This Tuesday Tour is actually doing some random wandering. You know, we do it so you don't have to. First of all, Women's Rights at Change.org features two great posts in a row: One on equal pay laws and the risk they may pose. It's very provocative, and crammed with both information and exciting ideas. The second is an intriguing meditation on the emergence (or not) of the Fourth Wave of feminism. They'll keep you busy thinking long after you've read them.
In case you missed this one, the inimitable Leslie Bradshaw describes a whole new way to look at online advertising. Whether you have online real estate or not, this concept of "nanotargeting" is intriguing, and a little unsettling. For comfort, go see the most amazing pair of shoes ever. Really.
Educators take note: Jason Fall's Social Media Explorer not only offers a list of the top election blogs but also, in a great lesson in Internet research, explains how he found them. The always-wise Charlene Li has altered her year-end predictions; which deals, appropriately this close to the Inauguration, with "the Obama-maniacs." BlogHer's Erin Kotecki Vest previews BlogHer Inauguration coverage plans. And we end with another inauguration story – but it's more fun if you don't know what it is until you get there. See you tomorrow.
Blogging boomers are back – just one week away from the 100th week of the Carnival. And as usual, there's plenty worthy of your time. The British invasion, messy closets, the Joy of Sex and cellphone love are among the topics offered for your reading pleasure. Don't miss it!
This week I took dinner over to a couple who just became parents of an infant son. It had been a long time coming and it was very moving to sit in their living room and sense the peace and – to be honest – blessedness of their parenthood. I started out "doing something nice" by taking dinner and of course got far more out of it myself. Being in that room is a memory I will cherish.
I told them about all the parenting tips offered in virtual baby showers I'd been part of, and about all the other posts I'd done about my children and my life as a mother. Then I kind of promised I'd send them the links. I figured, though, that as long as I was pulling it all together I'd make a little package for anyone else looking for the kind of parenting advice that A) might be really good and B) you can ignore without hurting anyone's feelings. So here they are — and as The Band wrote, "take what you need and leave the rest."
First of all, since you have a son, here's a Julie's gift: a blog list filled with wisdom — a virtual baby shower of advice and warnings about raising boys. There's a list of "boy songs" too. That's a bonus. If you want to read my contribution, it's here.
And what about just plain good advice about being a mom? That was the first shower, and it's full of funny and often very moving posts. Here's mine.
This one's kind of funny, and will look like it's a million years away – but it's fun: what to do when a second kid shows up and makes everything crazy all over again. I wrote for that one, too.
My favorite is the one whose subject was "memories of the first thirty days." It was an emotional whopper; once I started I had trouble stopping. Here's what I remember.
Finally, as you enter this amazing new life, a preview of what it's like when your kids are grown and gone. They're from December of 2006 and this past Thanksgiving. For some reason both struck a nerve with readers; it's an amazing adventure you've embarked upon – and it's glorious in all its phases. I wish you half the joy I've known.
Just when we thought it was safe to go back in the water…. there she is again! This time, though, some of what she says is creepily unsettling. This loads slowly but is worth the wait – we can talk about it after you watch it.
Here’s the thing: Do you really think people, especially journalists, would have been so cruel to an “unwed mother” whose parents were progressive politicians? Or to a Rockefeller or even a Bush? Throughout the interview, Palin raises the issue of class, and of the attacks on her kids; we’ll touch on that in a minute.
During the campaign, I wrote about Palin and the class issue, and the sad parallels to Paula Jones. The fact is that Sarah Palin isn’t sophisticated, that she’ be a popular Girl Scout leader or Women’s Club president in the life that existed when I was a kid – around the Mad Men era. Maybe that would have been OK if she’d known more, or been less cruel and incendiary in her speeches. Her inherent lack of sophistication and experience, what William Galston has called “a celebration of ignorance” enabled much of the class snobbery the followed. But follow it did; not in the “she’s not our kind” sort of way – it was far more subtle than that. More in the collective realization of the “cool people” that she was a WalMart, polyester lady thrust into a J Crew sort of world.
Now. Let’s think about the kids. The family itself was kind of a throwback I guess. And their omnipresence – thrust onto the stage – was weird. But when Elizabeth Edwards was criticized for taking the kids on the road during the campaign, feminists and others leapt to her defense. When Al Gore Jr. was arrested in a DUI it was a “private family matter,” not a continuing object of ridicule. Somehow though, the way this pregnancy and relationship has been portrayed has been cruel and tawdry without casting much light on Palin, her tenure or her philosophy.* And remember the whole “mommy wars” thing – did Palin put her career ahead of her kids? One person who wrote consistently well about this is PunditMom. Take a look.
