I went throuh a big Dahl phase when I was about seven. We were living in France at the time, and getting all our books sight unseen in the mail.

We were midway through reading "The Swan" outloud when my mother realized its target audience might be slightly older than "James and the Giant Peach."
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 1:06 PM on July 23, 2008

I'm disgusted by puppy mills, but I'm a lot more disgusted at the demand end than the supply end. If you are planning on taking a living creature into your family for the next ten or fifteen years, you need to do at least enough research to realize that getting a puppy from a pet store is a terrible idea. That goes right along with doing enough research to realize that puppies will destroy your shoes, or that puppies will not be nearly so cute if you don't put any effort into training them, or... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 4:47 AM on July 4, 2008

TNH's blog, Making Light, consistently has more funny, wise, kind, and educational comments than any other blog I read. But what works on a blog like ML isn't necessarily going to work on a blog like BoingBoing; it's just a completely different community environment.
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 10:56 AM on June 30, 2008

My cousin was one of those volunteering with the international Solidarity Movement and subverting the program. He blogs about his experience here.
(Which is not to say that I agree with his politics completely, but I am impressed by his convictions.)
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 7:05 PM on June 26, 2008

...[the professor] insisted that I continue [giving shocks.] I refused, offered to give him back the five dollars, and told him that I believed the experiment to be really about how far I would go, that the learner was an accomplice, and that I was determined not to continue.


He didn't stop because of moral courage; he stopped because he thought he was being played.

If I recall correctly, in the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 3:29 AM on June 20, 2008

I will substitute almost anything for almost anything else, since the time I was making various kinds of Japanese food and didn't have an Asian grocery nearby; I subbed beer for the sake and mirin, and it came out fine. If a recipe has two herbs and three spices, I might use one herb and one spice - or I might substitute whatever spices I have in the cupboard.

Ingredients are not a problem; time and equipment are, particularly since I'm moving often enough that I don't... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 7:03 AM on June 10, 2008

The thing about kids is that they are still growing. They are supposed to be gaining weight; they are supposed to be getting taller. And the rates for height growth and weight growth don't necessarily match up. Some kids will go through a phase when they shoot up, get real skinny, and then put on some weight; some kids will go through a phase when they gain weight, get chubby at first, and then put on a few inches vertically and balance out. I really, really don't think it's... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 6:13 AM on May 22, 2008

I'm glad that this affordability calculator factors in transportation costs.

I was terrified to move to New York on 39,000, the same salary I was making in Raleigh, NC; but although my rent went up, I ended up saving about $300 on a car payment, insurance, gas, etc. And those were my costs BEFORE gas went up to $3!

People whine about how expensive New York is, but when you don't have to buy a car, it's a pretty good deal.
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 12:31 PM on April 28, 2008

I think it's incredibly responsible of the parent to let her 9-year-old take the subway home. As a proof of concept, if nothing else. Let's say that someday in the next year or two there's a family crisis and no one can pick the kid up from school - panicky and in the midst of a crisis is NOT the time you want to have to figure out the subway system for the first time.
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 4:49 AM on April 12, 2008

Why is it a feminist problem?

Every so often you hear feminists bemoaning the fact that there aren't more women of color in their women's studies classes or activist groups, and where are all the feminists who aren't white? Is it because feminism needs better marketing?

Well - feminists have not been very successful in convincing people that they care about the rights of all women, not just rich white ones.

If black... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 7:56 PM on April 6, 2008

If you don't view the police as having legitimate authority - or if you view their authority as ultimately rooted in a patriarchal power system that shouldn't even exist - and I'll admit this is a pretty radical viewpoint here, but if you believe that, then relying on the police for public safety is the moral equivalent of a sucking up to the class bullies so that you won't get beaten up and your enemies will be. It's not even a good position to be in strategically, because you don't have any... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 8:58 PM on April 6, 2008

It's a vicious circle - underfunded libraries become libraries with huge waiting lists for popular books, inadequate space and facilities, and people become less inclined to fund them. Underfunded libraries become libraries that cut their degreed librarian positions (this just happened in Marathon, Wisconsin) and people stop expecting anything from their librarians... and then, if librarians don't have any special skills anyway, why bother funding the positions?
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 2:56 PM on March 7, 2008

As I see it, one of the big problems is that people expect the library to be all things to all people - which would take enormous amounts of money - but then they get upset when they're faced with the alternative of (a) raising taxes by an enormous amount or (b) funding other people's priorities in addition to their own.

