolian Seljuk rug.
I say Seljuk because it's commonly acknowledged that Anatolian rugs must have been Seljuk.
More on the subject after I read a John Mills' article Pierre promised to send me.
|March 12th, 2011, 02:57 PM
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Fairport, NY
Posts: 38
Fringes "on the wrong side" are correct in rugs from Poatou and Sinkiang since they were woven with the warps horizontal - so to speak. Also the lozenges in the Gaddi rug could be taken from the coffered guls of East Turkestan rugs. Perhaps this is another example of the exchange of "art" East and West as in the archbishop's dragon.
|March 13th, 2011, 10:00 AM
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Cyprus
Posts: 92
Thanks, Marvin, for pointing out my somehow obscure phrasing.
No, what I meant with The fringe was on the wrong side but, given the direction of the composition, it appears to be a rug that has been cut is this:
The fringe seemed to be on the wrong side because its in what appears to us the long side of the rug.
But the orientation of the animals is parallel with the fringes side.
As we can see in all the other examples shown in the salon (albeit in FIG 12 isnt clear), the animals are always parallel to the short side, as I would expect in any regular rug.
So, that isnt the long side but the short one: were every self-respectful fringe should be.
|March 13th, 2011, 11:40 AM
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Cyprus
Posts: 92
Now, let's start what I hope will not be only a rambling.
It's generally assumed that the "animal carpets" visible in early European paintings were made in Konya under the Seljuks' rule.
I found some interesting observations in this article on "tea and carpets" blogspot:
In the same article there is the reproduction of a fresco painted by Domenico di Bartolo in Siena in 1440.
The rug visible in it is obviously related to the famous Phoenix and dragon carpet (Anatolia first half or middle 15th century).
That Pierre hadn't included in the salon.
More on the Phoenix and dragon carpet later.
But if animal carpets appeared in Turkish carpets only in early 14th century, who had made this one?
Anonymous, Annunciation, 1252, Church of the Santissima Annunziata, Florence.
|March 13th, 2011, 12:16 PM
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 99
Hi Filiberto
I would conclude that the although the earliest extant Turkish animal carpet was woven in the 15th century, the painting in Florence demonstrates that animal carpets were being woven at least two centuries earlier. Turkey seems like the most likely origin, although that might not be the case.
Steve Price
|March 13th, 2011, 12:18 PM
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 87
Hi Marvin, Filiberto,
We seem to agree that at least some of these rugs were not woven according to pure Islamic canons. An influence of medieval Europe is a possibility and IMHO there is nothing terribly outlandish in Filiberto's hypothesis that Gaddi's rug, for exemple, could have been woven in Italy.
Orcagna's rug below (1367, Calling of St Matthew, Uffizi, Florence), while more sophisticated than Gaddi's rug, could also be suspected of strong European or Byzantine influence, with its heraldic eagles sprayed all over both field and border.
When the first animal rugs appeared in paintings during the 13th century there was no shortage of places were «exchanges of art» between Islam and medieval Europe could have taken place peacefully, in particular Norman and Hohenstaufen Sicily (were symbiosis was much favored by the local Kings), and of course Al Andaluz.
Besides, let's not forget that at that time a large chunk of Anatolia was still not ruled by Moslems, but by the Latin empire (followed in 1268 by the last phase of the Byzantine empire), the remains of Great Armenia (still including part of Cilicia) and by the byzantine "Empire" of Nicae. The population was still mainly Christian (Greek orthodox, Armenian etc..). Even in Seljuk and Mameluk territory, the authorities had no particular urge for converting the still very large non-Moslem minorities, who contributed a large percentage of the tax money and provided slaves (including soldiers).
Even though several Turkish-, Armenian- and Persian- rug experts and writers have concocted creative theories, trying to make us believe that their favorite ethnic group was the sole inventor of piled rugs (and the weaver of the Pazyryk carpet to boot), there is really no reason to believe that Greek, Coptic or Druze populations, to name just a few, were never involved in carpet weaving.
About the theory that the sophisticated "pregnant animals" rugs were not woven before Ottoman rule, I share Filiberto's scepticism. Just give a look to the border of the Kirchheim rug (main essay). Does it not ring a clear (seljuk) bell?
Best regards
|March 13th, 2011, 05:32 PM
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Cyprus
Posts: 92
Hi Pierre,
Let's make other hypothesis:
A) They were made locally but they weren't knotted – especially the ones without typical "oriental" borders. Perhaps they were appliqué, patchworks or quilts. By the way, did you know that quilted objects were relatively rare in Europe until approximately the 12th century, when quilted bedding and other items appeared after the return of the Crusaders from the Middle East?
B) Speaking of Crusaders, Knights and heraldry… perfect candidates for exporting the fashion of geometrical heraldic motifs to the Middle East, aren't they? And these knotted carpets with animals could have been made anywhere under the influence and contact of Crusaders… Which means (have a look at the map above) at least Anatolia, Syria and Palestine. The know-how was there: knotted-pile carpets have probably been made in the Levant and Anatolia since the second millennium BC or before. Anyway, well before the arrival of the Seljuks.
|March 14th, 2011, 02:09 PM
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: France
Posts: 10
The aliens sources
I have to offer you the spanish textile hypothesis as aliens souce:
Spain was the first country in Europe to develop silk production.
The Arabs introduced sericulture (the production of the raw material) and silk-weaving to Spain. Sericulture was established by the 9th century in Al Andalus (Andalusia today) and by the 10th century the production of silk worms had become significant. Silk-weaving developed in particular in Almeria, Cordoba, Granada, Malaga, Lorca and Murcia.
The silks made there were desirable luxury products worn by royalty in the northern Christian provinces. A few garments of such silks survive because their owners followed the custom of being dressed in finery for their burial (e.g. in the Monastery of Las Huelgas, Burgos).
1200-1400 Spain
13th_14th c. Germany_spain?
Could Spain have also produced rugs with such designs?
Source: V&A Museum
Last edited by Yohann Gissinger; March 16th, 2011 at 11:52 PM.
|March 14th, 2011, 02:20 PM
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: France
Posts: 10
the return of the aliens
Your FIG 10: Fra Angelico, detail from Virgin and Child, 1438-1440, San Marco Museum, Florence with its strange animals looks like a zodiacal pavement to me have a look to this blog pic.3 the Canterbury medieval pavement:http://lenoxsthesaurus.blogspot.com/...thedral-3.html
|March 14th, 2011, 05:15 PM
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Cyprus
Posts: 92
Right! It could be something like the mosaic floor of Siena Cathedral:
To tell the truth, my first impression was that it looks like inlay wood
Anyway, if it is a mosaic floor, it should still exist somewhere...
|March 14th, 2011, 06:10 PM
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Cyprus
Posts: 92
Im sorry Yohann
If a mosaic floor of that design ever existed in Florence, it should have been recorded somehow, somewhere.
Indeed, I searched for reviews of Fra Angelicos painting: they all speak of Oriental or Anatolian or Anatolian design carpet. Someone mentions the zodiac motifs (Cancer and Pisces). I doubt in any case that an Anatolian rug could have zodiac motifs. Anatolian Armenian perhaps?
|March 14th, 2011, 07:17 PM
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: France
Posts: 10
The same problem like in the tile hypothesis: no existing related example (on internet) on the italian's churches grounds nowadays, but apparently zodiacal symbols in this case, it's not the classical bestiary.
All the best,
|March 15th, 2011, 09:34 AM
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Cyprus
Posts: 92
This is quite embarrassing… I haven't read Gantzhorn's book from beginning to the end. I had rather jumped through it erratically. Now, reading about Gaddi's painting (FIG 11), he says that, in his opinion, the "animal carpets" were related to the European fashion of heraldic which was exported by crusaders in Armenia Minor.
I swear, if I had read that part I had completely forgotten about it.
Nothing new under the sun… Anyway, if for Armenia Minor he intended the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia he may have a point: it seems that the kingdom was "a strong ally of the European Crusaders...
Commercial and military interactions with Europeans brought new Western influences to the Cilician Armenian society. Many aspects of Western European life were adopted by the nobility including chivalry, fashions in clothing, and the use of French titles, names, and language...
During the reign of King Levon (1198-1219), the economy of Cilician Armenia progressed greatly and became heavily integrated with Western Europe. He secured agreements with Pisa, Genoa, and Venice, as well as the French and the Catalans...
As French became the secondary language of Cilician nobility, the secondary language for Cilician commerce had become Italian due to the three Italian city-states' extensive involvement in Cilician economy...
Ayas, a major coastal city of the kingdom, had revitalized as a heart for East-to-West commerce during and after King Levon I's reign. This coastal city was a port and a market center, where spices, silk, cotton cloth, carpets and pearls from Asia, and finished cloth and metal products from the West were made available." (Quotes from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia...dom_of_Cilicia )
So, the possibility for animals carpets being made in Armenia – or in the commercial influence of Armenian merchants – is there.
