March 2011
1 post
Miriam Coleman: Voyagers →
ladyjournos:
Growing up in a community of Jewish astronomers and scientists in Pasadena, Calif., meant searching for God while exploring the heavens.
Tablet || February 24, 2011
November 2010
1 post
Blogging Makes Joan Didion Uncomfortable →
April 2009
5 posts
The NPR Name Game
This brings me such joy, at such a joyless time in the media universe. So, just call me Fredra Tacuba.
Sadly, this little exercise in NPR love doesn’t work so well for my husband. Good luck inserting a C (for Charles) into Timothy.
Eric and I recently discovered a shared fascination with the slew of impossibly named NPR hosts we listen to every day: Renee Montagne, Steve Inskeep, Corey...
February 2009
10 posts
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25 Random Tips for the Busy Facebook User →
Freda: This is so true it hurts. I’m a little ashamed of how many of these “tips” I inadvertantly followed, but also very, very amused.
1) Until third grade I was Scooter – and to my closest family and friends, I still am. 2) I’m a sissy about the cold. If I lived alone, the household temperature would always be set at 82 degrees. If I could, I would live in that blue...
A Longing to be Wealthy
Freda: I know too well how this feeling can creep up on us. I feel it often in DF, where everyone seems either to be rich and glamorous or very, very poor. We’re neither and it leaves me feeling out of place. If only I were a Fresa, and good sip $10 cocktails and eat sushi with the Mexican movie stars on the roof on Hotel Condesa…
once in a long while, i have a longing to be wealthy....
25 Things I Didn't Want to Know About You →
Yesterday, in a fit of procrastination, I read every single “25 things” that my friends — and yes, friends of friends — had posted to Facebook in the last week. I didn’t have to. I could have ignored them like so much of what shows up on my feed (lil’ eco racer, I’m talking to you).
But I was enjoying myself. I laughed out loud reading people’s...
Bruce Springsteen misreads the national mood in... →
Freda: I don’t agree with all of Metcalf’s points, but I shared his disappointment with Springsteen’s half-time. (And this from someone who once had a 4 ft. by 4 ft. framed poster of Born in the USA’s album art as her living room decor.)
Bruce has always been best at capturing the angst of working- and middle-class American life. In songs like “The River” and,...
“With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil...”
– Steven Weinberg, Nobel Laureate in Physics (via Rileydog)
January 2009
27 posts
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The Ballad of Lucy Jordan
That bastard...
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"Writing these extra 375 words per day, to fill in... →
Freda: I grow more afraid by the day.
(via maura)
How Did Elvis Get Turned Into a Racist?
I watched Do the Right Thing for the first time last night, spurred by a recent Spike Lee profile in the New Yorker. But I was annoyed before the movie even began.
Because I was nine when Do the Right Thing came out, and because I was raised in a small, rural, white Northern California town (Public Enemy wasn’t on my adolescent radar), I’d never heard the song that plays through the...
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Google Earth is the new Swiss drug czar. →
Swiss police stumbled across a large marijuana plantation while using Google Earth, leading to the arrest of 16 people and seizure of 1.2 tons of marijuana as well as cash and valuables worth 900,000 Swiss francs ($780,000).
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Obama on abortion rights: rejecting the "Mexico... →
Freda: A sane U.S. policy on international aid for family planning? This is a brave new world.
The Mexico City Policy, also known as the Mexico City Gag Rule and the Global Gag Rule, is a United States government policy which requires all non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that receive federal funding to refrain from performing or promoting abortion services in other countries. Named for the...
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Sanjay Gupta on Medical Marijuana →
“I’m here to tell you, as a doctor, that despite all the talk about the medical benefits of marijuana, smoking the stuff is not going to do your health any good.” (via sexartandpolitics: absurdlakefront: notthatkindagay)
Freda: I’m underwhelmed by the “marijuana is medicine” argument for legalization. It’s not that I doubt pot’s ability to spur an...
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“If you’re saying that there needed to be scenes of the Internet interacting with...”
– Freda: Speaking of the Wire…and the death of journalism.
Interview with David Simon, creator of “The Wire”; “The Wire” series finale | Salon Arts & Entertainment (via fred-wilson)
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“Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon (D) was charged “with 12 counts of felony...”
– via Taegan Goddard.
Freda: The Wire lives.
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Considering a cleanse, again. →
Years ago, my parents talked me into a form of self-abuse so heinous I can’t bring myself to recount the details. It was that gruesome.
This cleanse, despite being recommended by a woman who named her first born “Apple,” seems more reasonable. Most of the recipes appear edible, some even enjoyable.
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“The Cook Political Report mines voting and census data and finds that “in...”
– Via Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire
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“Mexico City’s Zocalo was surrounded by more than 11 tons of bread Monday...”
– The Los Angeles Times La Plaza Blog
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“Virtually all the predictions about the death of old media have assumed a...”
– Michael Hirschorn writing on End Times in the Atlantic.
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A gruesome autopsy of one of the country's best... →
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Mazatlan - New & Old
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Harder than it sounds...
…for those of us who aren’t professional spies.
The NY Times travel writer’s policy:
#67. Writers of travel articles must conceal their identity as journalists during the reporting, so that they will experience the same conditions as an ordinary consumer. If the affiliation becomes known, the writer must discuss with a newsroom manager ...
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December 2008
149 posts
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Movies, on the eve of 2009.
Tim and I have been watching a lot of movies lately. It’s been an eclectic mix, a product of the English-language selection at our neighborhood Blockbuster, the occasional, very slow download and two bouts of sickness (a double feature!) in two weeks.
Yesterday, my 29th birthday, I spent the entire day in bed. There was a nasty bug in my stomach. But at least the movies were good.
When...
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An NPR Reporter Becomes the News →
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“[A]s each week brings more bad news from the United States, those forecasts seem...”
– The New York Times on the Mexican economy. I like the original headline better: When the US sneezes, Mexico catches a cold.
Freda: It is with no small amount of guilt that I jump up and down watching the peso’s fall. But I can’t help it. The 25 percent drop in Mexico’s currency...