People want the public library to be:
-A Barnes & Noble, but free.
-A Blockbuster Video, but free.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 4:18 PM on March 7, 2008

As a once and future Wiscon-goer and fan of some of the people mentioned in the article, I have to totally disagree that these fans are "acting and behaving and consuming products the way society dictates girls should."

Look at the Women's Work video linked in the article. If that's not critique, if that's not subversive, I don't know what is. Look at fanfiction; it's a completely different way of engaging with the text, and it's dominated by women. It's not... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 9:51 AM on February 20, 2008

Pastabagel: absolutly agreed that the show itself is not subversive in any way. In no way would I expect subversion from a show on a major network, supported by advertising, whether that show's science fiction or not. Everything subversive is in the interpretations created by the fans - I find that incredibly interesting. Because, if we wait for That Perfect Feminist Science Fiction TV Show, it's not coming. It's almost like female fans take it upon themselves to create it, by imposing their own... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 10:42 AM on February 20, 2008

It's not that crime is rational; it's that working within the system is insufficiently rational if the system is working against you.

If you are born white, middle-class, in an educated family, you are likely to have
(a) the message, from your culture, your neighborhood, your family, that if you work hard and stay on the straight and narrow you are likely to wind up at least moderately successful
(b) evidence to back that up,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 1:41 PM on January 24, 2008

Please, don't giggle dismissively at Rent just because you saw the movie.

If you saw the show, or even listened to the original cast soundtrack all the way through, and you still want to giggle dismissively, please, go to it, have fun with it!

But between the stage show (which I love despite myself) and the movie (which, uh, I'll probably buy eventually for the music and to laugh at), the movie leaves out some things, and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 8:26 PM on January 16, 2008

Anyone who's ever read much of Roald Dahl should know there's a really dark undercurrent in his work; not all of his books are appropriate for seven-year-olds (as my mother was nonplussed to discover at read-aloud time).

It's hardly mocking to draw attention to that.
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 7:12 AM on November 18, 2007

For visual representations of Coltrane, I think it's hard to beat Chris Raschka. (not animated)
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 3:59 AM on November 11, 2007

From what I know of how guide dogs are raised, the usual procedure is to give them to a family who won't give them formal training, but basic socialization. So I personally wouldn't be worried about inmates' incompetence as trainers.

The law enforcement dogs I've seen are fantastic, mellow and obedient in front of fifty squeaky schoolkids. But the airport dogs are mostly beagles, if I'm not mistaken--because they're small and adorable (not likely to raise suspicions)... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 4:17 AM on November 8, 2007

While this is completely, totally, awesome, I am disappointed that it doesn't list the Jeopardy game my uncle got third place in.
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 3:59 PM on October 4, 2007

I work in a library, and most of the librarians I know are doing pretty well even though our salaries are... well, good public library salaries, but inspiring a certain amount of "I did six years of higher education for this?"

They're married.

It's the same way for teachers' salaries; if you expect that your employees are mostly going to be married women whose husbands make decent money, you can get away with not paying them much.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 4:55 AM on September 30, 2007

Initially I loathed Family Guy with a fiery burning passion, But as I kept watching it I started to see a kind of genius in its badness, in how it would push almost every single gag beyond the point of funniness into discomfort, disgust, anxiety--by having it continue twice as long as was funny, or by taking the slapstick "someone got hurt, so it's funny" and pushing it into blood and guts territory. At best, it's a show that makes you very self-conscious, very aware... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 7:44 PM on September 22, 2007

The Nick Jr. show Wonder Pets did an episode (as yet unaired) where the pets have to save a group of musical beetles.

How awesome is it that toddlers are going to be watching a parody of a band that broke up long before they were born--possibly before their parents were born?
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 4:52 PM on August 6, 2007

The recent book "Richistan" states that rich people almost unanimously say that they would be financially secure if they had... twice what they have now. $1 million? They need $2 million. $100 million? They need $200 million.

