http://www.salon.com/2014/05/20/men_explain_things_to_me_the_author_behind_mansplaining_on_the_origin_of_her_famous_coinage/
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/06/mansplaining-explained-expert-women
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2014/06/04/men_explain_things_to_me_by_rebecca_solnit_review.html
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/
Enjoy the full moon and full summer.
Jennifer Getsinger
June 13, 2014
Friday, June 13, 2014
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Officers as Heroes
It was very sad this week hearing about the RCMP officers who died in service.
Some TV shows with officers as romantic heroes, such as Bones, show FBI officers.
The last thing I wanted to write was another cop story. However, sometimes a character appears...
I'm trying to write a romance in which a young airport officer (US Customs and Border Patrol) meets a gal from Colorado, and then he trains to be a different kind of officer who works with the county sheriff but on a federal level in an area of mixed jurisdictions in the Rocky Mountains (national park, native reservation, active mining areas, etc). One imagines a US Deputy Marshal like Wyatt Earp or an FBI officer like Booth. It's terribly complicated in real life, however, and the research leaves a lot of questions, some of which affect whether the plot I've imagined could actually work out in terms of law enforcement regulations.
Does anybody know anything about that?
If you are writing about US federal officers or other law enforcement, here is a link to some recent laws about whether or not off-duty officers can carry weapons:
http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/law-enforcement-bulletin/january2011/off_duty_firearms
I came across it while trying to figure out what kind of dress suit an officer would wear off-duty :).
Of course I have been reading Tony Hillerman for background, as well as other western writers. I never imagined that this one character would be so complicated, starting out as just a good-looking, clean-cut kid in an airport job.
The young RCMP dog handler who was killed on duty last week reminded me of this guy I'm trying to write about: young, handsome, nice, with a faithful dog and a beautiful gal.
So what I'm doing is some writing, some research, some adjustments, and then of course when it's all done I'll probably have to make major revisions in the plot to accommodate some realities of officers and law enforcement. Where all else fails I'll fall back on the "it's fiction" excuse, but one still requires a certain amount of verisimilitude (no orange trees ripening in winter in high altitude Colorado, for instance).
Anyone has any other research resources, let me know. Like a book called "Modern US officer research for romance writers". I'm afraid if I start asking any real US federal officers too many questions they'll target me as a terrorist!
After this week I'm taking a couple of weeks off unless I feel moved to contribute the odd comment or two during my holiday.
Jennifer Getsinger
June 12, 2014
Some TV shows with officers as romantic heroes, such as Bones, show FBI officers.
The last thing I wanted to write was another cop story. However, sometimes a character appears...
I'm trying to write a romance in which a young airport officer (US Customs and Border Patrol) meets a gal from Colorado, and then he trains to be a different kind of officer who works with the county sheriff but on a federal level in an area of mixed jurisdictions in the Rocky Mountains (national park, native reservation, active mining areas, etc). One imagines a US Deputy Marshal like Wyatt Earp or an FBI officer like Booth. It's terribly complicated in real life, however, and the research leaves a lot of questions, some of which affect whether the plot I've imagined could actually work out in terms of law enforcement regulations.
Does anybody know anything about that?
If you are writing about US federal officers or other law enforcement, here is a link to some recent laws about whether or not off-duty officers can carry weapons:
http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/law-enforcement-bulletin/january2011/off_duty_firearms
I came across it while trying to figure out what kind of dress suit an officer would wear off-duty :).
Of course I have been reading Tony Hillerman for background, as well as other western writers. I never imagined that this one character would be so complicated, starting out as just a good-looking, clean-cut kid in an airport job.
The young RCMP dog handler who was killed on duty last week reminded me of this guy I'm trying to write about: young, handsome, nice, with a faithful dog and a beautiful gal.
So what I'm doing is some writing, some research, some adjustments, and then of course when it's all done I'll probably have to make major revisions in the plot to accommodate some realities of officers and law enforcement. Where all else fails I'll fall back on the "it's fiction" excuse, but one still requires a certain amount of verisimilitude (no orange trees ripening in winter in high altitude Colorado, for instance).