But there is no proof.
|March 15th, 2011, 09:50 AM
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 87
Hi Yohann,
You might be right, or not: these early borderless rugs can sometimes be confused with tiles and vice versa: Except for outdoor views, the ground of most Renaissance paintings is laid with tiles. They are much more frequent than rugs or precious textiles. Tiles are mostly undecorated or carry a simple geometrical design either strictly repeated or alternated. However, when researching paintings for future threads, I had sometimes a doubt and played their classification as "rugs" or "tiles", with heads or tails, especially in a few Spanish paintings.
Your (superbly documented) hypothesis (in the new thread) about animal-decorated inlaid tiles is well worth considering. Filiberto's counter argument is valid too, especially coming from a pure bred Fiorentino
FIG. 1438-1440. Fra Angelico, Virgin and Child, S. Marco Museum, Florence.
Even the full picture of Fra Angelico's painting does not allow to be 100% sure. If it is a rug as I am still inclined to believe, (sheepishly following the opinion of a couple of art historians) it is indeed a huge one. There is what seems to be a rug border though (but yes it could also be part of a pattern of tiles).
Indeed , Al Andalus certainly has played an important role at the time, for all sorts of precious textile. And so did Sicily where King Roger, Frederick II and his son, in particular, favored production of silk textiles by their still mostly arabic and byzantine population. I have seen no mention of Sicilian rugs, so far, but...
Best regards
|March 15th, 2011, 10:11 AM
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 87
Hi all,
As already mentioned, it is rather puzzling that the spectacular extant rugs featuring an «animal-inside-another-animal»,[ illustrated in the essay: FIG 25 owned by MET and FIG 26 published by H. Kirchheim (1)], would never have caught the eye of any Renaissance painter. True, various sources (2) have mentioned a painting by Gregorio di Cecco (National Gallery, London), featuring such a rug, but the low-definition pictures available on the net did not allow me to verify this information .
Well, until I finally got the one below(a):
FIG a)
FIG b)
A comparison with the MET rug (b), allows to identify a similar «animal-inside-an-animal» motif. Both feature a wide open mouth and a raised paw. In the MET rug the "adult" beast raises a paw, while in di Cecco rug the "baby" does it. Di Ceccos beasts seems to be spotted, a panther perhaps.
The border is clearly visible and, imho, coherent with a Seljuk identification.
Thus, although the painting is dated from about 1410, the rug featured might be much older, perhaps even contemporaneous to both extant ones : The «Kirchheim rug» is dated by the C14 method between 1190 and 1300 and the MET rug between 1040 and 1290, with 95% confidence in both cases (3).
At any rate this seems to get rid of the shaky theory (mentioned earlier in this thread) that this particular type of animal rugs was not woven before the ottoman period. In 1300 the Ottoman still were only the rulers of a little Beylyk in northern / central Anatolia.
Kirchheim mentions an interesting anecdote about the relatively recent discovery of both extant rugs (4): Following the violent troubles during Tibet annexation by China, many monks emigrated, taking with them whichever precious objects they could save from the disaster, including both extant «animal-inside-an-animal» rugs. Wenzel (5) mentions as well some 13th-14th century anatolian silk and metal-thread brocades which followed the same route. All appeared on the market a few years later.
How they ended-up in tibetan monasteries in the first place is another fascinating question.
But Kirchheim has a credible theory about the highly surprising state of conservation of the rugs: The main sources of light inside the rooms of tibetan monasteries were candles made with the fat of Yaks. Their greasy smoke deposited a protective layer on the rugs (Se non é vero é ben trovato).
1) H. Kirchheim, Orient Stars, page 15
2) See for example Heilbrunns Timeline of Art, MET, New York.
3) H. Kirchheim, Orient Stars, page 374, note# 318
4) H. Kirchheim, Orient Stars, page 12
5) M. Wenzel, Turkish Textiles, 2002.
|March 16th, 2011, 03:05 PM
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Cyprus
Posts: 92
Pierre, excuse me if I continue my musing on Yohann's suggestion about FIG 10: Fra Angelico, detail from Virgin and Child.
Fra Angelico started the painting in his monastery in Fiesole, on the homonymous hill overlooking Florence. I couldn't find any mention of zodiac floors in Fiesole. The work was then finished in Florence.
We do have in Florence inlaid marble floors (or opus sectile) with geometric and zoomorphic motifs. There are also two zodiac floors, both made by the same artists in the 13th century, one in S. Miniato al Monte. Here you can see the zodiac floor of the Romanesque basilica of San Miniato al Monte:
and another section of the floor in the same church. Both in white and green marble:
scans from the book "La pittura di pietra" (Painting in stone) by Ferdinando Rossi
And here is the other zodiac, form Florence Baptistery, quite similar, a bit more refined, and the only comprehensive Image I found:
As for something vaguely similar to the inlaid tile technique, it didn't appear in Florence until 1548 into the Laurentian Library, according to the book above.
Now, back to Fra Angelico's "carpet".
Every art historian I found mentioned that thing as a carpet.
However, Yohann is right, it doesn't look as a carpet.
If that was an inlaid floor, the memory of it had disappeared.
My explanation is that the good friar made it up. As an architectural element. It wouldn't certainly be the first time that a Renaissance painter put some invented architecture in his paintings.
Fra Angelico was also an illuminator. I bet he took inspiration for his "floor" by some medieval zodiacal illuminations.
|March 18th, 2011, 05:38 PM
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 87
Hi all,
In the case of borderless, large rugs, one would often need a much closer view as the one given by the pictures published on the net or in art books, to eliminate the possibility that they are in fact tiles, reeds or textiles.
I managed to select five views close enough to show clearly a very coarse rug structure, (Is this coarseness due to multiple wefts? To thick warps? Structure experts please comment.)
See below detail views of:
FIG 1. T. Gaddis «Calling of St Eloi», 1360, Prado, Madrid. (shown in the essay).
Its pendant «St Eloi before King Clothaire» does also show rows of pile with the same orientation.
FIG 2. N. Buonaccorsos «Marriage of the Virgin», 1380. National Gallery. London. (shown in the essay)
FIG 3. Sassettas «Virgin and Child», ca. 1433, Vatican.
FIG 4. Sano di Pietros «Virgin and Child», ca.1455, Duomo di Pienza.
The same rug is also featured in di Pietros «Coronation of the Virgin», ca.1455, Yale University.
The bird might be an eagle. Note the chintamani-like spots.
FIG 5. Sano di Pietros adoration of the Child, 1460-1470, Kress Collection.
Raptor, with long neck and asian swastika motif.
There is now little doubt left in my mind that most of these paintings with highly stylized, filiform or well-fed, animals inscribed in an octagon or rectangle, indeed feature (borderless) coarse rugs. A few paintings might show tiles with similar motifs.
OK, lets assume that the painters indeed intended to show rugs, but were they fully invented? Or did the painter use true models? In the second case who wove them? These are questions we cant answer.
I do share Filibertos, Yohanns and Marvins opinion that they are perhaps the fruit of both European and Middle East influences. Whether they were made in Italy, El Andalus, Cilician Armenia, Byzantine Greece or Anatolia, Trebizond or other exotic places can only be a wild guess as long as no extant fragment will be found.
Best regards
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|Land Matters Discussion Area Discussion Relating to Your Land/Legislative Issues
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Naches FS grants
Requests for support on grant requests for the Naches ranger district.
From: Ranger, Susan M -FS [mailto:email@example.com]
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2012 2:21 PM
To: Undisclosed recipients:
Subject: RCO NOVA and RTP Letters of Support Needed from you - Requested by July 2nd 2012
Hello TWIG Member!
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We have six grants we are applying for in the near future, very similar to those we've applied for in the past. These are brief descriptions:
Motorized Trails Maintenance & Operations - We will apply for two grants, one under the RTP program and one under the NOVA program. These grants will be for two years each, and will cover regular motorized trail maintenance of system Four Wheel Drive and Motorcycle trails. We will request funding for a trails crew, with a small amount for materials and supplies. Our intent is to continue to provide a quality motorized trail experience for you! The grant titles and project numbers are as follows: Naches Motorized Trails M&O 2013-14 (RTP Project# 12-1749 and NOVA Project #12-1752).
OHV Education and Enforcement Rangers – We will apply for one grant under the NOVA program to assist us in funding 3 OHV field Rangers, who will have the responsibility of educating and enforcing our laws and the Tread Lightly principles so the trail system can remain open for the public's enjoyment and use while our unique resources are respected and protected. This grant will be for a two year time period. The grant title and project number is: Naches District OHV Rangers 2013-14 (NOVA Project# 12-1751).