The book came at a point when I desperately needed a reminder of the emptiness and futility of desire for stuff.
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 4:17 PM on August 5, 2007

Why you are slapping each other:

'Reiko married Shunsuke, the oldest son of the noble ?Tsubaki-Kouji? house. The very next day, her husband drew his last breath. As the Tsubaki-Koujis continue to bully Reiko, the commoners' blood within her flares up. Wearing the rose Shunsuke gave to her on her chest, Reiko declares war with the Tsubaki-Koujis. "As the bride of the eldest son, I declare ownership of the Tsubaki-Kouji house!" This, then, is the magnificent... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 5:37 AM on July 20, 2007

I had mad crushes on all my favorite professors. Male more than female, but not to the exclusion of women entirely.

Did I want to have sex with them? Not really. Would I have thought it creepy and unacceptable for any of them to come on to me? Oh, yes.

I find people most fascinating, most sexy, when they are putting their smarts on display. But eroticism of the mind needs to stay in the mind!
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 5:31 AM on July 14, 2007

Since the principal value of a social networking site is that your friends are on it, it wouldn't really be surprising if a small initial difference (Facebook starting as an academic thing) would be magnified, and continue to have an effect even after Facebook opened up to everybody.

It IS true that those who come to the library to use the computers (who often don't have computers at home) overwhelmingly prefer MySpace.
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 7:03 AM on June 25, 2007

I truly admire the level of obsession of the person who owns Doctorwhoscarf.com.
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 7:43 PM on June 3, 2007

If Chompsky and his ilk are correct (and if I understand them correctly, which is a big if), you can learn language this way (via examples rather than rules) when you're an infant and small child.

This is because children have a structure (or structures) in the brain that are ready to be filled in with the rules of a specific language.

My guess is that you no longer have these structures (or they're weaker or already filled... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 2:06 PM on May 19, 2007

For heaven sake, the produce department at a local Safeway is bigger than the grocery stores I went to when I was a kid.

But in a lot of low-income areas, the grocery stores are few in number and have a small selection of rather skeezy produce.
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 12:21 PM on April 23, 2007

@Parannoyed:
So, have you actually used a tape recorder while going through your day to record the minutes of male speech versus female speech that you hear?

There is some research (I think this is reported by Deborah Tannen somewhere) that, in a situation where men and women talk equally, or men talk more than women, the women are actually perceived as talking more. Why is that? Maybe it's because we have some subconscious belief that the "right"... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 9:42 AM on April 20, 2007

I can pay $600 a month for a roof over my head, or I can pay $700 a month, plus property taxes, plus maintenance, for a roof over my head... plus a teeny tiny little bit of equity. That teeny tiny little bit of equity is not worth that much money to me, when I could take the savings and invest it instead.

I would like to own a house, eventually, and am saving up for a down payment eventually, but to me the only compelling argument for it is that I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 4:29 PM on April 12, 2007

Where this test gets a little weird for me is the assumption that none of these activities cause any harm to anyone, because that's specified in the questions. I think the results had me looking a lot more permissive than I actually am!

We can say, "If shooting someone in the chest causes no pain or injury, is it wrong to shoot them in the chest?"-- but that's completely divorced from what happens in the real world. Sometimes "harm" exists in subtle... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 5:57 AM on April 5, 2007

Yes, we were taught about this in library school. Not that we were given any solutions, but it wasn't an utter surprise the first time I got a smelly drunk guy who was repeating the same loud sentences.

That said, yeah, it's an intractable problem when you have a job responsibility (never mind an ethical one) to help people who can be extremely hard to help, and to check out books to people who may well not return them. (All the while remembering that upper-middle-class... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 9:20 AM on April 3, 2007

What I wish from LibraryThing is a way to record the books I've read without marking that I own them, since I get about 95% of my books from the library these days-- Booktribes looks nice, but there are too many books it doesn't have, and so few users I can't get any interesting social data yet.
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 8:53 AM on March 4, 2007

The truly unfortunate thing is that it markets itself as "gourmet" when it's still made out of the same slightly-animal-related products as any grocery store cat food. By all means spend the extra money to get your animals food that's actually good for them! It won't come from Fancy Feast.
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 7:46 AM on February 28, 2007

I'm disappointed at how conventionally 'hot' these girls are. Real tea-drinking girls should look quirkier!
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 1:24 PM on February 23, 2007

My alma mater!

