NYC Hospitals Dump Formula Samples for Breastfeeding Aids

As a resident of New York State, I'm proud that New York City hospitals are dumping the infant formula samples from the gift bags they give new mothers and putting breastfeeding aids in the bags instead.

This new move is excellently timed; World Breastfeeding Week runs August 1 through 7.

It's wonderful to see some hospitals stop being two-faced. For several years now, hospital maternity wards across the nation have been talking up the benefits of breastfeeding and even offering the services of on-staff lactation consultants to help mothers new to breastfeeding get started ... and then handing them gift tote bags filled with formula samples donated by big bu$ine$$. The message has been "Breast is best, but don't worry about it too much—you can fall back on the crutch of formula even if your breasts function perfectly well and you have no problems producing milk."

Uh-huh. Ever read some of the many reports (and here) and books about how the donation of these formula samples isn't benign but is really a marketing move to make more money for the formula makers? These big bu$ine$$e$ even give away samples in poor nations, ostensibly to help poor women. But these women, whose breasts function just fine, try the formula and soon find their babies hooked on it. And when the samples run out, their breast milk has dried up, leaving them nothing to feed their babies. Or they mix the powdered formula given to them with dirty water, and their babies develop life-threatening diarrhea.

Now, the New York Post article that reported the NYC hospitals' new actions began with a stereotypically whiny lead: "First came smoking. Then there were trans fats. Now the nanny-like city's public-health crusade is taking on the baby bottle." I wouldn't expect straightforward reporting from that pugnacious rag, so I found it easy to overlook the article's undertones. But if it takes a little "nannying" to get society to do the right thing and make it easier and more culturally acceptable for women to breastfeed, is that such a bad thing? Nope.


Updated at 9:47 a.m.: I'm no fan of supermodels, but hey, maybe this'll help some new mother somewhere: Supermodels can breastfeed just like real women can.



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Ongoing Odyssey of Obfuscation

Testimony everywhere, all the time, yet no one's getting canned or charged with crimes. But at least someone in the Bush administration is sounding smart.

J. Scott Jennings, grilled today by the Senate Judiciary Committee in the absence of his boss, devious deceiver Karl Rove, said he couldn't really say anything about the U.S. atttorney general scandal: "I hope that you can appreciate the difficulty of my situation. It makes Odysseus’s voyage between Scylla and Charybdis seem like a pleasure cruise."

Well, now ain't that some purty talkin'? I'd far rather hear the unembellished truth.



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My Second Blog, for the Second Half of My Life

I'll turn 48 on Monday. That's 2 years younger than the age at which my father died.

I want to live way past 50, so I've begun doing something about that. To help me keep on track, I've begun a new blog, Editing My Body. I hope you'll visit me there and cheer me on.

Updated at 4:59 p.m.: Yes, I'll keep blogging here too.



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Calling Workers' Comp!

This—#%^*&+!—is one of the reasons I rarely do paper edits these days: I just managed to stab myself in the palm of my writing hand with a Col-Erase green pencil. Hurts like #%^*&+!

My computer keyboard never bites me like that.

#%^*&+!



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The One That I Let Go

Argh!

Once in a while, I have to turn down really great assignments because I must be fair to my clients. And I so hate doing it, but it's part of maintaining long-term client relationships.

I just got a call from one of the in-house production editors for a huge mainstream book publisher, asking if on August 28, about a week and a half after I return from my next camping vacation, I'd want to take on copyediting the newest manuscript by a big-name healthy-eating guru.

Would I ever!

But the manuscript, which isn't quite complete yet, will likely come in at more than 500 pages, filled with tables and graphs and charts and recipes ... and it would be due back to the publisher in just barely over 2 weeks. The pub would even pay me a much higher "rush" rate because of the short deadline.

Aieeeee!

Even getting no sleep and no family time, just when the new school year will be starting, even being paid in gold coins ... that's just too little time for me to complete editing on a complex manuscript like that—and it's on paper, not onscreen, which slows things down even more. Of course, I could do a quick but crappy job to meet the deadline, but that would affect my professional reputation. I asked for an extra week, but the book's on a "crash" schedule that can't be lengthened.