Anyone has any other research resources, let me know. Like a book called "Modern US officer research for romance writers". I'm afraid if I start asking any real US federal officers too many questions they'll target me as a terrorist!
After this week I'm taking a couple of weeks off unless I feel moved to contribute the odd comment or two during my holiday.
Jennifer Getsinger
June 12, 2014
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
The Ants Come Marching In
Life is predictable, more or less. Some inevitabilities come only once to humans, like birth and death, and some come yearly, like taxes. We seem to like predictability, knowing that the days grow longer and warmer in summer, for instance. The apples develop on the trees, and then some of them fall off in the June apple drop. On the first day of school in September, they are ready to eat or to present to the teacher. Another predictable visit from nature around here is the advent of the little ants.
Today the little ants have finally arrived at my doorstep, about 10 days late this year. In 2011 and 2013 at least, they arrived on June 1 (I keep a garden book: the "cottonwood snow" is early this year; sea temperature is warmer; the Kalmia blossomed earlier; a particular azalea bloomed later than usual). Each time of year is accompanied by several more or less predictable nature happenings. Rhubarb crisp is followed by strawberry shortcake; blackberry jam is followed by blueberry pie.
Charlotte the spider weaves her web; in the fall she leaves an egg sac; in the spring the baby orb spiders float out to their new locations (this happened the other day) on the same breezes that distribute the cottonwood snow, carrying their seed to every crack and cranny where seedlings might develop.
However, humans who like a clean kitchen are not thrilled with ants. The first thing to remember is that they are temporary. The second thing is that they are not nuclear weapons, but very tiny insects (these are not the big, stinging fire ants, or nasty termites, but tiny little things about the size of the letter i in your email). Although there are a lot of them, they all behave similarly and can be managed for the short time they are visiting. The good thing about zillions of ants is that they feed the lovely birds such as the red-shafted flickers (so common around here!) Ants farm aphids. Lady beetles eat aphids. I know from several years of not using chemical weapons against ants outside that the apple trees still produce enough apples even though the ants and aphids tend to congregate on the leaf tips.
However, back to the kitchen door. Predictability of ants: they like to walk in the door in the same place every year. Predictability of humans: I like to minimize the problem by setting out "offerings", otherwise known as ant traps. Ants, like most animals, love food, especially sweet stuff. Ants, like most life forms, do not like an over-abundnce of dry desert minerals concentrated in sodium or with basic pH: for instance, salt (NaCl), baking soda (NaHCO3), or sodium tetraborate (Na2B4O7.10H2O), otherwise known as "borax".
So if you want to "control" how many ants come into your house, trick them into eating something sweet mixed with something sodic. I use a teaspoon of jam mixed with a teaspoon of borax placed on a canning jar lid, a tin can lid, or a clamshell (easily composted when full of dead ants). Put it by the door, right in the path of the marching ants. The ants approach and eat. Then they drop dead or blunder off. It slows down the marching line of ants considerably. If you don't have any jam, use powdered or granulated sugar, plus borax. Or try sugar plus baking soda.
Likewise, if you are an open-water swimmer, red algae bloom at this time of year in English Bay. Another predictable nature thing not to freak out about. Brown crud gets all over you while swimming. Big deal. Wash it off. In a week or two the water clears up again. Brown algae in June usually signifies that the water is warm enough to swim in!
Have a nice summer!
Jennifer Getsinger
June 11, 2014
Today the little ants have finally arrived at my doorstep, about 10 days late this year. In 2011 and 2013 at least, they arrived on June 1 (I keep a garden book: the "cottonwood snow" is early this year; sea temperature is warmer; the Kalmia blossomed earlier; a particular azalea bloomed later than usual). Each time of year is accompanied by several more or less predictable nature happenings. Rhubarb crisp is followed by strawberry shortcake; blackberry jam is followed by blueberry pie.
Charlotte the spider weaves her web; in the fall she leaves an egg sac; in the spring the baby orb spiders float out to their new locations (this happened the other day) on the same breezes that distribute the cottonwood snow, carrying their seed to every crack and cranny where seedlings might develop.