Backcountry Trails Maintenance & Operations – We will apply for two grants, one under the RTP program and one under the NOVA program. These grants will be for two years each, and will cover regular trail maintenance of our backcountry trail system (those trails primarily in the Wilderness, and open to pack stock and hikers. This grant will also include maintenance of the few nonmotorized system trails we have outside Wilderness which are also open to mountain bikes, such as the north side of Pleasant Valley Trail 999). We will request funding for a trails crew, with a small amount for materials and supplies. Our intent is to continue to provide a quality backcountry trail experience for you. The grant titles and project numbers are: Naches District Wilderness Trails M&O 2013-14 (RTP Project #12-1750 and NOVA Project #12-1753).
Dispersed and Developed Camping M&O – We will apply for a grant to assist in campground and dispersed campsite maintenance and operations under the NOVA program. This grant will be for two years. This grant title and project number are: Naches Dispersed and Developed M&O 2013-14, NOVA Project #12-1754).
The Advisory Boards consider how much public support is behind each grant proposal they receive as part of their overall evaluation process. We send in each Letter of Support to RCO as part of our grant proposal. Your letter DOES make a difference!
If you've not written a Letter of Support before, this is what works well:
· Address the Letter to the RTP Advisory Board, or the NOVA Advisory Board, depending on which grant you're supporting.
· Include a brief description of WHY you believe the grant you're supporting is worth funding – how have you, your organization, or others benefitted from previous grants? What benefits do you see if the Board chooses to fund these particular grants?
· Letters of Support are welcomed from individuals as well as from organizations. Every one counts.
Letters would be best collected by July 2nd. Emails are great - (you can use my email address: email@example.com). If you prefer to write a letter, address it to the Naches District, Attn: Sue Ranger, 10237 US Highway 12, Naches, WA 98937.
We trust your summer is going well and hope to see you out on the trails (or camping) soon!!
Sue Ranger
Susan Ranger
District Recreation Planner
Naches District, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest
Hello TWIG member!
Thank you so much for considering writing a Letter of Support for our NOVA and RTP grants – (I attached last Friday's message below in case you didn't get it the first time)…
I'm writing this email to you to let you know that I will be on fire assignment from Thursday, June 28th at 1800 to approximately July 18th.
Would you please cc any Letters of Support to Jacquie Beidl at firstname.lastname@example.com as well as to me?
She can get them where they need to go…..
Sue Ranger
Susan Ranger
District Recreation Planner
Naches District, Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest
__________________________________________________ ______
Member #40 Hombres jeep club
Region 2 landmatters chairman
Last edited by jim putman; 06-27-2012 at 08:41 PM.
Updated information. please see bottom of above post.
Member #40 Hombres jeep club
Region 2 landmatters chairman
Beidl, Jacqueline A -FS email@example.com
10:56 AM (2 hours ago)
to jim, ajlamiquiz, amicone2310, blancharda9, arlyn.boatsman, awilkenwa, barb401, barneha, robert.sherwood, brad.martin, BRADR, bwillis4820, ceg, chapchar05, Chuck, ckvanamburg, ceg, colemancooler, collik, Barry, dualsprt, kbatku, daniel.p.robin., darohl, david
I hope you all had a great 4th of July!!
I want to extend our sincerest appreciation to everyone that sent in letters and emails of support for our RCO grants! Your response was overwhelming! We were successful in finishing our grants and hitting the submit button on all the applications before the midnight deadline on Monday. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!
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Sunday, May 31, 2009
skippy's sunday night music club
iggy pop - "king of the dogs"
Labels: music, skippy's music club, youtube
cuts we can make in the california budget
...kennedy has 185 people on her staff, equivalent to a midsize company, with all the accompanying headaches and heartbreaks—on which she clearly thrives. "there isn't a better job in all of politics," she says. "bar none."
a lesbian, recovering alcoholic and lifelong democrat, 48-year-old kennedy has been the republican governor's chief of staff for two years. she commutes daily to sacramento from her hillside fairfax home.- marin magazine
Labels: budget, governator, government
never underestimate
ali soufan, a former fbi interrogator, says that osama bin laden's bodyguard, abu jandal, talked about the 9/11 attack only after he was given sugar free cookies. jandal is diabetic and was unable to eat the regular cookies given to him with his tea. noticing this, soufan offered the suspect sugar-free cookies at their next meeting. soufan says it was this act of kindness, not rougher methods, that opened up a dialogue between the two. "we had showed him respect, and we had done this nice thing for him. so he started talking to us instead of giving us lectures," soufan said. - - time
terrorists strike in america this morning
george tiller, the wichita doctor who became a national lightning rod in the debate over abortion, was shot to death this morning as he walked into church services. - kansas.com
Labels: kansas, terrorists, womens issues
trauma of 9/11 no excuse
...listening to cheney and rice, it seems that they want to be excused for the measures they authorized after the attacks on the grounds that 9/11 was traumatic. "If you were there in a position of authority and watched americans drop out of eighty-story buildings because these murderous tyrants went after innocent people," rice said in her recent comments, "then you were determined to do anything that you could that was legal to prevent that from happening again."
i have little sympathy for this argument. yes, we went for days with little sleep, and we all assumed that more attacks were coming. but the decisions that bush officials made in the following months and years -- on iraq, on detentions, on interrogations, on wiretapping -- were not appropriate. careful analysis could have replaced the impulse to break all the rules, even more so because the sept. 11 attacks, though horrifying, should not have surprised senior officials. cheney's admission that 9/11 caused him to reassess the threats to the nation only underscores how, for months, top officials had ignored warnings from the cia and the nsc staff that urgent action was needed to preempt a major al-qaeda attack.- wapo
Labels: 9/11, cheney, condaleeza, lawlessness
this is ridiculous...
ron hamman, a baptist minister in wasilla, alaska, wonders, will the antichrist be a homosexual?
...from a lost perspective, the reason sex sells, pornography is profitable, and prostitution is "the world's oldest profession" is mankind's desire of women. from christianity's position, it is part of the glue for the bond of marriage and the propagation of a godly heritage. But homosexuality does not regard this — in their unbridled lusts they burn for their own gender.
but consider this: the time is ripe for such a leader. indeed, it should not be surprising that the one who is against everything biblical and christian should be a partaker of so great a sin; there is no greater way to reject the creator than to reject your gender and his design for it. and at what other time have we seen such perversion come out of the closets onto our streets, threatening violence if we do not accept their ways?...
i suppose i could write something here about my astonishment in learning that there are real live faggot gangs roaming the streets and desecrating buildings with spray-paint rainbow flags when they're not busy recruiting wholesome sunday school boys into the worlds of drag and leather... but that isn't actually happening, so i won't.
Labels: gay/lesbian
if rancho palos verdes says it can't pay for police
when the owners of a $480-million seaside luxury resort said they needed more money to ensure it would open, they turned to rancho palos verdes.
the city council last week unanimously agreed to give terranea resort what amounted to an $8-million loan by allowing lowe enterprises to defer payment of its hotel tax for several years. the vote came despite concerns from city staff members who said the loan was "not fiscally prudent."
the 102-acre resort is scheduled to open june 12 where the marineland of the pacific oceanarium once stood. It will include three restaurants, a nine-hole golf course, a 360-room hotel and 20 bungalows. also on the grounds are 82 casitas and villas that range in price from $2 million to $4 million. - latte times
this resort had better give local rancho pv residents a deep discount to stay and relax and offer up other resident goodies, because the resort essentially stole the taxpayers money to the detrement of the community.
Labels: california, taxpayers
environmental news stories sunday
deadly water: elders recall forced removal to contaminated land. now, 40 years after being forced from their winter sheep camps to live on lands contaminated with uranium and arsenic, navajo families in black falls finally have safe drinking water. - gallup independent
farms feeding us a side of disease? the so-called swine flu, a mix of human, pig and bird flu strains, is a reminder that people and animals share much, including disease and infection. - fort wayne journal gazette,
documentary on intensive pig farming faces legal threat. the film criticises the practices of the world's largest pork processor, smithfield foods, claiming it is responsible for environmental pollution and health problems among residents near its factories. - london guardian,
'sediment is the death that keeps on killing' our reefs. land-based pollution, including sediment runoff, is a significant contributor to the degradation of reefs at multiple spots around the main hawaiian islands. some scientists believe it is the biggest threat in the near term facing hawai'i's reefs. - honolulu advertiser
cascades make oregon a geothermal 'hotbed.' klamath falls' water is naturally heated by the earth's core, even though the air is freezing months on end. that free, renewable energy in the hot water is why many see geothermal power as a key piece of a green energy future. - oregon public broadcasting
marine battles over contaminated Lejeune water. jerry ensminger is one of a handful of leaders in a nationwide fight to get the marine corps to release information about contaminated drinking water that circulated through camp lejeune for decades before poisoned wells were closed in the mid-1980s.- raleigh news & observer
new york, boston "directly in path" of sea level rise. major cities in the northeastern u.s. and eastern canada "are directly in the path of the greatest rise" in sea level if greenland continues to melt due to global warming, a new study says. - national geographic news
Labels: climate change, ecology, energy, environment, farmers, flu, global warming, hawaii, native americans, new yawk, ocean, oregon, pollution, water
Saturday, May 30, 2009
skippy's saturday night music club
la musica de carlos santana - no tengo a nadie
Labels: judicial, music, skippy's music club
the real housewives of d.c.
which five wealthy, connected, ambitious, opinionated, party-going, power-brokering women will become the country's newest "real housewives"?
maybe you thought residents of our nation's capital were too focused on the economy or north korea to worry about the casting of a cable reality show. think again. ever since the bravo network announced this week that "the real housewives of d.c." was in development, political blogs have speculated on who'd be tapped for the show. stories have emerged of stealth screen tests across the city. "everybody's abuzz about it," says catherine merrill williams, publisher of washingtonian magazine. - - the oakland tribune
hmmm...what's the political staffer/hooker washingtonienne doing these days?