Splat!

My hopes were dashed. I couldn't accept the project and do the quality of work my clients are used to getting from me. But the production editor thanked me for my honesty.

Sigh!

It's not that I'll go hungry; my clients will have plenty of work for me. But having to let a big one get away ... I wish I could clone myself. There are so many juicy projects out there and I can't do them all.



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Dems vs. Repubs in the 110th Congress

Considering that the Democrats are up against partisan Republicans right now, the Dems of the 110th Congress haven't done too bad, if you look at yesterday's entry in the Democratic Caucus's Senate Journal.

Here's what the Dems accomplished:

• Passed the first minimum-wage increase in a decade



• Set aside more than $6 billion for hurricane relief; unfortunately, this was part of a $95 billion war spending bill



• Passed legislation out of committee that will provide the largest increase in Veterans Affairs funding in history



• Set aside an additional $1.8 billion for veterans' health care; this was unfortunately tacked on to the Iraq supplemental appropriations bill



• Passed and ethics and lobbying reform bill



• Passed a bill to better regulate the student loan industry



• Passed what it calls a fiscally responsible $2.9 trillion federal budget that promises big spending increases for education and health care and a federal surplus in 5 years



• Passed an energy bill increasing fuel-efficiency standards for the first time since 1975

Here's what they tried to do but failed because of the Repubs:

• Change course in Iraq



• Create tax incentives for clean energy



• Authorize amounts in fiscal 2007 for U.S. intelligence activities and agencies



• Allow stem cell research

Great work, legislators. Now please keep moving along, and put the impeachment of first Cheney and then Bush on the table. You're running behind on that one. (Hat tip to the Carpetbagger Report.)



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Why I Love ESL Authors

The challenge of solving the puzzle of what the author really meant to say, plus e-mails like the following from a researcher in Korea, are why I so enjoy working with ESL (English as a second language) authors:

Hi kathrine!

It has been long time after last contact. I hope everything is OK with you. Did you enjoyed your summer vacation?

My recent paper that you revised was published in [Big-Name U.S. Medical Journal] at last January 2007. It was wonderful thing for me. Thank you so much from bottom of my heart.

Now, I'd like to apply very important paper for publication in [Same Big-Name U.S. Medical Journal] again to bring previous paper to a conclusion. The published previuos paper was just the basic hypothesis for this paper. I believe in your excellent ability for making revision.

Hey, Dr. S., thank you from the bottom of my heart!



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The Kind of Client I Want to Keep

Just got this lovely e-mail in my in-box:

Dear Katharine,

... I’m the editor of [Redacted Book Title]. I wanted to thank you for the excellent copyediting job you did. This manuscript has been a challenge from the start, and you really improved it with your work. I was very impressed.

While I was working on this particular project, I dealt only with the in-house production editor, not the acquisition editor (AE). For the AE to take to time to acknowledge my contribution makes it truly worth my having had to do a little extra work on the manuscript. (Yes, I was paid for my time, but acknowledgments are a special extra.) Sometimes it takes a lot of polishing to reveal the sparkle underneath. But I like a good challenge.



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BMJ Poll: Boycott Israeli Academic Institutions?

As someone who recently boycotted a large group of medical journals, I was interested to read the following e-mail, forwarded to me by a medical copyeditor colleague and friend who lives in Israel. I have edited it for clarity and for U.S. English:

Promoting Academic Integrity and Honest Debate

Dear ... colleague, especially physicians ...

We have just received word that the British Medical Journal is conducting a poll on boycotting Israel. There is room [in the poll] for comments. While [the poll is] published by physicians and [the poll's creators are] certainly interested in physicians' views, there are sections for [nonphysician professionals] and members of the public. It is extremely important that all of you let [everyone] know [about the poll]. The poll can be found [here]. Please circulate it quickly and widely, as it is unknown how long it will remain open.

Why is the BMJ considering a boycott? According to Tom Hickey, chair of the University and College Union,

... we could not ignore what is being done in the Occupied Territories, or the systematic denial of educational opportunities and academic freedom to Palestinian students and scholars. Some ... have also expressed concern about the complicity of the Israeli Medical Association in the occupation. ...