It really is one of NC's more progressive high schools--I would not expect such a thing to happen there. And attended by a lot of Muslim students. Yikes.
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 8:52 AM on February 22, 2007

There are some things you just don't do when reading books out loud.

For example, you really want to avoid any mention of birthdays, when you're dealing with children around 3-5. Because they will all want to tell you what their birthday is. I had a counting book dissolve into chaos when I got to four because everybody wanted to tell me, "I'm four!"

And I probably would not make my first choice for a read-aloud any book that would... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 5:39 PM on February 19, 2007

I had some read-aloud time (A Wrinkle in Time, as it happens) as late as sixth grade, an immensely valuable experience; it isn't really done in today's high-pressure testing environment, but a lot of people will advocate reading aloud to older children for any number of reasons. Says Jim Trelease:

According to experts who have studied children's listening skills, it is a reasonable assertion, based upon numerous observations, that reading and listening skills begin to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 7:13 PM on February 19, 2007

I am a newbie librarian and will admit to very mixed feelings.

I don't think that dusty, unused tomes of Proust are really doing that much for anybody. Between bookstores, Gutenberg, inter-system requests, and interlibrary loan, it really shouldn't be that hard to get your hands on a copy of Proust if you need one.

But, OTOH, how much are we really serving the community by buying three hundred effing copies of the new James Patterson? What... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 7:16 PM on January 4, 2007

Also, you know, I read a ton of kids' books, so I'm not saying there's anything wrong with thrillers and romances and James Patterson. I will gladly recognize that they're a lot more readable than many of the classics, and even if I sort of giggle at Christian romance novels I think they belong in the library where I work as much as, or more than, Proust and Hemingway. But in my little leftie heart I feel like libraries should be something a little more than "Barnes and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 7:20 PM on January 4, 2007

There are probably at least 20 correctly cited quotes or false alarms for every instance of plagiarism; is it really worth it to comb through the possibilities looking for a hit?
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 10:47 AM on December 24, 2006

Most people aren't aware that 5% of the Caucasian population has Factor V Leiden, a hereditary blood clotting disorder--most people who have it don't know about it, because it just increases your risk of blood clots a little. But while people who know they have it are strongly discouraged from using hormonal birth control, people aren't tested for it before starting the patch or the pill. I think this is probably a major factor for drug-related blood clots and strokes.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 4:01 AM on November 3, 2006

But really, how much better or worse would the country be for having a requirement that you must pass the citizenship test before you can make decisions about the direction of the government.

No, seriously, does anyone remember what happened when we had literacy tests as prerequisites to voting?

I have no love for the current administration, and think we might have a better one if fewer idiots voted, but I'm happier with... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 1:49 PM on September 22, 2006

I am so careful about my word choice that I taught myself to stop using religious profanity as a teenager, on the grounds that it was rude to swear by a God I didn't believe in. So I may be a bit of an extremist.

Recently, one of my closest friends, without a homophobic bone in her body, revealed to me that she often found herself using "gay" in conversation in a derogatory sense. When everyone else in your peer group does it--it's really hard not to pick it... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 8:00 AM on June 12, 2006

There's a fine line between sincere concern for women's safety and social control masquerading as sincere concern for women's safety.

I choose to walk around alone at night because I don't feel unsafe doing so. (This has been true when I lived in the suburbs, when I lived in a small town, when I lived in a good section of a big city). And this has its risks, okay. Not very large risks, statistically speaking. I have injured myself more by cooking, by sewing, by riding... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 1:01 PM on April 26, 2006

You know, I agree with our culture having a problem treating children like unwanted parasites.

Unfortunately, when they endanger the mother's life or health, they are unwanted parasites.

Is it a gift from god when you're fifteen and terrified and you know you're going to be on your own? Is it a gift from god when you've got six kids already and can't afford to feed them as it is? If so, ah, it's kind of one of those gifts... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 5:33 AM on March 8, 2006

Tangential, but since no one has yet pointed this out: Vegetarians aren't, uniformly, people who are opposed to killing animals. Vegetarians are also people who think that killing animals isn't wrong but factory farming is unnecessary cruelty, and aren't able to get free-range meat; people who don't eat meat for health reasons; and people who don't eat meat for other reasons. Some of those purposes are compatible with eating jello and wearing leather, some aren't. (Some are... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Jeanne at 7:49 PM on February 13, 2006