Raising

Shameless Diversions

OK, in partial recompense for the long political rant, I’ll point you to AfterEllen.com, where you can read up on the latest lesbian celebrity gossip. You know you want to. For those of you seeking a more humorous diversion, try After Ellen’s sister pubilcation, Fake Gay News. (Warning: Heavy satire. Not for the easily offended.)

The Gifted Left Behind

The New York Times today reports on schools that are cutting funding for gifted programs in order to meet the requirements for the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. Schools are shifting funds to ensure that struggling students attain the law’s basic math and reading levels. This highlights one of the biggest dilemmas facing

“All Aboard: Rosie’s Family Cruise” Documentary

Rosie O’Donnell and her partner Kelli Carpenter O’Donnell are premiering their documentary, “All Aboard: Rosie’s Family Cruise,” on April 6. The program, which will air on HBO, looks at the first cruise of the couple’s travel venture, R Family Vacations. (Full credit: The couple founded the company with friend Gregg Kaminsky.) The New York Times

Happy Anniversary

My partner and I recently celebrated our thirteenth year together. Did we honor the occasion with a wild display of lesbian hedonism, an example of our depraved homosexual lifestyle? ‘Fraid not. We spent it at IKEA, picking up some bookshelves for my parents. That evening, we assembled it and stayed at their house with our

Causes and Effects of Childhood Obesity

Two items of note today in regard to childhood obesity: A study by scientists at the Université Laval (article in French; English summary here) has concluded that amount of sleep was the prime factor in determining childhood obesity among children five to ten years old. In the study of 422 children, those who got less

Herstory Resources

It’s almost the end of Women’s History Month, so I thought I’d post a couple of links to sites of lesbian history resources. (Herstory, history . . . I used the former in the title for this post, since that seems to be the commonly accepted way of refering to the lesbian past, though I

Breast Feeding: Two Opinions

Discussing breast feeding can be as risky an activity as wearing a Red Sox cap in Manhattan or using a Powerbook in Redmond. Pediatrician Sydney Spiesel puts on his flak jacket and gives it a try in this week’s Slate. He has, in fact, one of the more sensible opinions I’ve read. While I don’t

Homemade Play Dough

Technology site MAKE remembers the kiddies with links to a couple of homemade play dough recipes today. I haven’t tested these particular versions myself, but they sound similar to a recipe my mom used to make for me when I was younger. (Hasbro, makers of the “real” Play-Doh, even admit their secret formula contains mostly

Toddler Diet Linked to Breast Cancer Risk

Does frequent consumption of french fries as a toddler increase the risk of breast cancer, and whole milk reduce it? Those are the preliminary findings of a group of researchers led by a doctor at Harvard Medical School. While they warn that their results should be confirmed by other studies before being hailed as fact,

Education in America: Subjects Left Behind

The New York Times today discusses how “thousands” of schools across the country are reducing class time in subjects other than reading and math, as a reaction to the reading and math testing requirements of the “No Child Left Behind” law. (Registration required for NY Times site.) In some cases, schools have completely eliminated other

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