None of what I’m saying here justifies what Palin stood for or did as a candidate. She was, and is, a scary person hiding behind “adorableness.” But we need to think about the mainstream coverage of her campaign and how much of it derided matters of class and family, not policy and ideology. There was certainly enough ofthat substantial stuffto keep anyreporter busy.
What do you think?
*I am not talking about conversations concerning issues of choice, sex education or contraception but of the less substantial, more visible harumphing.
I gave up my alma mater, THE TODAY SHOW, for C-SPAN's Washington Journal. But no more – nope. Now I'm strictly a Morning Joe girl. My insomniac husband and I start our day with these characters, and there's good reason. They're smart, they're funny, they have real personalities, and they think and react. Both they and their guests deftly provide more information and perspective, than anywhere else you can go in the morning.
When I started at TODAY the theory was that people felt as if we were in their bedrooms. That Deborah Norville failed at replacing Jane Pauley (as if anyone could) because she was so perfect, so slick, that she was intrusive. TV was still one-way then; we produced the show, trying to make it as accessible as possible, but still, we were sending it to the audience, not talking with them.
At Morning Joe – the perfect Millennial programming, Scarborough, (former Congressman) the shredding (den mother? Zen master? daughter of Zbigniew) Mika Brzezinski, wise-cracking Willie Geist (former Tucker Carlson producer, son of CBS News Sunday Morning contributor Bill Geist) and the rest of the crew are not in our bedrooms, we're in the studio with them. There's no "third wall" (I always wanted to produce a show like that,) you see
the cameras, the cardboard Starbucks cups and even the
producers. We're all in it together. Conversations with their (very well-booked) guests are smart, sassy and collegial; lots of information emerges but from conversation, not inquisition. There is very little distance between the audience and the studio – bluster is deflated and humor is the tool of choice. ALL with considerable elan, explication, foresight and accessibility.
I almost forgot the music. Most commercial breaks are punctuated with music – often Bruce Springsteen, always connected to the last topic of conversation. During the campaign, of course, Born to Run and Jackson Browne's Running on Empty were favorites. It's another way of communicating with the audience – fun and usually spot on. When it's not music, it's clips from late night comedy or other relevant but irreverent television.
I'm not alone in this – didn't invent a new wheel. The New York Times has called the show "oddly addicting" (my experience exactly); the Washington Post described it as "a provocative, alternate-universe newstalk show." From six to nine AM Twitter is full of Joe sightings.
I spent many years in broadcast news, nine of them at the TODAY SHOW, and I've mourned its transformation from the informative show I knew to what seemed to me to be an undisciplined mush called, by many production alums, "Friends in the morning." It's wildly popular so I'm not condemning it – just saying that it isn't the show I worked for. Now, after a long, sad period of missing what TODAY was, I see in Morning Joe what it could have (and should have) become.
Welcome to Tuesday Tours. There's so much good stuff out in the Blog Universe; we all have our blog readers filled with those we love. It's tough to keep up though, so until further notice, I'll be offering Tuesday tours of some of my own frequent favorites.
One of my favorite bloggers, Pundit Mom, offers posts at two ends of the spectrum as the week begins. Both are worth reading. The first: advice to the Obamas about the neighborhood around Sidwell Friends School. It's just fun. The second is a serious post with a serious question: When is it right to tell an airline official that a passenger is making you nervous
?
Concerned about what's going on in Israel? Check back daily at Writes Like She Talks, where Jill Zimon has her finger on what's up all over the Web. Here's a sample.
The wise Maria Niles is looking to figure out all those generation labels like X and Boomer and Millennial — and what they mean (and what the heck her own is.)
Also "generationally speaking," you know that all last year I wrote comparing 1968 and 2008. Well, Time Goes By columnist Saul Friedman has done me one (actually two) better, writing of lessons from his own iconic president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Obama's point of reference, Abraham Lincoln.
Beth Kanter is a legend. Rightfully so. So when she offers 52 ways for Non-profits to use social media efficiently as a New Year's gift to her readers, I'm figuring that at least some of them can help the rest of us too.
Two of my favorite moms have something special too: I'm late on this one, but Her Bad Mother's description of a willful three-year-old (it's long so wait until you have time) is priceless. Some kids are just strong strong little people.