Labels: dc, hollywood, politicians, teevee
arnold's plan is to cut the services the middle-class needs while raising their taxes in order to give the wealthy and even bigger tax break. In that sense his higher ed funding plans are perfectly sensible - by planning to eliminate cal grants and jack up fees even further, he's foreshadowing california's future, where the dream of prosperity and economic security is enjoyed only by the top 5%. it's a recipe for the brazilification of california.
the parsky commission, as i have explained before, is rigged to produce this very outcome. they are part of a concerted effort to use "volatility" as a kind of concern trolling to suggest that wealth taxes, a proven and effective method of taxation, are bad - and that we need to sock it to the poor and the middle class, even though numerous examples from history prove that when you shift the tax burden onto those least able to pay, social collapse follows. - calitics
Labels: california, governator, taxes
now if they can only get them
outside a concrete slab of a building 10 stories high that holds the most powerful array of lasers and high-precision optics ever assembled,...it's purpose is to focus the immense energy in an array of 120 laser beams onto a tiny glass target the size of a bb shot, which is filled with hydrogen. this is all done under immensely high pressure to make the target heat like the fiery interior of a star at a 180 million degrees fahrenheit. sfgate
Labels: california, military, science
quote of the day
Friday, May 29, 2009
skippy's friday night music club
ottmar liebert - "santa fe"
Labels: music, new mexico, skippy's music club
quote of the day
quick hits
charlize theron wants to meet you in fresno!
which do you want to inhabit - obama world or cheney world?
the gop: the nine man baseball team of asswipes.
what ever you do, don't talk to the poll workers during an election!
john ziegler visits his supporters in alaska...all 300 of them!
sure, hilzoy wants an opposition party of reasonable thinkers, but we ourselves are enjoying the meltdown.
gee, the canadian prime minister of canada looks alot like the republican party here!
80% of california's state parks
nearly every state park in the bay area — from the towering redwoods at big basin to angel island, mount tamalpais to mount diablo and every state beach from año nuevo in san mateo county to big sur — would close as part of budget cuts proposed by gov. arnold schwarzenegger. - san jose mercury news
elizabeth goldstein, cal parks president, called the measures "awful and draconian." she points out that more than 80 million people visited state parks last year and that for every dollar that funds the parks, $2.35 is returned to the state's general fund via economic activities in nearby communities. - latte times
el capitan state beach and the accompanying campgrounds....soon to close..
Originally uploaded by bluebullwinkle60
julia pfeiffer burns state park that lures tourists to the isolated big sur area...soon to close.
Julia Pfiffer Burns State Park
Originally uploaded by jessbess77
piedras blancas with the elephant seals....no more rangers to save people from raging bulls.
Northern Elephant Seals Fighting, Piedras Blancas, San Simeon, CA 02feb2008
Originally uploaded by mikebaird
Labels: budget, california, governator, nature
100 best movie lines
can you say....
arctic contains 13% of remaining oil. the forbidding landscape of the arctic contains 13% of the world's remaining undiscovered oil and as much as 30% of its natural gas deposits, a new study from the u.s. geological survey says. - - toronto globe and mail
new survey of arctic's mineral riches could stoke international strife. the battle for the arctic's hidden mineral riches is likely to intensify after a survey revealing the energy reserves present beneath the ice. - london guardian
arctic's black gold mapped. around a third of the world's yet-to-be discovered gas resources may lie north of the arctic circle. the estimates are based purely on geological data, and take no account of whether the oil and gas stores are technically recoverable or the environmental and cultural damage that might be inflicted by drilling. - nature
Labels: ecology, energy, environment, gas, oil
get your motor runnin'....head out on the highway...
that's right, it turns out that mrs. skippy's and my last stop on our own anniversaryfest 2009 is in the town that's celebrating the 40 year anniversary of the release of easy rider, which was filmed, in part, in taos.
the whole town is commerating the concept of american international exploitation motorcycle flicks, as well as hippies, peace, love, understanding, free love and good food the whole summer long.
we missed an appearance by dennis hopper (a part-time taos resident), as well as a gig by hot tuna. and we won't be here for country joe mcdonald, either. but there's still lots of love and universal understanding floating thru the taos plaza, which is just a 10 minute walk from our stay @ the el monte sargado resort (where, by the by, we'll be watching a set by third door down tomorrow nite...not hippie music, but still darn good stuff!).
i'm sorry i didn't get a chance to let you know about our wonderful night and day in beautiful durango, colorado. it was actually on our actual anniversary, and i spent the time with each my wife instead of blogging. i'm sure you will forgive me. but let me just say, if you're ever in durango, a great place for a romantic dinner is the hamtilon chop house (about 20 minutes outside of town), and a great breakfast can be found in the downtown walking area is carver brewing co. (don't be fooled by the fact it's a micro-brewery...the breakfast menu is varied and imaginative, and full of down home good eatin'!)
karma's a bitch
readers of this space know why we care.
and the gop wonders why it's losing
finished with the race-based attack, liddy moved on to denigrate sotomayor's gender:
now, back to rush's declaration that judge sotomayor is a "reverse racist." we are w/matt yglesias, at least in the beginning, on this ridiculous invention of the hardly-ever-right wing groupthink:
you are correct, however matt, in that being a "reverse racist" is not the same as being a racist. and the reason is because, there is no such thing as reverse racism. that's like saying "reverse magnetism." there's no such thing. magnets which are repelled from each other (positive to positive, negative to negative) are nonetheless displaying properties of magnetism.
but what we must needs point out, is that the very idea of "reverse racism," exclusively used by white people, is itself a racist conceit. only white people (and usually white men) would think that being discrimated against if you were a white person is different than being discrimated against if you were any other race.
hate a negro? racism. hate a latino/latina? racism. hate an indian, red or brown, a chinese, japanese, balinese, filapino, aboriginal, eskimo, or any third world occupant? racism, pure and simple.
hate a white guy? oh noesss!!! a brand new, extra=super=secret special super-duper new kind of racism! it's reverse racism!!! something nobody's ever encountered before! white people are so exclusive, they have their own kind of racism thrust upon them!
only white folk could think they were superior enough to everyone else, that if they were the victims of racism, it would be a completely unique kind.
ergo, the concept of "reverse racism," is itself a racist concept.
* we inadvertantly, in an earlier version of this post, attributed the "reverse racist" remark to newt "how's the chemo i want a divorce" gingrich. mr. gingrich was not the one qualifying the racism as "reverse." that was rush "hello little boy where's my viagra" limbaugh. we regret the error.
but not much.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
skippy's thursday night music club
"you're the top" by cole porter from the movie "night and day" starring cary grant.
zachary...you were always cellophane to me.
Labels: music, passings, skippy's music club
mad about the deceitful cheneys
a wise move on insraeli farmers part
farmers in israel are doing some eco-judo, turning a problem into a solution. birdlife international reported that many birds of prey in the region were dying because they were eating rodents that had been poisoned by pesticides. but now, there is a will to reduce the use of these poisons and instead us the birds of prey (owls, kestrels) as natural pest controllers. good for the birds, good for the farmers. probably not so good for the rodents, but you can't please everybody... - treehugger
Israel Postage Stamp: Hume's Tawny Owl
Originally uploaded by karen horton
Labels: animals, environment, farmers, israel
talk about strange bedfellows...
spurned by the california supreme court, gay couples wanting to marry appealed to the federal courts wednesday to strike down proposition 8 as unconstitutional state interference in a citizen's fundamental right to lawful wedlock.
the lawsuit brought by two high-powered lawyers and unlikely allies, former bush administration solicitor general theodore olson and his bush-vs.-gore opponent david boies, was met with skepticism about the conservative olson's motives for getting involved in a civil-rights battle usually spearheaded by liberals...
