- Girls love science. We tell them not to – “A recent article argued that ‘biology and nature sway females away from science.’ Not so fast.”
- California county votes to investigate chemtrails – From bluebottle.
- Teen convinces high school to drop abstinence-only sex ed – From Criticaldragon1177.
- What happened when we gave our daughter my last name – “That moment confirmed for me that the patriarchy is still deeply ingrained—in all of us. Surnames are one of the unseen limbs of the old world. Giving a child the father’s last name is still a given. And that given preserves the man’s place of power, from the Supreme Court on down to the everyday Joe.”
- Cute Animal Friday! Is there such a thing as a hummingbird infestation? Tawny frogmouth chicks remain my favorite weird cute animal, even if they do stink.
Last names is kind of interesting. Like, with Indians, there are several sources of surnames. Some just seem random, like mine. (Though you could argue that Bryan Brewer ending Prohibition on Pine Ridge makes some Oglala Brewers’ name meaningful.)
Others are pseudo=patronymic; there are five generations of Crow Dogs, all tracing to the original Crow Dog, who assassinated Spotted Tail, leading to the whole jurisdictional confusion that plagues reservations to this day. But the Lakota at least didn’t have surnames. And it’s tough to explain non-unilineal kinship exists to people schooled in years of pop anthropology.
I offered to give the Hellions The Girls last name, because why perpetuate another generation of elementary school teachers butchering Doench. But she insisted.