The territories, occupied since 1967, have been colonised by Israeli settlements built on illegally confiscated land. The area has been disaggregated and rendered ungovernable by road networks for Israeli use only. Houses are demolished as collective punishments, and there is regular shooting and shelling. Farmers are separated from their land, and the supply of water sharply discriminates between the needs of Palestinians and those of Israeli settlers.

In these circumstances, there can be no normal educational provision. ...

In all of this, there is strong evidence of the complicity of Israeli academic institutions. No Israeli college or university has publicly condemned what is being done in the Occupied Territories in the name of every Israeli citizen. ...

Why should the BMJ not conduct a boycott? Michael Baum, professor emeritus of surgery at University College London, dismisses

... the big lie that Israel is an apartheid state. Israel is a multicultural mosaic with Jews, Muslims, Christians, and other faiths. Druze, Bahá'í, and Armenian Christians chose to live there after persecution in Muslim countries. Only malign commentators can be blind to the Arabs who form 20% of Israeli citizens. ...

Israel provides more academic freedom for Arab scholars than anywhere else in the Middle East. There are numerous examples of Palestinian and Israeli collaborations. ...

As Malcolm Grant, provost of University College London, put it: the boycott "betrays a misunderstanding of the academic mission, which is founded squarely on academic freedom of inquiry and freedom of speech." Lord Adonis went further in the House of Lords:

Not only would a boycott be inconsistent with the spirit of openness and tolerance that should inform public life. It would also be counterproductive. Education plays a vital role in developing and aiding understanding between different people. It is therefore all the more important to keep open channels of communication with academic and educational institutions in the Middle East during these difficult times.

Whether you're a medical professional, a medical copyeditor, a general copyeditor, or a member of another profession, participating in this poll may be your chance to help shape the future.



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What Editors Really Do

Ah ... someone who understands what it is that editors really do! (Note that the link is to a Salon article. If you're not a subscriber, you can still read the article; you'll just have to put up with the ads.

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Back From Vacation

I'm well rested mentally—got to read for fun, for long, uninterrupted periods, for the first time in years! I'm not so rested physically—it's pretty damn taxing unpacking and stowing all the stuff required by two adults and two children to tent-camp.

Before I left for vacation, I went no-mail on multiple e-mail lists that I subscribe to. Still, I came back to nearly 2,000 e-mails, a huge proportion of them spam! Thank goodness I didn't have work in-house today; it's showing up tomorrow.

One thing I learned anew: My husband's a saint. During the summer, I have all-day responsibility for our two sons, 5 and 12 years old, on weekdays while I work. I can get pretty fed up with them sometimes. On our camping trip, though, he took them off sailing and rowing and swimming, leaving me to the glorious quiet of no boys jabbering.



camping vacation EditorMom

Camping! Vacation!

Ed, the boys, and I are headed north into the woods of another state. We'll be camping in our tents.

If I could camp all the time instead of living in a house, I would. I love the sounds of the bullfrogs at night, the wind blowing through the tall trees, the lack of traffic, the sound of no phones ringing, the feel of no work deadlines, the unscheduled days. We'll swim in a lake, head out in our tiny sailboat, hike around the campground, draw, talk, read (for fun instead of for work!), listen to music, nap in our hammock, listen to Neil play the acoustic guitar, cook over a fire, and maybe even play a hand or two of poker.

Oh ... while I'm away, please see if you can do something about impeaching Dopey and Sneaky. You know who I mean. If you need to, you can download my "Grow a spine" artwork here, for use in decorating faxes to your senators and representatives, urging them to proceed with impeachment.

I'll see you back here soon.



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Favorite Scents

The scents of these things make me happy:

• Lilacs



• Roses



• Freshly mowed grass



• The ocean



• Pine trees



• Freshly made pancakes and waffles



• Gardenias (which I'm sad to say I haven't smelled in a couple of decades, since I moved away from the Texas Gulf Coast)



• Handmade soaps from Moondance Soaps & More



• Freshly bathed babies



• Musk cologne



• Basil



• Patchouli



• Lavender



• Oranges



• Vanilla extract



• Any meat or chicken cooking in my slow-cooker



• Cinnamon



• Thanksgiving turkey



• Mulled cider



• The scent of coming rain (a kind of metallic smell)



• Freshly cut wood

What scents make you happy?