Also, Woulda Coulda Shoulda's Mir Kamin celebrated her son's last single-digit birthday with a wonderful hymn to a newly-nine-year-old. She never misses, that one.
This carnival is fascinating – many sides of issues relating to Judaism, observant or secular Jewish life and, of course, Israel. It's pretty diverse, take a look and see what you think. Full disclosure: a post of mine is included.
This film, Doubt, is exceptional. Smart, funny, moving, intricate and remarkably well-acted, it is, without exception, a remarkable accomplishment. I grew up in Pittsburgh and nuns like Meryl Streep’s Sister Aloysius Beauvier were a staple in my life, not in Catholic school, but every weekend, at speech tournaments at Greensburg Catholic or Central Catholic or other parochial schools that so often hosted the competitions.
God help you if one of your judges was one of these sisters. They were the toughest and the scariest. Even in the cafeteria between Round 2 and Round 3, they wandered with the same “eyes in the backs of their heads” that Sister Aloysius demonstrates to her young protege. The teams they coached were the amazing. Practiced, smart, disciplined and resourceful, they did the sisters proud.
As I watched Meryl Streep as the principal of a Catholic elementary school where accusation and suspicion take over, all the memories of those scary Saturday mornings at the front of a classroom, giving speeches on labor unions or disarmament or the dangers of the Soviet Union came tumbling back. The nerves were unavoidable; when the sisters were among your judges, you had to be prepared, organized, well-spoken and committed. Or else.
Probably the familiarity of those nuns (weird for a nice Jewish girl to have access to, I suppose) and the memory of all the Sundays I went to Mass with friends after a sleep-over added to the film’s impact. I know I had a very personal reaction. But whether you grew up in Idaho, Arizona or the Bronx, the film is irresistible and won’t leave you alone just because it’s not on the screen any longer. I’m not going to talk about the plot because that will diminish the pleasure of watching it unfold, but if you respect great writing, great acting and excellence in film-making, you don’t want to miss this one.
Nobody ate lobster tail at our house, or bought anything else that came from South Africa, even way back in the 50’s, . Well before Randall Robinson’sTransAfrica or Steve Van Zandt’sSun City (see below**), my mother was actively boycotting the apartheid regime. Despite her generally moderate liberal perspective, she was fierce about this and created my own boycott habit, something that drove my kids crazy all the years that they drank Ovaltine while their friends got Nestle Quick. (That’s another story though.)
Of course anyone back then who knew about South Africa or read Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country understood the horror of it, but barely anyone talked about it, or demanded action from their own countries. So why was this the issue that set fire to my mom?
Helen Suzman*, who died on New Year’s Day at the age of 91, was the reason. For years she stood as the only anti-apartheid voice in the entire South African Parliament – for six of those years as the only woman as well.The Jewish wife of a well-to-do physician, she entered politics, visited Mandela in prison, stood and spoke, often alone, for the end of apartheid and all that it stood for. Because she was brave, and because, like so many early white activists there, she was Jewish, her often solitary and always dangerous crusade was a matter of particular pride to many Jewish women, my mother among them. Her powerful example was a foreshadowing of much that came later. By the time I was in college, friends were lying in at the doors of Chemical Bank to demand divestiture – removal of American funds from South African investments. By the 80’s daily demonstrations, and arrests, outside the DC South African embassy kept a drumbeat of attention on the issue. It took until February of 1990 for Mandela to be released from prison, granting great credit to Ms. Suzman, who later stood at his side as he signed the new constitution.
How interesting that one of the earliest moral political lessons I learned came from the courage of a woman half way around the world, not only because of her courage and effectiveness but also because of her faith. We speak so casually of “role models” these days, but when there is a true model of how to live, the impact is enormous. I’ve known that for a long time, and as I watched Barack Obama tell city kids he visited on Thanksgiving eve that ” You guys might end being the president some day” I thought it again.
Ms. Suzman’s example multiplied her power: not only did she stand alone for change when such a stand was desperately needed, she also taught all those who watched her that they could stand too, that just as her stands gave birth to theirs, their own actions multiplied the impact of hers. As we enter this new year, with so much ahead of us, it’s something we would do well to remember – and live by.
*Here’s an interview with Ms. Suzman
**Here’s the 1985 video from “Miami Steve” and artists from Herbie Hancock to Pat Benetar and Bonnie Raitt to Lou Reed and The Boss himself.