Labels: gay/lesbian, it is what it is
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
skippy's wednesday night music club
the late, great stevie ray vaughn live in new orleans - "superstition"
Labels: music, skippy's music club
happy birthday to you....happy birthday to you
Sunset on the Golden Gate Bridge
Originally uploaded by Wiggum03
happy 72nd birthday dear golden gate bridge...happy birthday to you.
(and many more!)
Labels: architecture, birthday, san francisco
more taxpayer millions and millions given
the shaw group inc. has been awarded a contract of up to $375 million by the federal government for post-disaster services in louisiana and eight other states. - yahoo financeyou remember "brownie's" roomie....joe allbaugh. he's a lobbyist for the shaw group. why the h*** we would want to be dealing with those crooks again is anyone's guess.
Labels: contractors, disasters, katrina
where are the corporate media and the rethugs
the federal agency that insures corporate pensions has taken over pension payments for more than 21,000 former workers of defunct electronics retailer circuit city. - yahoo finance
Labels: bankruptcy, corporations, financial markets
costco....the blue big box
responding to the economic pressures on its shoppers, costco wholesale corp. said wednesday that it will soon install the equipment to accept food stamps at two of its new york city stores as part of a pilot program - ap via yahoo finance
Labels: corporations, economy, food stamps
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
skippy's tuesday night music club
"one for my baby...and one more for the road" featuring the indomitable sammy davis, jr.
Labels: music, skippy's music club, youtube
ashes to ashes dust to dust
i'm writing in our room @ the fairview lodge, which is something of a small 21st century miracle. the lodge's administration building has free wifi, but luckily our room is in a building relatively close to the admin., so we are able to piggyback onto the wifi signal.
another thrilling day walking the ruins in the park, this time @ the spruce tree house. the hike down and up was much easier than yesterday's, as the path was a wide paved route.
i climbed down into the kiva (a round covered room dug into the ground where the pueblo peoples were thought to have wintered)...it was very small, and i remarked it was like being inside a pizza oven.
yesterday we took a wonderful tour of the park and it was narrated by a national park employee who introduced himself as "ranger tim." unfortunately for me, the whole rest of the tour i kept hearing bastardized bowie in my head: "this is ground control to ranger tim, you've really made the graa-a-yade...can you hear me ranger tim? can you hear me ranger tim?"
tomorrow: beautiful durango colorado and our 25th wedding anniversary!!
prop hate
Just devastated
Originally uploaded by Steve Rhodes
the governator becomes the terminator again
faced with a ballooning deficit and a clear signal that voters won't pay more to fix it, california gov. arnold schwarzenegger released a budget plan tuesday that would eliminate welfare, drop 1 million poor children from health insurance, cut off new grants for college students and shut down 80 percent of state parks.republicans would rather destroy the state rather than to up the tax rate on those who can most afford it. pathetic.
in a state that long has prided itself on its social safety net, it could well go down in history as the most drastic reduction in social programs ever. and billions in further cuts will be unveiled later this week.
..."every single first-world nation has a safety net program for children," said will lightbourne, santa clara county's social services director. "this would return us to the era of dickens — you'd have to go back to the 19th century to find a comparable proposal."- san jose mercury
Labels: budget, california, governator, healthcare, public health
why is it
Labels: america, teevee, voting integrity
mad about tropical breeze colonoscopies
Monday, May 25, 2009
By the shores of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
Today we put up the flag and I took a few moments of personal time to reflect on the sacrifices that so many made. I watch The Longest Day every year at this time and I look at my father's medals, which are in a shadowbox on my desk. My father is still down in Florida, but I doubt he takes even a moment to reflect on the past. At 87, he still seems to live very much in the present. When I spoke to him yesterday, and I speak to both him and my mother frequently, he started railing about how that "f***ing Bush really f***ed up this country."
My dad is pure gold.
Somewhere in his late seventies I asked him how it felt to be in his late seventies and he said that he still felt in his heart like he was eighteen. Last year he admitted that he's starting to slow down.
I believe we are supposed to reflect on this day upon the many men and women who gave their lives for the United States, but I rather cherish the ones who are still hanging around, late in years, and able to tell us what they've learned. The only lesson I ever seem to take from the dead ones is to avoid joining them, which isn't a bad lesson as lessons go, but I think there's a good deal more to be learned from the ones that have put in more time than me and are still compos mentis, if you catch my drift.
hello from beautiful mesa verde national park!
skippy the bush kangaroo here, writing from the lobby of the far view lodge in mesa verde national park, colorado.
mrs. skippy and i are celebrating our 25 year anniversary of heterosexual marriage (not that there's anything wrong with that). we are driving around northern new mexico & southern colroado to see the sights, and believe me, the sights in mesa verde are spectacular.
the picture above is of cliff palace dwellings. mesa verde is the only national park dedicated to the presrevation of the works of man (as opposed to the preservation of nature). there are more archeological sites in this park than anywhere else in the united states, and the cliff palace site is located 100 feet below the top of the mesa. to get there we had to climb down several steep stairs plus a ladder or two. and it was incredibly spiritual.
the ancient pueblo peoples who occupied the cliff dwellings @ mesa verde were here between 500 - 1300 ad, give or take. the cliff palace is the biggest cliff dwelling site in the us.
addendum: eli of left i on the news asked about the scale of the cliff palace. here's a pic i found on google that shows real people walking around, so you can see how large (about three stories tall) the structures are:
this is what i hate about politics
the beverly hilton hotel
5 PM to 7:30
president barack obama
will be joined by performers
jamie foxx, jennifer hudson ,earth wind and fire
and a few special guests
to benefit the
democratic national committee
dinner and photo with the president $15,400.00
would be nice if they had photo ops and time to speak our minds to the president for the rest of us poor working slobs.
Labels: democrats, fundraiser, hollywood, obama
posting the monday nite music clip early because i have to work tonight...
"roads" by portishead.
i love beth gibbons. there is this beautiful element of the timbre of her voice i can hear that most people don't seem to hear. she sounds like an angel to me when she sings. and if i were to compile a list of my top ten favorite songs, "roads" would definitely be on the list.
and the mystery continues...
Labels: life
mad about huckabee
memorial day...
Labels: random thoughts
Sunday, May 24, 2009
skippy's sunday nite music club (the jimmy's calling the tunes for now edition)...
personal recommendations: when the timer gets to 3:25, crank it up -- and when it gets to 6:42, crank it up some more...
Labels: music
and now, cheech and chong...
i pulled half a shift at work last night as an assistant to an operator on a different machine. we were the only two people there, so he set up a little digital tv. (you can do that if there are only two people there.) at one point, i was doing whatever, walked by the tv, and saw cheech and chong performing "mexican americans" on some late night show. good lord, i forgot how funny these guys are.
i got home from work, and i think i spent about three hours watching cheech and chong clips on youtube -- and laughing my ass off through most of them. i'm glad these two are together again...
voice of the people
some of you may know jim's work on the stephanie miller show, where he does clinton, bush, et. al, for her gags. skippy had the pleasure of working w/jim @ premiere radio networks.
keep up the good work jim!
Saturday, May 23, 2009
saturday nite chicken blogging
this is gonna sound totally nuts...
it's screwed up in a lot of ways, but none more so than the fact that i'm not sure jesus ever even existed. i don't know why i'm doing this. but i'm doing it, and this isn't bothering me in the least. which is strange in the extreme -- how often do you encounter a gay liberal who's not only into the very odd furry fandom scene, but is in the process of embracing christianity in spite of its centuries-long history of being completely full of $#!+?
Labels: life
best king crimson fix ever...
drop a glass full of antique sherry...
{sorry, skippy, but when you ain't there, this is what happens...}
Friday, May 22, 2009
and now, a little music...
thursday morning music fix...
this one's for everyone on the left who's growing or has grown disenchanted with president obama. true, he isn't the savior a lot of people seemed to think he was during the campaign, but he's only held the job for four months, folks -- he hasn't had enough time to screw it all up beyond repair.
so calm down, have a beer (or whatever it is you drink at 9 am -- i work nights, so i can drink me some beer in the morning if i want to), and enjoy...
{blogger's note: i know it's saturday, but i submitted this thursday morning in lieu of skippy not having a music clip up the nite before. i like to keep the tunes flowing if i can. yootoob is a bastid, what can i tell you...}
yeah, okay. i don't get it anymore, and am not sure i ever did.
all the same, it seems pretty simple to me: if you don't want your babies to die in a terrorist attack, then stop killing other people's babies. hel-lo-ooo...