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Mahogany Mantel

It's time for another peek into the files of My Husband the Master Cabinetmaker^tm. Today's lovely piece is a fireplace mantel made from mahogany and covered with a custom stain. (Click on any thumbnail to see a larger version.)

cabinetmaker fireplace mantel husband Ed EditorMom

Favorite Sounds

These sounds make me happy:

• The creak of my hammock as I rock it gently (while I lie in it) by holding on to a rope tied to a nearby tree limb



• The sound of my 5-year-old singing, making up a song as he goes



• The cry of seagulls at the beach and over the ocean



• The sound of the tide coming in at the beach



• The squeak-purr of my younger cat when I stroke her



• The snap of a sail in the wind as a sailboat changes tack



• The deep voices of bullfrogs when I camp in the woods



• The buzz of cicadas in the summertime



• The giggling of my two sons as they splash in our inflatable backyard swimming pool



• The sounds of power tools—such as drill guns and chop saws—because they mean that My Husband the Master Cabinetmaker^tm is nearby



• The sound of a hard rain on a lake



• The occasional humming of my granddaughter while she's sleeping



• The almost mystical music of the many large metal wind chimes hung all around the outside of my house



• My husband's laugh



• My brother's laugh



• The cooing of mourning doves

What sounds make you happy?



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Dems with Guts?

Well, now ... maybe the Democrats in Congress have more guts than I've credited them for.

A Senate appropriations panel, chaired by Democratic Senator Richard Durbin, has cut off the $4.8 million budget of Dick Cheney's office until the Dark Lord hands over the classified info that he's supposed to under an executive order.

It's about time the Dems stopped making nice to the dirty-dealing Bush administration.



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A Mom-ish Day at the Office

It's been a really mom-ish day at the office.

The boys have been mostly hibernating indoors in the air-conditioning because it's oppressively hot outdoors, inventing, building, singing, doing the occasional chore when asked.

My daughter Becky, with just over a week of maternity leave left, called this morning to ask if she and baby Ana could come over to sit in the AC; the apartment she and Li and Ana live in has none, and Li was at work.

I've spent my time editing, taking breaks to chat with Becky or hold or talk to Ana, answering the boys' questions or listening to their stories, and fixing everyone a late lunch.

Days like this one are exactly why I went freelance full time nearly 13 years ago—to have my family in my office! I am so lucky.



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Getting the Disney Mom Out of the Way

I've just realized that I'm one of those moms that Disney movies always kill off or get out of the way. And now I know why they do that.

You know what I mean. The intrepid child heroes in the movie would never have any adventures if their mom was around. She'd sit them down and lecture them on safety, say that they should wait until they're older and more mature. In other words, she'd get in the way.

Ed and the boys are out in the front yard, using summer's extended daylight at this late hour to finish prepping our 1½-person sailboat so that we can take it along on our first camping vacation of the summer soon. I've been taking advantage of the quiet to play my favorite New Age music while I edit. I don't like to work weekends, but I must finish this book manuscript before we go.

I get up to stretch my legs and I look out a front window. Neil, 12¾ years old, is masterfully driving our minivan, with Ed supervising from the front passenger seat, maneuvering it into position and then backing it into our driveway so that Ed can hitch the little boat trailer to it!

Now, I've always recognized that spatial skills and physical coordination are two of Neil's unusually strong skills, stronger in him than in most kids his age. (Well before he was 3 years old, the little monkey literally climbed up our walls, holding his body up by the ceiling by stretching himself across the corner over a door, feet planted at the top of one wall and hands pushing against the top of the other wall.) But I'd never have thought to let him drive the van, not even a tiny distance and not even under supervision.

He did great! And I had to be out of the way for that to happen. Maybe it would be okay for me to loosen up a bit.



