Julie Pippert: Using My Words

If a picture is worth a thousand words, here's a million (in no particular order other than this is how I want it): I got to have lunch with the fabulous Magpie and see and learn in person right there all about what she does -- it's as awesome as you'd think: I love that photo (above). It makes me warm, happy and remember how good it felt to be there, with my friend. After lunch, I decided a 30 block Zen walk was in order. Maggie had told me about these bronze sculptures placed (and perched) around the city. I looked for them and saw a lot of them and other cool and beautiful things so I snapped photos crazily. I also kept grabbing other crazy photo snapping tourists and showing them the statues. Because Amy is that cool, and because our Choose You ambassador Ellen Pompeo was on the show, we got to go to Jimmy Fallon show. That meant entering 30 Rock. That meant my poor friends had to deal with my constant 30 Rock references, as well as grabbing a page and forcing a pho...

So...unless you keep your news reading to high-brow or none at all (and even that's not info-blank safe these days) you probably heard that Max!m released its Unsexiest Woman Alive winner a few months ago and she's Sarah Jessica Parker. (So I'm late to the discussion party. It's still a relevant issue to discuss.) It's deconstruction time. First, let's put this magazine in its place. When I Googled Max!m, this is what I got: Crappy Soft-Porn Lad Mag that, if a man was known to read this frequently and be a big fan and believer of it, should be a real turn-off to everyone carrying double Xs (and by that I mean chromosomes, not porn rating or some other sort of size). Okay okay that's not what Google really said. It really said (and this part is actual for real true): Hot Girls, Sex, Photos, Hot Videos, Sports, Movies and Music, Celebrities Girls, Sex, Sexy, Hotties, Women, Babes, Chicks, Technology, Gear, Video Games, Hotties, Magazine, Maxim Magazine, christ...

We're going to have to meander a bit in this post...and I hope you don't mind winding on a path a bit... The Hump Day is around the corner and I've got fabulous topics from fabulous bloggers. You'll want to either rearrange your schedule or make one for these. First, Emily R at Wheels on the Bus (creator of the very popular music hump day) hits a home run again with this suggestion for Wednesday, December 5: Making new friends and keeping the old...or, something we need to learn again and again. Second, next week December 12 is from Maddy at Whitterer on Autism : personal pet peeves, we all have them, but I like the unique ones. Ones that other people don't share and most importantly, the why? *********************************************************************************** Sometimes, things slam into my mind with a startling burst of accuracy, other times they glide gracefully across my consciousness, slowly seeping through barriers, and gently whispering to me...

Last week I announced today's Hump Day Hmm topic as: "Where I'd like to go next." This can be your personal goal, professional goal, cultural or societal goal, political goal...you get the picture. Just tell us something about how you'd like the future to be. Link back to me in your post, send me the link to your post at j pippert at g mail dot com and I'll add you in to the list! I had three or four other post ideas in mind in answer to that question, which strikes at so many things for me. But, in light of Monday's news , my words are sort of jumbled, unprocessed...a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom mess after falling down from the coconut tree. Two things are clear in my head, though. Clear Thing One: Silent Spring One commenter asked if I'd read Rachel Carson's Silent Spring . I have. A little known fact about me is that I aspire(d) to be an anthropologist. I figured this out a little too late, without enough confidence, after I stumbled into what woul...

Today I had another appointment with the endocrinologist to discuss the treatment failure and the next step to keeping me functional. No wait, forget functional; I'd like to be well again. You know, healthy, with energy and a mind. In general, as a rule, rather than as a rare exception. See, here's the perplexing thing: my body is acting like it has tumors. But it doesn't. We tried treating me as if I did have the tumors and that stopped the symptoms but created a new ball of problems. So we stopped treatment. My main question is why? My next question is how do we fix it? The doctor visit today was confusing because there really wasn't time to have an actual conversation; it was, instead, a simple exchange of information. He'd been lecturing all morning and was running late, so I felt like I was spinning in a tornado. However, he proposed a new theory, the first time I've heard a doctor mention this although as I've slugged my way through the syrupy thick ba...

Every week I have to go to the grocery store to get perishables. Every week I have to stand in line alongside a plethora of gossip crap tabloids (sorry if you like Enquirer and Star , really sorry). Every week the covers of these magazines wallow joyfully in the muck of other people's lives, in a completely schizophrenic way. Schizophrenic? Huh? You see, alternating issues---or worse, sometimes even the same issue---mock "fat" celebrities and then turn around and castigate "too skinny" stars. (They do the same for make ups and break-ups.) The articles are always so surprised and confused, even faux-concerned, "Why are these women so thin? They need to get healthy!" Let those same stars gain a little weight and VOILA! they are back on the cover, mocked as fat. Take, for example, Tyra Banks, who, as I once said oh-so-eloquently is so not fat . And yet, people of her size (i.e., me) are often treated as though we are large as in oversized as in FAT. Take...

Nursing Mother with Red Blanket by Zelda Fitzgerald I want to get a few things clear...because there seems to be some confusion about discrete versus discreet, euphemisms, and breasts. It all stems from this breastfeeding debate sparked by Mill Baher (yes, that's intentional). 1. Discreet versus discrete Discrete = separate, or, in math, no calculus. Discreet = judicious in conduct, prudent, modest and unobtrusive As you see above, discreet can mean modest and unobtrustive, but the dictionary---although it defines those words---can't define the varying subjective interpretations of what qualifies as "modest" and "unobtrusive." That's why the euphemisms are a problem. And interfering in the discussion about breasts. 2. Euphemisms Opponents to breastfeeding in public enjoy employing words such as "obscene" and "offensive" and "private" as well as phrases such as "whip it out" and "boob hanging out" and ...

Every now and again, I find something that shines a spotlight on the bias and limitations of traditional and classical education: the important people omitted due to gender, race, culture, religion, or other prejudicial factors. Last week---while watching a television program about the Moorish influence in Andalusia (yes, this is how I spend my free time)---I learned about a female Muslim poet, who might have been omitted for all of the above. Wallada bint al-Mustakfi was born in 1001 in Córdoba, a town of culture and power significance in Andalusia, the jewel of the Moorish colonies. Although she was the daughter of the caliph, Muhammad III of Córdoba, she nevertheless suffered the same restrictions of all Arab Muslim women. In fact, it was the same for almost all women in medieval times, regardless of religion or culture. To Wallada, rules were meant to be broken, or circumvented at the least...if they were intended to hold her back from her potential. I am fit for high positions, b...

It turns out that the human body is a fragile thing, delicately connected through balanced and interdependent systems. If one domino falls, the rest will collapse inelegantly behind it. It turns out that my body has done this. It turns out, that despite modern advances in medicine and many tests, we will not know why this has happened, and my doctor tells me, in fact, we are not even really sure what has happened. We can, it seems, only see the effects, and treat it as best we can, piece by piece, that way, and cross our fingers. Cross our fingers. Cross our fingers that if we shut down the system and reboot, it will come back up working properly. I'm not a big believer in luck. Luck to me is the popular kid who only notices me when she needs answer to homework, which isn't very often because luck is quite bright enough on her own. When luck grants me a favor, she is quick to ask for payment. Have a baby, lose a cat, for example. In order that I see proper balance in the univer...