Labels: it is what it is, life
still on the payroll...
but things are only all right for now. i know that i'm supposed to be fussing and fuming over what nancy pelosi may or may not have known about the illegal torturing of prisoners five or six years ago according to the same cocktail wiener-whipped "mainstream" "media" "people" who did nothing but salivate every time george codpiece bush rang a bell five or six years ago when his administration wasn't illegally torturing prisoners, but i'm more concerned about avoiding drowning along with the sinking economy than i am with explaining why the democratic side of the aisle on capitol hill smells less decrepit than the republican side. i've always been selfish that way.
not that i haven't bothered to step outside of that selfish little bubble. i have tried explaining to battered wife republican types that the main difference between the dems and the republicans is that when the dems rape you, they use condoms and lube, but apparently, these people don't even realize they're being raped. how do you reach people like that? i mean, how can you not notice when you're being dry-humped by an elephant?
i don't have time for these oblivion-or-bust yo-yos. i got work to do. and this may sound cliched, but i'm just glad i still have job. I've been in the unemployment line before, so i know what to expect if i wind up there again. but at least i'm not in that line. yet.
here's hoping my luck holds out a while longer...
Labels: economy, it is what it is, life, random thoughts
Thursday, May 21, 2009
can you say....
a plan by the governor to end welfare and health insurance for low-income families and cash grants for college students is called 'beyond draconian. - latte timesisn't it time to legalize california's largest cash crop yet? the governator's taken a toke or two...
Labels: california, class warfare, depression, gop
idol thoughts
adam is a great singer, make no mistake, and we foresee a great career ahead for him (as well as allison, danny, mark and maybe the blind guy too). but adam seemed to be about the performance, whereas we felt kris was about the music.
just our random thoughts. but contest aside, the show itself was fantastic. any stage that holds lionel ritchie, rod stewart, keith urban, kiss, fergie & the black-eyed peas, the live part of queen, and steve martin is a stage with something for everyone.
we remarked that all they needed was a bulgarian musician and then they'd be able to compete w/skippy's late nite music club:
mad about limericks about pete sessions
you know it's bad news for the gop when even the gop won't back the gop
in that carefully-worded piece, goss did not write he had been told that torture had been used. rather, he merely wrote that members of congress were told that the cia was "holding and interrogating" suspects and that eits had been developed. he said that members should have "understood" that eits "were to actually be employed" in the future, without saying that they were even told this, let alone told that they'd been used.
this does not contradict pelosi's claim that she was only told that such techniques were legal, not that they had been or certainly would be used — the crux of the gop's attack.
so i asked goss' spokesperson directly: were he and pelosi informed that eits, including waterboarding, had already been used, and were they given a rough sense that abu zubaydah had been waterboarded more than 83 times the previous month?
her answer: "he believes that his op-ed makes it very clear and is not engaging beyond it at this time." she declined repeated requests to elaborate.
so here's where we are: the republican congressman who was in the room during pelosi's briefing won't directly vouch for the accuracy of the cia's claim that she had been briefed on the use of torture.
addendum: the cia may not lie, but it sure makes mistakes!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
say hello
say hello
seriously, haven't they figured out this is slang for a sexual act???
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
skippy's tuesday nite music club
harry nilsson - coconut
down the penrose lane
say hello
everything proves liberal bias
they're taking more than just ideas, champ. in fact, the beauty of modo's snafu is that not only does it show a major player in the media being led around by nutroots talking points, it involves her lifting stuff from a blog that's actually called "talking points." glorious.
mad about torture song parodies
Monday, May 18, 2009
skippy's monday nite music club
morrissey - something is squeezing my skull
we only read it for the articles
where's hillary fisher when you need her? (and who doesn't needs hillary fisher?)
good news for modern man
give a political prisoner a new trial
the alabama federal judge who presided over the 2006 corruption trial of the state's former governor holds a grudge against the defendant for helping to expose the judge's own alleged corruption six years ago. former gov. don siegelman therefore deserves a new trial with an unbiased judge ─ not one whose privately owned company, doss aviation, has been enriched by the bush administration's award of $300 million in contracts since 2006, making the judge millions in non-judicial income. - huffpo
kreig's report comes at a critical time in the siegelman case. the u.s. 11th circuit court of appeals has upheld most of the convictions against siegelman. federal prosecutors are asking that the former governor receive a 20-year sentence, almost triple his original sentence. with the 11th circuit refusing last week to grant a review by the entire court, the case stands to return to fuller for resentencing. - legal schnauzerif attorney general eric holder can drop charges against ted stevens, why can't he even open a case to investigate rove's, et al., railroading of former alabama governor don siegelman?
Labels: lawlessness, lawyers, rove
now here's a wtf moment
former prime minister of pakistan benazir bhutto was assassinated on the orders of the special death squad formed by former us vice-president dick cheney, which had already killed the lebanese prime minister rafique al hariri and the army chief of that country. the squad was headed by general stanley mcchrystal, the newly-appointed commander of us army in afghanistan. it was disclosed by reputed us journalist seymour hersh while talking to an arab tv in an interview. - the nationif you recall, seymour did make mention of assasination squads not too long ago...
"right now, today, there was a story in the new york times that if you read it carefully mentioned something known as the joint special operations command -- jsoc it's called. it is a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently. they do not report to anybody, except in the bush-cheney days, they reported directly to the cheney office. they did not report to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff or to mr. [robert] gates, the secretary of defense. they reported directly to him. ...
"congress has no oversight of it. It's an executive assassination ring essentially, and it's been going on and on and on. - minnpost
Labels: cheney, india, journalists
pesticide might be the culprit
beekeepers have singled out imidacloprid and its chemical cousin clothianidin, also produced by bayer cropscience, as a cause of bee die-offs around the world for over a decade. more recently, the same products have been blamed by american beekeepers, who claim the product is a cause of colony collapse disorder, which has cost many commercial u.s. beekeepers at least a third of their bees since 2006, and threatens the reliability of the world's food supply.
scientists have started to turn their attention to both products, which are receiving new scrutiny in the u.s., due to a disclosure in december 2007 by bayer cropscience itself. bayer scientists found imidacloprid in the nectar and pollen of flowering trees and shrubs at concentrations high enough to kill a honeybee in minutes. the disclosure recently set in motion product reviews by the california department of pesticide regulation and the epa. the tests are scheduled to wrap up in 2014, though environmentalists, including the sierra club, are petitioning the epa to speed up the work.
for over a decade, bayer cropscience has been forced to defend the family of insecticides against calls for a ban by beekeepers and environmentalists. french beekeepers succeeded in having imidacloprid banned for use on several crops after a third of the country's bees died following its use in 1999 -- although the french bee population never quite rebounded, as bayer is quick to point out. germany banned the use of clothianidin and seven other insecticides in 2008 after tests implicated them in killing up to 60 percent of honeybees in southwest germany. - salon
Labels: agriculture, bees, pesticide
question of the day...
i keep hearing that phrase in association with lgbt issues, often from the lips of straight people who don't seem to know what they're talking about. for the life of me, i don't know what they're talking about, either. i have essentially the same lifestyle i had before i admitted to myself the fact that i'm homosexual last year. i go to the same places, i wear the same clothes, i have the same hobbies, and so on -- the only differences are that i've added a gay bookstore to the places i go and i've added hammering out the script and panels for a new furry fandom comic to my hobbies. and that's all.
so what's a gay lifestyle? having unprotected sex with multiple partners after two or three hours of irresponsible drinking? most of the folks who act that way that i'm aware of are straight -- does that give me the right to call this behavior a straight lifestyle?
Just asking...
Labels: questions
last week we were bakin'
we felt a little joltage up here in toasty town...
a magnitude 4.7 earthquake shook a large stretch of southern california on sunday night. there were no immediate reports of serious damage or injuries, though some broken windows, falling dishes and minor property damage occurred. - latimes and seal beach daily and the science dude at the oc register
there were reports of damage at the amc south bay galleria in redondo beach. some moviegoers watching "angels and demons" thought the auditorium was going to collapse.