Neil children parenting preadolescent Disney moms growing up EditorMom

Impeachment Fax

This, with appropriate minor changes (including my contact info), is what I'm going to be faxing to my two U.S. senators and my U.S. representative every weekday, starting Monday. I'm tired of waiting for them to get moving on fixing our badly broken government.

If you'd like the "grow a spine" artwork (it's a PNG file) for use as a watermark on your faxes, e-mail me (click on "View my complete profile" in the sidebar at the right).

Updated 11:34 a.m., July 9: Watch the blue section of the sidebar, under "Political Action," to see how many times I've faxed my senators, my representative, and presidential candidate Barack Obama urging them to grow a spine and impeach Cheney.



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Elf Shoes in the Office

Creativity is one of the terrific benefits of letting your kids entertain themselves and not booking every minute of their time with lessons and organized sports.

Of course, major messes are another outcome of free time, but when I'm working, I just don't have time to care, unless someone's been wounded.

We'll all have to clean up the family room tonight before we can sit down to dinner together, but I think that's worth having gotten to watch Jared create his own pointy-toed elf shoes, which look a lot like the ones shown here (except his are white), out of sheets of printer paper and adhesive tape. They fit him just right and even have paper fasteners. He worked on them as if he had a picture of them already in his head.

Excellent artisanal work for a 5-year-old—or 5¾-year-old, as Jared constantly reminds me.



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Runaway Train

I'm watching an impending train wreck from a distance, and I don't want to.

I don't want to because I went through a similar train wreck years ago and my friend's train wreck takes me back to mine ... and because I don't want to see my friend or anyone in his family get hurt.

My friend has found a lot of emotional freedom by discovering, over the last year or so, that he is a fine writer. To have time to do the wandering around and absorbing of scenes that he needs to do to write, he's rearranged his work schedule. He now also spends less time with his family.

His wife, whom I don't know, is frightened by his freedom. I think she's scared that he'll like it so much that he eventually won't need her or their children or their life together. She's so scared that she's lashing out by denigrating his writing and the friends he's made through writing. This makes him incredibly angry.

They argue and argue, and he seems to have stopped trying to connect with her.

It's not my job to stop this wreck, but I sure wish I could. I've already stuck my nose in and urged that my friend get help to communicate about this issue with his wife. How often is our need to help others motivated at least a little bit by our need to spare ourselves the discomfort of seeing their pain?



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A Stunning Gift

I'm just stunned.

Ed walked in the front door this evening and presented me with a gorgeous three-strand freshwater pearl necklace, designed by a wonderful local jeweler, as an anniversary present.

I've never owned anything so exquisite. The little pearls are green and blue and gold and copper and irridescent, all earth colors. The necklace is one I'd have picked out myself if I didn't have this thing about not spending a lot of money on myself. (The photo at the left looks nowhere near as good as the real thing.)

You think you know a person, and then he amazes you.



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Patriots' Pleas on the Fourth of July (Réclamations des patriotes sur le quart de juillet)

This patriot's plea: "Impeach Bush and Cheney now, and there will be peace in all lands!" (These flags have flown in my front yard for at least 9 months now.) Patriot Keith Olbermann's plea: "For you, Mr. Bush, and for Mr. Cheney, there is a lesser task. You need merely achieve a very low threshold indeed. Display just that iota of patriotism which Richard Nixon showed, on August 9th, 1974. Resign."


(Traduction pour mon ami Hervé ... et parce que je puisse pratiquer mon français:

La réclamation de ce patriote: «Chargez Bush et Cheney avec un crime maintenant, et il y aura de paix dans toutes les terres!» (Ces drapeaux ont volé en ma cour pendant au moins 9 mois maintenant.) La réclamation de Keith Olbermann, patriote: «Pour vous, M. Bush, et pour M. Cheney, il y a des moins chargent. Vous devez simplement réaliser un seuil très bas en effet. Montrez juste cet iota de patriotisme que Richard Nixon a montré, le 9 août, 1974. Démissionnez.»)



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Why I Celebrate July 3

Fourteen years ago today, I married my sweetheart and best friend of one year, Ed. Two children and one grandchild later, he's still my sweetheart and best friend, even though I know all of his stories and even though he telegraphs his bad puns before he makes them.