However, humans who like a clean kitchen are not thrilled with ants. The first thing to remember is that they are temporary. The second thing is that they are not nuclear weapons, but very tiny insects (these are not the big, stinging fire ants, or nasty termites, but tiny little things about the size of the letter i in your email). Although there are a lot of them, they all behave similarly and can be managed for the short time they are visiting. The good thing about zillions of ants is that they feed the lovely birds such as the red-shafted flickers (so common around here!) Ants farm aphids. Lady beetles eat aphids. I know from several years of not using chemical weapons against ants outside that the apple trees still produce enough apples even though the ants and aphids tend to congregate on the leaf tips.
However, back to the kitchen door. Predictability of ants: they like to walk in the door in the same place every year. Predictability of humans: I like to minimize the problem by setting out "offerings", otherwise known as ant traps. Ants, like most animals, love food, especially sweet stuff. Ants, like most life forms, do not like an over-abundnce of dry desert minerals concentrated in sodium or with basic pH: for instance, salt (NaCl), baking soda (NaHCO3), or sodium tetraborate (Na2B4O7.10H2O), otherwise known as "borax".
So if you want to "control" how many ants come into your house, trick them into eating something sweet mixed with something sodic. I use a teaspoon of jam mixed with a teaspoon of borax placed on a canning jar lid, a tin can lid, or a clamshell (easily composted when full of dead ants). Put it by the door, right in the path of the marching ants. The ants approach and eat. Then they drop dead or blunder off. It slows down the marching line of ants considerably. If you don't have any jam, use powdered or granulated sugar, plus borax. Or try sugar plus baking soda.
Likewise, if you are an open-water swimmer, red algae bloom at this time of year in English Bay. Another predictable nature thing not to freak out about. Brown crud gets all over you while swimming. Big deal. Wash it off. In a week or two the water clears up again. Brown algae in June usually signifies that the water is warm enough to swim in!
Have a nice summer!
Jennifer Getsinger
June 11, 2014
Friday, June 6, 2014
D-Day: "Les Anglais sont arrives"
[Note: please excuse lack of correct accent as I don't know how to use full editorial capabilities of Shaw webmail.]
This is a true story about D-Day as remembered by me from about ten years ago (between 1999 and 2006), as told by an elderly neighbour of mine in Kitsilano on Waterloo Street.
A geological colleague of mine introduced me to his mother, Suzanne, who lived on the next block of Waterloo Street (11th & Waterloo). One summer day -- it happened to be D-Day -- I was out by her front yard admiring her apple tree, and we were talking about the "June Apple Drop", which is when apple trees decide to drop off a certain percentage of apples to allow the rest to thrive -- if you have an apple tree, watch for this phenomenon around now. Link to explanation of "June Drop" in apples: http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=611
Then Suzanne told me a true story about D-Day in France.
Suzanne had been a member of the French resistance to the Nazis. On D-Day (June 6, 1944) she was an inmate in a German prison in Normandy. One day someone came and said to her,
"Les Anglais sont arrives!" and took her out of her cell. Now at first she thought this was an order to wash up because of her personal hygiene. She started to laugh. To understand why this is funny, she explained to me about the French expression, "Les Anglais sont arrives!" -- see the link -- related to the historical reference to the British as "redcoats". [I also come from a town with a historical reference to the redcoats, the cultural memory of Paul Revere and Samuel Prescott riding through towns west of Boston shouting "The British are coming! The British are coming!" on April 18, 1775 (immortalized in a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow).] Anyway, Suzanne explained that the French idiom means that a woman is getting her period:
http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/lesanglaissontarrives.htm
So it took Suzanne a few minutes to realize she wasn't being released just to clean up, but because the Nazi occupation was over. She won some kind of medal of honor for her work in France for the Allies. Now when it is D-Day I think of her (she's probably no longer with us) and go out to look at my apple trees. So far this year they have set a good crop, but have not dropped any fruit yet. I expect that will happen around the same time as another seasonal occurrence that hasn't started yet: when the ants come marching in.
Have a nice day!
Jennifer Getsinger
June 6, 2014
This is a true story about D-Day as remembered by me from about ten years ago (between 1999 and 2006), as told by an elderly neighbour of mine in Kitsilano on Waterloo Street.