"the screen started peeling. parts of the ceiling starting falling out," one patron told kcal channel 9. - the daily breeze
Labels: california, earthquake, los angeles
Sunday, May 17, 2009
skippy's sunday nite music club
george harrison - my sweet lord
the chiffons - he's so fine
environmental stories sunday
the global food crisis. - it is the simplest, most natural of acts, akin to breathing and walking upright. we sit down at the dinner table, pick up a fork, and take a juicy bite, oblivious to the double helping of global ramifications on our plate. - national geographic
high food prices pushing world to tipping point. - for the first time in human history, one out of every six people on the planet is going to bed hungry, according to the head of the un world food program. agencies are overwhelmed as emergencies caused by war and drought outrun their ability to feed the hungry. - toronto star
use of plastic bottles increases bpa in study. - drinking cold beverages out of polycarbonate bottles significantly increases the concentration of bisphenol a found in a the body. - milwaukee journal sentinal
el niño fear as dams fall to new low. - victoria's stressed water storages and rivers — both at record lows — could face a nightmarish year of severe drought as the odds firm of an el niño weather event hitting australia within months. - melbourne age
south americans hit by dengue fever epidemic. - while the world continues to be on alert for a potential swine flu pandemic, south americans have been suffering for months from one of the worst viral epidemics on record. - miami herald
valley could be a crucible for green industry. - the coachella valley could become the cradle of the world's greatest asset — clean energy. - palm springs desert sun
trashing the river. - dumping, whether it's construction debris, garbage, snarled fishing line, fast food containers, old furniture or any of the other artifacts of life isn't confined to the des moines river. couches, fridges and bags of garbage are common items. a bucket of human fecal matter was found in one ditch. - fort dodge messenger
in the owens valley, resentment again flows with the water. - the los angeles department of water and power is quietly prospecting once again for land and water rights in the owens valley, sparking tense disputes among residents over the agency's influence on their economic stability. - latte times
fda relied heavily on bpa lobby. - as federal regulators hold fast to their claim that a chemical in baby bottles is safe, e-mails obtained by the journal sentinel show that they relied on chemical industry lobbyists to examine bisphenol a's risks, track legislation to ban it and even monitor press coverage - milwaukee journal sentinel
inspection of gadgets predicts global power surge. - the number of tvs, computers, ipods and other electronic devices in the home is expected to jump threefold by 2030 and will require the equivalent of 230 new nuclear reactors to keep them running, according to an international study calling on world governments to raise the bar on gadget efficiency. - toronto star
mexican-made "lead free" pots contain high levels of lead. - clay bean pots made in mexico and sold in hispanic stores in the eastern united states as lead-free and safe for cooking actually contain high levels of the toxic metal, prompting a university lead-poisoning prevention program to warn against using them for cooking. - asheville la voz independiente
a mountain of trouble. - an effort to develop jobs and strengthen the economy of a former timber town in oregon has turned into a nightmare. the source of woes: vast mounds of industrial garbage... enough shredded plastic and other waste to fill 12,000 dump trucks. - eugene register guard
Labels: climate change, drought, ecology, energy, environment, food shortages, global warming, lobbyists, mexico, plastics, pollution, technology, water
maureen dowd - my sweet lord, she's so fine!
apparently maureen dowd just had this phrase running round her brain while she wrote her new nytimes column:
it's like george harrison or michale bolton...they accidentally stole someone else's song, just because it was running thru their head! it's not like it was on purpose or anything!
who among us hasn't heard a phrase as simple and ingratiating as "more and more the timeline is raising the question of why, if the torture was to prevent terrorist attacks, it seemed to happen mainly during the period when the bush crowd was looking for what was essentially political information to justify the invasion of iraq" and repeated it themselves w/o realizing it didn't come from their own creativity?
why, we can see how you'd be saying "more and more the timeline is raising the question of why, if the torture was to prevent terrorist attacks, it seemed to happen mainly during the period when the bush crowd was looking for what was essentially political information to justify the invasion of iraq" over and over again, because it sounds so lyrical, until you finally have it ingrained into your consciousness. who wouldn't think they thought it up themselves?
the big problem with all of this is, more and more the timeline is raising the question of why, if the torture was to prevent terrorist attacks, it seemed to happen mainly during the period when the bush crowd was looking for what was essentially political information to justify the invasion of iraq. don't you agree?
oh wait! we just did it ourselves! we accidentally thought we wrote that! we mean, it's sooooooo natural to say!
it's got a beat, and you can dance to it! come on, everybody now!
more and more the timeline is raising the question of why, if the torture was to prevent terrorist attacks, it seemed to happen mainly during the period when the bush crowd was looking for what was essentially political information to justify the invasion of iraq! more and more the timeline is raising the question of why, if the torture was to prevent terrorist attacks, it seemed to happen mainly during the period when the bush crowd was looking for what was essentially political information to justify the invasion of iraq! more and more the timeline is raising the question of why, if the torture was to prevent terrorist attacks, it seemed to happen mainly during the period when the bush crowd was looking for what was essentially political information to justify the invasion of iraq!!
we get ya, mo! we're on yourside!
mad about feigned outrage
Saturday, May 16, 2009
skippy's saturday nite music club
gym class heroes - the queen and i
gch rock out pretty good and are wicked sick, as the kids say.
once again may we take a moment to complain about acts who disabled embedding by request so we are unable to bring you their videos; we are especiallypissed @ kenny chesney, screaming trees & faith no more, all of whom prevented you from enjoying their music tonite. keep that in mind the next time they want you to buy a ticket to their concerts or download their music.
how it's done
we've always said, if you're gonna steal, steal from the best
the barenaked ladies singing the history of everything (theme song to "the big bang")
the universe song
two and a half men theme song:
vs. spam
rachel alexandra...you go, girl
Rachel Alexandra
Originally uploaded by Rock and Racehorses
the filly rocked the ol' boys' world at "old hilltop" today. rachel's got more talent and class in one fetlock than miss california has plastic in her whole body.
all hail alexandra the great!
Labels: horses, sports, womens issues
i have only one question for the corporate press...
personally, i think you did...
Labels: questions
beam us up, scottie
addendum: here's the onion news network w/a report on how trek fans are incensed that the new film makes sense and has good acting:
questions i'd like the corporate press to ask #1
if pelosi was briefed on torture being done in our names, weren't there other members of congress who were also briefed...why aren't they being asked to come forward with their resignations? were they given the same briefing? if not, why?
Labels: congress, congressional testimony, multi-millionaire media, pelosi
how can this be?
santa barbara-area firefighters were using their own money to purchase protective eye goggles during their fight with the jesusita fire.
...erinn lynch, from sbfa's public relations committee told the independent that due to recent budget cuts to city and county departments, firefighting liaisons were coming to give their latest status updates from the frontlines of the fire with bloodshot eyes. "it's critical for us to raise money for them to protect themselves while they protect us," lynch said. she and her group are aiming to raise around $50,000 to purchase this gear.
...their next fund raising event will be their annual fire ball on june 5, and they are
always accepting donations on their website.- sbindy
hey, ms. bigshot "i've got lots of beautiful homes"...instead of spending money giving out coupons for kentucky fried cra*...why not give a little back to those folks who saved your freakin' humungous 23,000 square foot energy suckin' house, eh?
Labels: brush fires, fire department, oprah, santa barbara
all that an american needs to know about torture
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.(emphasis added because republiscum appear to be unable to read.)
Labels: torture
there's shady dealings in all sorts of banks
a former pasadena businesswoman convicted of engineering a fraudulent cap-and-trade pollution credit deal involving millions of dollars and one of the world's biggest oil companies is at the heart of a congressional inquiry into the government's latest response to global warming. - pasadena weekly,
Labels: california, environment, fraud, pollution, smog
Friday, May 15, 2009
skippy's friday nite music club
otis redding - satisfaction
happy animal blogging friday
Thursday, May 14, 2009
skippy's thursday nite music club
the animals - house of the rising sun
we're inclined to declare eric burdon & gang's rendition of this the best ever, tho if you'd like to hear alternate versions, you can check out woody guthrie, leadbelly, joan baez, doc watson & clarence ashley, the beatles foolin' around, bob dylan, nina simone, duran duran, ronnie gilbert (w/fred hellerman & eric darling), odetta, wayland jennings, sinead o'connor, chet atkins (w/mark o'connor & paul yandell), muse (most bizarre), walls of jericho, tracy chapman, cat power, toto, bon jovi, emily marsto, frijid pink, nagy feró & kormorán, dick dale, tommy emmanuel, dolly parton, gary glitter, and spongebob squarepants.
if this isn't torture we'd hate to piss them off
(warning! not at all pleasant viewing!!!):
(seriously! not safe for work or children or anyone w/a sense of humanity!!!):
newshoggers tells us:
(click on "related coverage" for photo gallery. 15 pics in all.)
obama just flat-ass lied about the pics being "unsensational". one shows cigarette burns on a detainees back and ass, another has a man with "im a papeist" (sic) written on his thigh in the foreground while two others are naked and hooded. most show detainees who are bloody, battered and burned.
marcy makes good
again, congrats to marcy, and kudos to all the firedoglakers for maintaining such a fine blog.
it's named "mimus polyglottos"...
here's a drawing of a northern mockingbird i made using colored pencils years ago, some time before i took up political blogging...
mockingbirds have long been fascinating creatures to me...
Labels: art
one last pick...
Labels: music
mad about fresh faces
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
skippy's wednesday nite music club
freddy fender & flaco jimenez - volver volver
w/special guest willie nelson, who doesn't seem to know the words
congrats marcy
any donation you make today will be matched by noi up to $5000, so for every $1 you give, the marcy fund will get $2. so, if you were thinking of a good way to congratulate marcy on her award and support her ability to keep doing what she's doing, donating today will do double duty.
donate to the marcy wheeler fund


text:
Welcome to Fearless Formula Feeder Fridays, a weekly guest post feature that strives to build a supportive community of parents united through our common experiences, open minds, and frustration with the breast-vs-bottle bullying and bullcrap.