His heart is always open, he'll talk with me for hours, he plays games with our sons, and he was the world's proudest stepfather when my daughter got married almost a year ago. He makes friends wherever he goes, tries to learn at least a little of the language of everyone he meets, cooks tasty dinners and Saturday-morning pancakes and waffles from scratch, keeps our home in good repair, makes me laugh, and keeps me honest. He's a fount of knowledge about all things biological, he makes wood furniture so beautiful that it sings, and he knows exactly when to turn his puppy-dog eyes on me full force. He smiles so big that you'd think his face would split, he talks throughout the few TV shows I enjoy watching, and he snuggles our sons to sleep.

He tells all of his friends about my professional triumphs and calls me "Xena, Warrior Princess." He always means well and never does anything half-heartedly. He works very hard and then finds the energy to work even more. He loves cats and dogs, and he stops for turtles crossing the road. He knows almost nothing about computers but offers advice about them anyway, and he plays tolerant neatnik to my slob. He's very tenderhearted, but the rocks and arrows thrown by the world never make him close down.

Ed, I love you, honey. Happy anniversary.



Ed husband marriage anniversary love EditorMom

C'est un petit monde

I was just cheered up tremendously by an e-mail that I got out of the blue from a Frenchman I've never met. He and his wife have friends on Long Island, and he was doing an Internet search for another Long Island city when he found my blog. He wrote to me at my blogging e-mail address:

I don't understand all your sentences but I see that you are "against the war" in Irak. Your "position" is very "courageous" in your country. (In France, we believe that all the American are for the War). I congratulate you for this. I am also a grandfather and I understand your feeling about this great thing to be a grandfather or a grandmother.

Excuse my "english" if words aren't correct.

Sincerelly H.C. from France

If my expressing my opinions on my blog helps just one person somewhere else in the world see Americans as individuals rather than as drones who all think alike about political issues, that's terrific! And hey—I got to brush up on my French in replying to H.C.



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Bragging on My Daughter

I'm very pleased to say that my daughter, Becky, has just found out that the research paper she missed for one class because she was busy giving birth to my first grandchild in mid-May, has been accepted and graded. She now officially has her MSW (master of social work) degree.

Her short maternity leave from the chain of drugstores where she worked her way through college ends in just about 3 weeks. She'll go back to work there, missing her daughter all the while, take the exam so that she can be a LMSW (licensed master social worker), and look for her first professional job as a social worker.

She says she's now done two things I never have: given birth naturally (all three of mine were C-sections) and earned an advanced degree (I have a mere bachelor's degree in journalism). She's right. And I'm quite impressed at the MSW. She's very much more laid back than I am, and my husband and I sometimes feared that she didn't have the drive to get that degree. (In the U.S., you can't get much of a job in her profession with just a bachelor's degree.) I now say publicly that I was wrong, and I'm happy about it. :-)



Becky daughter MSW social work EditorMom

Intergenerational Living

In our house: Left to right, in back, our son Neil, 12; D., Ed's mother, 72; A., Ed's father, 71; Ed, 45; me, 47. In front, Jared, 5. Not shown, our daughter, Becky (who took this shot today), 24; our son-in-law, Li, 27; our granddaughter, Anna, 6 weeks (who lives with her mommy and daddy in an apartment in another town); our oldest cat, Snuggles, 15; our younger cat, Emily, 7; A and D's dog, Sandy, 4. (In the enlargement, note Ed's "Impeach Bush and Cheney Now!" T-shirt. I was being politically neutral and wore my Copyediting-L T-shirt.)



Neil Jared sons intergenerational in-laws family EditorMom

Tell Me Again: Why Did I Have Children?

This has been only the first full week of summer vacation for my sons, and it's been a long one. They've been wild monkeys all day, every day.

Next year, I don't know how we'll do it, but we'll find the money to send both of them off to separate summer day camps. Otherwise, I'll be completely bald because I'll have pulled all of my hair out.



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Latest Granddaughter Photo

My granddaughter, Ana, age 6 weeks: beautiful, soft, ultrasnuggly. Happiness is touching baby skin.