A geological colleague of mine introduced me to his mother, Suzanne, who lived on the next block of Waterloo Street (11th & Waterloo). One summer day -- it happened to be D-Day -- I was out by her front yard admiring her apple tree, and we were talking about the "June Apple Drop", which is when apple trees decide to drop off a certain percentage of apples to allow the rest to thrive -- if you have an apple tree, watch for this phenomenon around now. Link to explanation of "June Drop" in apples: http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=611
Then Suzanne told me a true story about D-Day in France.
Suzanne had been a member of the French resistance to the Nazis. On D-Day (June 6, 1944) she was an inmate in a German prison in Normandy. One day someone came and said to her,
"Les Anglais sont arrives!" and took her out of her cell. Now at first she thought this was an order to wash up because of her personal hygiene. She started to laugh. To understand why this is funny, she explained to me about the French expression, "Les Anglais sont arrives!" -- see the link -- related to the historical reference to the British as "redcoats". [I also come from a town with a historical reference to the redcoats, the cultural memory of Paul Revere and Samuel Prescott riding through towns west of Boston shouting "The British are coming! The British are coming!" on April 18, 1775 (immortalized in a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow).] Anyway, Suzanne explained that the French idiom means that a woman is getting her period:
http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/lesanglaissontarrives.htm
So it took Suzanne a few minutes to realize she wasn't being released just to clean up, but because the Nazi occupation was over. She won some kind of medal of honor for her work in France for the Allies. Now when it is D-Day I think of her (she's probably no longer with us) and go out to look at my apple trees. So far this year they have set a good crop, but have not dropped any fruit yet. I expect that will happen around the same time as another seasonal occurrence that hasn't started yet: when the ants come marching in.
Have a nice day!
Jennifer Getsinger
June 6, 2014
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Reminder to backup, again
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/10118543/Novelist-offers-reward-for-laptops-return
Famous story of a lost literary manuscript: Margaret Fuller and her husband and son drowned in a shipwreck off Fire Island. Ralph Waldo Emerson sent Henry David Thoreau to look for her, but she was never found.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Fuller
Jennifer Getsinger
June 5, 2014
Famous story of a lost literary manuscript: Margaret Fuller and her husband and son drowned in a shipwreck off Fire Island. Ralph Waldo Emerson sent Henry David Thoreau to look for her, but she was never found.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Fuller
Jennifer Getsinger
June 5, 2014
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Romantic weddings?
Maybe people want to read romances with romantic weddings because real life is just too weird to contemplate sometimes.
Here's a recent wedding with an unusual detail that goes in the "truth is stranger than fiction" file":
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/weddings/10113096/Bride-straps-newborn-to-bottom-of-dress
http://fox4kc.com/2014/06/02/tenn-bride-drags-her-1-month-old-baby-down-the-aisle-on-her-dresss-train/
And a funny recent wedding dock-collapse story:
http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/wedding-party-takes-dip-dock-collapses/story?id=23975286
I still remember a story like this that was a complete tragedy, of a wedding party in France in a collapsing building, years ago, maybe the 1970s. An old floor in an ancient round barn collapsed. Can't find any reference to it on internet. The story made a big impression on me at the time. I always look around when on a deck with people at a party to see whether it's strong enough.
Wish I spent more time writing and less surfing the net. Ah, addictions!
Jennifer Getsinger
June 4, 2014
Here's a recent wedding with an unusual detail that goes in the "truth is stranger than fiction" file":
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/weddings/10113096/Bride-straps-newborn-to-bottom-of-dress
http://fox4kc.com/2014/06/02/tenn-bride-drags-her-1-month-old-baby-down-the-aisle-on-her-dresss-train/
And a funny recent wedding dock-collapse story:
http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/wedding-party-takes-dip-dock-collapses/story?id=23975286
I still remember a story like this that was a complete tragedy, of a wedding party in France in a collapsing building, years ago, maybe the 1970s. An old floor in an ancient round barn collapsed. Can't find any reference to it on internet. The story made a big impression on me at the time. I always look around when on a deck with people at a party to see whether it's strong enough.
Wish I spent more time writing and less surfing the net. Ah, addictions!
Jennifer Getsinger
June 4, 2014
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