Please note, these stories are for the most part unedited, and do not necessarily represent the FFF's opinions. They also are not political statements – this is an arena for people to share their thoughts and feelings, and I hope we can all give them the space to do so.
I chose Caroline's story as the last FFF Friday of the year, because she hits on so many aspects of what is wrong with our current infant feeding discourse. The misrepresentation of facts; the myths about how breastfeeding is "supposed" to be; the guilt women are feeling when they fail to give their babies "the best"; hell, the very name of what we give our babies as an alternative to breastmilk, as Caroline so wisely points out below…this is all wrong. And the more women that speak up – brilliant, honest, brave women like Caroline – the more that I feel it has to stop. Being that it's time for resolutions and all, I'd like to make one in Caroline's honor: I will do whatever I can in 2013 to attack these injustices, and I don't mean simply by writing about it. It's time we took this discussion off the page and onto the streets. Maybe it's just because I saw the movie version of Les Miserables last night (98% perfection except for the super stinky 2% composed of Russell Crowe and his atrocious attempt at singing) but I am feeling like a revolution is just around the corner, and 2013 will be the year it begins.
Do you hear the people sing?
Happy Friday – and happy New Year, fearless ones,
The FFF
Caroline's Story
I always knew I would nurse if I had a baby: it's natural, easier, and best of all, free! When I was pregnant, I pored through nursing books and websites, attended a lactation session, and asked nursing moms for tips. Unfortunately, I also bought into several myths quite prevalent in pro-nursing circles: better bonding, fewer illnesses, formula=obese and breastfed=healthy, etc. The worst (and most arrogant) myth I bought into was the claim that very few women are truly unable to nurse. So, by the time my son came, bottle-feeding wasn't even a consideration.
According to the nursing experts, everything was in our favor: my son was not born before term or underweight; I had immediate skin-to-skin contact following birth for one hour; no epidural or other placenta-crossing drugs were taken to run the risk of leaving a newborn too lethargic to latch for hours/days; his APGAR score was high; I was in a comfortable environment (home) when it was time for my milk to come in; we were blessed not to have a c-section; my son did not have tongue-tie; I had a supportive husband… Name the factor that improves your odds of success, and I probably had it. In fact, three days after my son was born, my breasts began to feel a tad heavier, so I convinced myself my milk had, indeed, truly come in. I was happy, and my son was healthy. Sure, he cried a lot, but at least I was able to nurse!
Looking back, I was ignoring warning signs during those first few days. My son's crying and screaming got worse each day. At his check-up three days after his birth, we were told he was extremely dehydrated and he'd lost a higher percentage in body weight than average, but I assured them my milk had just come in, so that would solve that – no formula for us! Most significantly, I had never seen any white liquid in his mouth after a feeding or even heard him swallow. Despite all this, I was so self-assured in my ability to use my breasts for what they were there for that I was blissfully blind – after all, very few women truly can't nurse, right?
Several hours later, panic… My baby's cries and screams had progressively gotten worse over the course of the evening to the point that his voice had grown hoarse. He began refusing my breast, thrashing his head about and screaming instead of trying to nurse at all. We couldn't get him to settle down, he would not rest, and we simply didn't know what to do. We called our midwife at 2 a.m. in the morning, and she suggested we give him a bit of formula. It still makes me cry to recall that first time I gave my son what I saw as white poison. I had a sample tin of formula I'd received from my OB's office that my husband used to go prepare some in a cup (we didn't even know to sterilize), and I grabbed a baby syringe dropper because we owned no bottles. I had bought into the line that giving any formula at all to a newborn can be detrimental, so I sobbed as I administered that first dropper. However, something remarkable happened: after swallowing his first few drops of real food, his stomach gurgled wildly, and his mouth became wet for the first time. It dawned on me that my son had been out of the womb for more than 80 hours, all without food and very, very little liquid. He was starving and extremely dehydrated, but I had ignored the signs because I was so confident that I was, in fact, nursing him.
The following day was one of more panic and worry: oh, no – my milk hasn't come in yet, the tea must not be enough, what else do we try, etc. We contacted La Leche League and a lactation consultant, spent a bit of money on every known milk-supply aid out there (what in the world is Goat's Rue, anyway?!), revisited all of my nursing literature, and followed every bit of advice (Have we used the correct position while reclining in bed in order to aid milk production? Did my mental imagery exercise of my breasts flowing like waterfalls last long enough?). My midwife came by to double-check our latch and the baby's tongue, and I broke down in sobs over the fact that I wasn't breast-feeding my son. She placed her hand on my shoulder and said something along the lines of, "Your first priority is to feed your son. Your second priority is to nurse him if you want to, and are able to."
When I think of my son's first 25 days, I don't have memories of soft cuddles, gushy fall-in-love moments, or happy dreams of his future. Instead, I remember day ten, when he had regained his birth weight but was still very dehydrated, and me, at wit's end, consulting an internet forum of nursing "champions" to see if it took any of them longer than ten days for their milk to come in, only to have woman after woman tell me I should just cut off the formula completely. I remember my husband being away at work, and me spending the day pumping and pumping for tiny droplets of liquid, one hand on the breast pump for one side, and the other holding a screaming infant, watching the timer to tell me when to switch sides, then carrying the infant and supplies down to the kitchen to sterilize, and beginning it all again later after feeding him. I remember that at the height of my breasts' milk production, yielding almost a full ounce of watery, whitish liquid in one single day, and me pleading with my son to drink all of it because it had mommy's special, hard-earned milk in it. I remember my bull-headed determination to nurse my baby first for 20-30 minutes before giving him any formula, despite the fact that as he grew stronger, the pressure he exerted in trying to get something out of my breasts increased to the point that it felt like he was sucking knives from my ribs out through my nipples. I remember the shame in having to reply in the negative to all the friends and family who asked if we were nursing. I also remember feeling like I had been slapped in the face when consulting the information labels on formula canisters, all of which begin with a hurtful warning statement, usually in bold: "Experts agree on the many benefits of breast milk," or "IMPORTANT NOTICE: BREAST MILK IS BEST FOR BABIES." I remember the worry over giving my son formula, opening him up to viruses and obesity. I remember being more comfortable feeding my son a complete stranger's donated milk rather than that horrid formula milk. I remember all of the disdainful looks I received when having to break out a bottle to feed my son in public. I remember the emotional turmoil of getting my hopes up that a new solution would work, only to have them dashed again when it didn't. These are the memories I have of my son's first few weeks.
The little "milk" I had (which never looked anything like the donor milk) quickly dried up. I still remember the last time he rooted towards my chest, when he was about a month old. It had been a few days since he had nursed or I'd seen anything at all come out of my breasts. He latched on for a minute or so, lightly suckled while looking up into my eyes, then dropped his head back to fall off my breast. That was the last "comfort feed" he ever received from me, and it was also the most peaceful nursing session I ever had with him. It was as though he somehow knew that there was nothing in there, but maybe he wanted to try to let me know the bottle would be okay or something. When he was six weeks old, I was diagnosed with post-partum depression and placed on medication. A few weeks after that, I read a book describing formula or bottle feeding as "artificial." That was probably my rock bottom – I lost what little self-esteem I still had as a mother. I had obviously failed my son if I could only feed him artificially. Those were the days of constant weeping and continual apologies to my son for getting stuck with such a bad mom.
As the months went on, the pain lessened in intensity, but only grew with experience. It hurt every time I heard a nursing mom complain about nursing, claimed I must have it easier, ask why I wasn't nursing, etc – the pressure in our society to nurse can be brutal, and there were countless times I went crying to my husband because someone's offhanded comment broke my heart all over again. I began resenting all of the fuss and time it took to clean, sterilize, and prepare bottles of formula for my son while he had to wait and cry. Thankfully, I never projected that resentment toward my son himself, despite all of his colic and neediness, but at the same time, I was pretty numb in the midst of my post-partum depression, simply going through the motions while taking care of him day and night.
More time passed, and I began to heal. I read the stories of dozens of women who weren't able to nurse – I was not alone. I began calling formula "milk" when preparing it and offering it to my son – formulas are things you use in geometry; milk is a food source for babies. When he was five months old, I remember giving him a nice hug and kissing him on the cheek – I had my first experience of any sort of motherly love toward him as a baby in my arms. I realized my son will not care if he received breast milk or formula milk during his first 6-12 months of life – I care, but he doesn't, and won't. I came across information that dispels some of the harmful myths about formula feeding. Finally, what my midwife had told me began to sink in – my first responsibility as a mother is to feed my son. In the end, it really doesn't matter so much where that food comes from – what matters is his ability to grow and thrive.
Viva la revolution! Email your FFF submission to email@example.com.