If I were in Copenhagen...

...I'd go sing with the Little Mermaid.

It only rains this June.

I have to sing along with the lightning

sing through my loneliness,

yes this is my aria -- lonely, alone

Sveikinu gimtadienio proga!

(That's "happy birthday" in Lithuanian. Today is my mom's birthday and the first day of summer -- or the solstice. This could be a coincidence, but I doubt it. She has that kind of sunshine about her, with that hint of symbolic archaic magic that tends to shade an ancient holiday.)


My Ma and Pete are on their honeymoon in Lithuania, because Pete was born there but moved away with his family as an infant. He has never been back to visit before.

The CIA has lots of information (duh!) at this website if you want to learn some interesting facts about Lithuania.

So, Happy Birthday, Mom! I hope you're drinking wine and soaking up the culture and having a good time being lovebirds with Pete.

Hope You Had a Happy Father's Day!

"It is a wise father that knows his own child."
-William Shakespeare

See my sister's father's day posting.

Happy Bloomsday!

"It soared, a bird, it held its flight, a swift pure cry, soar silver orb it leaped serene, speeding, sustained, to come, don't spin it out too long long breath he breath long life, soaring high, high resplendent, aflame, crowned, high in the effulgence symbolistic, high, of the ethereal bosom, high, of the high vast irradiation everywhere all soaring all around about the all, the endlessnessnessness..."

James Joyce
Ulysses
Episode 11, Sirens (naturally)

(This is a picture of Joyce in 1904 looking very Stephen Dedalus.)

I will admit that I'm a power geek and I took a semester-long James Joyce seminar in college and would have taken more, if able. (I also studied Spanish, in part, to read Marquez in his native language -- I have issues!)

Anyway, if you've read Ulysses, then you know today is Bloomsday. What, why and wherefore? All of the action in Ulysses occurs on June 16, 1904 as Leopold Bloom (protagonist,hero, and 20th C. Odysseus) travels around Dublin in Joyceian literary style that, in my opinion is at it's best in this book. (Okay -- confession-- I am unable to get past page 3 of Finnegan's Wake at this juncture, although, I don't know, that could mean that I get it...)

So strolling around Dublin the literary bastards traipse the roughewn streets for Treiste, but alas only scrounge up Erin and memory and they do bend the elbow in succession to lovely lonely Leopold Bloom and read passages from the Joyceian colossus opus in parks and shoreside and back to the pub for another round for it is June 16th.

(That was me, doing a bad imitation. Here comes a real quote.)

"What qualifying considerations allayed his perturbations?The difficulties of interpretation since the significance of any event followed its occurrence as variably as the acoustic report followed the electrical discharge and of counterestimating against an actual loss by failure to interpret the total sum of possible losses proceeding originally from a successful interpretation. " from Episode 17: Ithaca

You can find all of Ulysses online here, in case you're interested and/ or have issues too...or maybe you just feel like celebrating Bloomsday like they do in Dublin.

Dublin...

The Mammary Monologues

Or "Love, the Queen of the Breast"...(a topic of mythic proportions).

(that is a rough translation of Gwen Teir Bronn, the early Welsh goddess of fertility, about whom I can find absolutely no more info -- at least on the internet.)

Both of my sisters (Nora & Liza) have been boob-blogging, and I feel I must nip in with something about the funbags.

So I started with Venus of Willendorf, but there seems to be just a lot of articles by men riffing on their own cultural biases re: obesity in a fertility goddess (clearly, they've never been to Hawaii).

Anyway...re: my relationship with my own boobs...I like them a lot! Of course, compared to my sisters', they're rather small -- although in reference to the rest of the breast universe, I've quite the rack...I wish I had more -- like so.

There are all kinds of multi-breasted goddesses, but it's kinda hard to find the myths about them. (Incidentally, if anyone is looking to give me one of my dream jobs -- hunting down myths of all cultures would be just peachy, as far as I'm concerned.)

This particular goddess is Cybele/ Artemis and she and her rack o'boobs reside in modern day Turkey at the Ephesus Museum.

Linguistically and historically, Cybele may be known as "She of the hair" or "Mountain Mother" (not to be confused with Mountain Fiji, you former G.L.O.W. fans). Naturally, Cybele is a fertility goddess.

I mean, do you really believe that Paris Hilton would breastfeed? ("Like...wet-nurses are hot.")

Do you like living in a society where she's a sex goddess?

Now click here and fund a mammogram.

Get your burquas while they're still cheap

...because the American Taliban is aggressively legislating against women's freedoms. Back in April, abortion was banned in South Dakota. The FDA is attempting to stonewall over-the-counter availabilty of Plan B (the morning after pill) against their own precedents. (Read this to-the-point editorial from the Washington Post about one married mother's inability to access Plan B.)

Of course, now that the American Taliban has been so successful in eroding Roe v. Wade, the next plan is to prevent access to birth control -- that goes for the married folks out there too. Of course, from a litigious perspective this is perfectly logical. Roe v. Wade was successfully argued from precedents established by Griswold v. Connecticut. In Griswold, the Court ruled that the state could not pass laws against contraception -- therefore, if the American Taliban can continue to stack all 3 branches of the federal government with their zealots, then Griswold will soon go the way of Roe. If you think I'm over-reacting, please read "Contra-Contraception" by Russell Shorto.)

And finally, read about the new federal guidelines to healthcare providers strongly suggesting that all women in their bleeding years be treated as "pre-pregnant". (Read "Forever Pregnant")
Now, we haven't quite made it to Atwood's bleak future of total womb occupation, but the American Taliban is surely trying to flagellate the nation to that not-so-ficticious-seeming future as quickly as possible.

As much as I enjoy motherhood, I believe I am a more effective mother (not to mention human) when my country considers that I am the Super Deluxe Sirena Action Figure -- I come with features other than my uterus.