Ana granddaughter grandmother EditorMom

Cheney, the Puppeteer

I can't understand why anybody is surprised to find out that Dick Cheney is the puppeteer of the Bush administration.

I saw early on what he was doing. The first sign was the closed-door meetings with representatives of Big Oil, not long after the first Bushco inauguration in 2001. I was driving around town, running errands, on the morning that I heard a radio news report about the meetings. I felt a deep, painful sense of impending doom.

If I could see this, why couldn't the rest of the country? I'm no political science expert, though I am a news junkie. I'd always liked to think of Americans as being relatively intelligent. I guess I was wrong. And that's sad.



Cheney puppeteer Bush Big Oil impeach EditorMom

Bright White Publishing

U.S. book publishing professionals were pretty much all white and mostly female when I joined the industry in the mid-1980s.

Almost 25 years later, that hasn't changed much. I know only one black woman in publishing; she's in middle management. And I know only two Latinas; both are production editors.

Oh, it's great that there are so many women in power in publishing. But the overall homogeneity of the industry doesn't provide much variety of professional backgrounds, life experiences, or points of view. Publishing is already a small, incestuously interconnected industry; it needs all the variety it can get.

Freelancer writer and book promoter Bella Stander noticed, at Book Expo America earlier this month, that the ranks of authors are pretty pale too. But Bella's not the only one who's noticed: see this, this, and this.

How skewed are the worldviews presented in American books if most of the authors who get published and most of the publishing professionals who work on those books are white and if authors of color who do get published see their books placed in ethnic sections in bookstores? And how do we make it possible for more writers of color to be published by the big publishers? How do we make mainstream book publishing more accessible and desirable as a career to people of color?



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My Preteen Son Notices Girls

Oh my! I wasn't ready for this, I suppose because Neil, now 12½, has never had any clue what to make of girls, other than playmates.

Since kindergarten, Neil's played at M's house and she's played here. Now, M., though very sweet, is not a girly girl. But within the last year, she's been showing up here freshly showered and smelling faintly of floral cologne—and sometimes even wearing barely colored lip gloss. I commented on her nice scent to Neil, after she'd left one day, and he said that he hadn't even noticed it.

Neil and his little brother are now out of school for the summer, so about an hour ago he decided to call M., who, like him, just finished seventh grade, and invite her over. He got off the phone quickly and told me, his face wearing his it's-no-big-deal look that barely hid his smile, "M's coming over in a few minutes." She lives a couple of blocks away.

Next thing I know, I smell my husband's musky cologne. Neil had gone into the bathroom to spiff up. He didn't think of combing his hair—I had to mention that to him, because it was sticking out in all directions, and that wasn't on purpose either. But then he reached up into the medicine cabinet, found one of his dad's favorite colognes, and spritzed himself with it. Manly-smelling preteen.

I didn't have long to think about the fact that Neil is growing up.

In his rush to be ready by the time M. was at our front door, Neil left his father's cologne bottle out on the bathroom counter, uncapped. A few minutes later, he and M. went into the backyard to hang out. Suddenly, I started coughing uncontrollably. Apparently, 5-year-old Jared had decided he wanted to imitate his brother and wear cologne ... but sprayed all over his body instead of one gentle spritz.

Then I tried to convince Jared that he should play in the front yard or indoors while M. was over, to give her and Neil some space, rather than running out into the backyard to play around them. After all of that, Neil looks in through the back-door window, sees Jared helping me out with something but watching him and M., and invites Jared to come out and play.

I guess Neil hasn't grown up that much yet.



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Michael Moore's Sicko: U.S. Versus Other Health Care Systems

I have a heavy workload and am approaching a deadline right now, so I haven't had time to delve into most of the commentary on Michael Moore's new film, Sicko, about the broken U.S. health care system. It was pirated and posted on You Tube for a short while before behing pulled. It's scheduled to officially open on June 29.

But one blogger whose opinions and writing I respect got to see it before it was removed from You Tube. I think she's done a great analysis of it and the U.S. system, and she did some digging on her own to be able to compare the U.S. health care system to other major systems around the world. Go read her post—it's long. And come back here and tell me what you think.



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Headline News Chez EditorMom

Breaking news today at EditorMom's:

Doc Says Triglycerides Too High, Take More Meds, Get Off Butt and Move

Husband Calls at Lunch, Says, "I Told You So"

Wife Tries to Reach Through Phone and Clock Husband on Balding Head

Middle Son Whines, "There's Nothing Fun to Do-o-o-o-o!"

Youngest Son Arriving Home on School Bus Shortly; Experts Predict He'll Pick Fight with Big Brother

Experts Proven Right

EditorMom Heroically Transmutes Manuscript's Medical Korean English to Medical English

Husband Waltzes in Front Door with Restaurant Lasagna

EditorMom Vows to Change Family's Eating Habits

Family Chows Down While Relaxing with Stupid TV

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8 Random Facts

I've been tagged for memes before but have ducked participating. This time, Songbird tagged me. I don't dare duck; she's a minister, and You Know Who is on her side!

Here are 8 random facts about me:

1. I had straight, thin hair most of my life. When it had gone mostly gray, though, it changed texture and became wavy! (You can't really be sure by looking at my photo in the sidebar at the right, but I used to have brown hair.)



2. As a child, I could never get enough of The Secret Garden. I started reading it in elementary school. By the time I left junior high school (what's now called middle school), I must have checked out the school library's copy hundreds of times. I wanted Mary Lennox's life.



3. I have telephonophobia. This means I hate talking on the telephone. If you want to gab with me, e-mail me.



4. That's due to my being an introvert. Oh yeah, I'll yak forever by e-mail or on this blog, but going to parties and hanging out with friends, though enjoyable in small doses, wear me out mentally and emotionally. I need plenty of quiet time to be centered.



5. I am an alto. I have a good voice, but I'd need voice lessons to loosen up enough to do folk music well, which is one of my fantasies. I do best with liturgical pieces. Of course, now that I'm in this period of not attending church, I'm not getting much singing practice in.



6. I took piano lessons for years, from about third grade through my senior year in high school. I loved it, playing classical music, contemporary soft rock, and church hymns. I occasionally filled in for the church pianist, who was my piano teacher. While I was in college, I'd go to a local nursing home and play a few hymns on the ancient piano for residents who gathered there. I'll always remember the delight on their faces every time I walked into the room. It was like having lots of grandparents.



7. I am a secret fan of trashy bodice-rippers. I haven't had time to read any in a few years, so I'm overdue for a binge.



8. I've taken quite a trip through the various flavors of Christianity, becoming more liberal with each change: I grew up a Southern Baptist in Texas, which took me years and lots of therapy to recover from. (My childhood itself took years and lots of therapy to recover from.) I did a brief stint as a Roman Catholic during my first marriage, which neither First Husband nor I sought to have annulled by the Catholic church, so technically, we're living in sin because we've long since been married to new partners. I've been part of the Presbyterian Church USA since 1995; I'm an ordained church elder. I stopped attending church about 18 months ago, after the very liberal pastor (who got me all excited about actively living my faith) left my church for another church. Her absence revealed to me just how liberal that particular church was not, and I realized I could not be who I am supposed to be in that place. I tell myself I'm probably a good candidate for membership in the United Church of Christ, which is pretty much the most liberal Christian denomination around, but I'm rather leery of diving into another church wholeheartedly again.

And now, I tag the Peaceable Imperatrix, Karoli, Katie Allison Granju, Erin, and Redneck Mother. If I haven't named you and you'd like to play along, please provide your 8 facts as a comment on this post.



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My Son, the Pacifist

This week my seventh-grader had me write this letter to his homeroom teacher:

Dear Ms. D,

Neil tells me that one of the assignments coming up in class involves writing a letter to a U.S. soldier stationed in Iraq. Neil is a pacifist and strongly believes that writing letters to soldiers would imply that he supports the war in Iraq, which he does not. I am writing you to say that I support Neil’s beliefs and that I respectfully request that he be allowed to complete a different assignment in lieu of this one.

I'm so proud of him.



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