Princesses and Superheroes

I had to remember on this International Women's Day, that I'm busy. I'm busy raising a future woman. But it's an important day to honor each year and to take account of our world.


She Asks for it by the Name "Superheroes"
My little woman-to-be saw this video rant shared by a Facebook friend and she loved it. It resonates with her love of Super Why and the Super Readers for sure. If you're among the 2 million or so left who haven't seen Riley's insightful rant about the trickery of marketers (I'm a marketer) click play above. And may Riley's gender-segregated toy agenda angst thrive in future women.


Let the Audience Cry Out
May the 40+ advertisers who pulled their dollars from Rush Limbaugh's decades of horrible tirades be among the new leaders who are forced to make change--as a result of the audience outcry. My research shows it's been on the air 24 years! Holy cow. The below image was shared by Violence Against Women and Girls (like them!)

 

Changemakers Who Need Your Help

• Amnesty International:   For Afghan women's rights.
• Invisible Children:  For ending child abduction into sexual slavery or forced into being soldiers and many other atrocities. Hot now and definitely has some controversy around it too.
• VAWG Dialogue:  Stands for Violence Against Women and Girls (Like them!)

Progress?
In this Al Jazeera opinion piece, When Women Lead the World, Joseph Nye makes the same kind of observations as if it were still nearly 30 years ago, "Questions of appropriate style - when to use hard and soft skills - are equally relevant for men and women, and should not be clouded by traditional gender stereotypes. In some circumstances, men will need to act more 'like women'; in others, women will need to be more 'like men.'"

It means we haven't come all that far in nearly 30 years because it jolts me back to 1982 when I learned every line from Tootsie. Nye's article stirs up the scene between Dorothy (Dustin Hoffman) and Ron (Dabney Coleman) as s/he's auditioning for a part in a TV soap opera:

Ron: Honey, I'm sure you're a very good actress. It's just that you're not threatening enough.

Dorothy: Not threatening enough?  How about this:  ‘You take your hands off me or I’ll knee your balls right through the roof of your mouth!’ Is that enough of a threat?

Ron:  It's a start.

Dorothy:  I think I know what you all really want. You want a caricature of a woman. To prove some idiotic point like power makes a woman masculine…or masculine women are ugly. Well, shame on any woman that lets you do that. And that means you Dear, Miss Marshall. Shame on you, you macho shithead.

The Mad Men Women
If you don't watch the show, my take on Peggy is she's a TV character who uses innocence and the female role in the early 1960s workplace to guide her aspirations. She holds what a call the Power of the Fool. I'm just on Season 2 (we don't have cable or watch TV, we're raising a woman) and every time I fish around for opinion I learn more I didn't want to know! Here's a great portrait piece about Peggy if you don't watch the show.

On Riley I Bestow a Princess and a Superhero
So who, in the case Riley makes for us now in 2012, created Wonder Woman...the princess who became a superhero? Surprise! The creator and cartoonist were men living in 1941 no doubt taking stock of the world around them at the time. For good or bad, it left a rich trail for the marketers to plunder decades later. Creator William Moulton Marston was a psychologist and feminist theorist. It'll soon be time to get out my old Wonder Woman doll for our daughter.

My past International Women's Day posts: 2011, 2010, and 2008.

Citron Gras Pie

Analogous to just about everything else in 2012 so far, this lemon pie took two tries, two different recipes and an effort for me to repress my creativity so the chemistry would have room to do its thing. Yep, 2012 has been like that...pretty much from day one. So I baked up a new twist on Mardi Gras (I'm not even vaguely Catholic) to hopefully make lemonade from my burgeoning Meyer lemon tree as a sign of gratitude and hope (for better health and fortune) moving forward (in time, that is). Instead of Mardi Gras pie, we have Fat Lemon Pie. I find the French quaint, don't you? 

I started with this recipe but got too creative thinking I could sneak in a little cream cheese in place of one of the eggs and yes, (Kitchen Idiot) that double boiler mixture never boiled. So my first lemon pie never congealed. Determinedly, entered the linkilicious (many recipes) world of Lemon Chess pie. Bill Clinton has a recipe and there is an interesting history of the term "chess" in pie recipes with regard to American Southern cuisine, which is where chess (possibly chest, as in pie chest) pie recipes originated. I won't dive into the world of southern accents and expressions since I was brought up partially southern and...it hurts when I do that. I ended up making this Shockingly Delicious recipe.Lessons learned though:  don't skimp on the sugar and tone down the zest a dash (I think I toned it up because I am so in love with as much of my lemons as I can possibly use).

I added the garnish of whipped cream rosettes (yes, that's what they are, :p) with purple, gold and green sprinkles. I was inspired by our local bakery, La Farine, where I'd been hungrily eyeing their King Cake for Mardi Gras (gone now) artfully drowned in green, gold and purple sprinkles.

On behalf of our strange BSoD-like 2012, Happy New Moon. I'm rebooting the year and sending you good health and good fortune.

Sipping with Elvis

I don't know about other bloggers but it takes time to pull it all together in a way I'm happy with. However, the creative process of idea gathering is an ongoing stream of never-ending perceptions, insights and experiences of our world. It feels improvised like I say in the header, but truly, you can't make most of the shit I write up. It's real life.

Isn't it interesting when you find something from an old cell phone that, at the time, you were convinced was blogalicious but now you can't remember why?

Agreed! See, I didn't waste a moment writing this Elvis branded cocoa post, did I? But for all the other more dedicated (sleep sacrificing) creative foodies out there:

"Well, it's one for the money,
Two for the show,
Three to get ready,
Now go, cat, go.

But will you blog my Melted Knees Cocoa?"

So, I tried to give you a leg up. I don't know what the history is with these flavors but if you have an Elvis lover in your life, this page of retail options may make for a fun gift, ingredient or ...piece of costume in case you have your eyes on joining the Elvi (are they still around 6 years later?) at the 2012 Bay to Breakers!

Ode to Loving Where You Live

I fell in love with San Francisco in the autumn of 1995. Wouldn't you? A juicy hotbed of 49 miles rife with creativity, innovation, entrepreneurial spirit, politically progressive ideas, and culinary excellence. Every time I look at San Francisco, I get a zing. That has never ceased. Mother San Francisco holds my heart like her sidewalks and neighborhoods anchor what we all know as (capital "T") "The San Francisco Bay Area." This isn't a view from my house...but it's a look at why it is so expensive to live here or possibly what made the New York Times  declare Oakland #5 (even though the views aren't mentioned).

My heart will always live in San Francisco, even if I never have. And speaking of hearts, 10 years after I discovered San Francisco, I got to work on the Hearts in San Francisco Project. It was the most fun I'll have ever have had writing a press release (for me, press releases have changed so much now, the form I knew them in doesn't really exist any more). My favorite was pitching the story about the stolen heart bikini (never recovered).

In late 1999, another city came into my life. She didn't exactly steal me from San Francisco, but she made darn sure I would never rest my head somewhere among those 49 miles. By 2000 Oakland was mine. It's a town that invites you to dive in (to the meal, to the avant garde, to an open house along Campus Drive--see the lead photo). Several years ago Oakland had a blend of experiences to offer the weekend visitor. Those elements are still here and both the good and the bad have grown.

But it isn't really about where you live. It's about how you live. Holding together the deck outside our house, I found something wonderful recently. A piece of metal made by Simpson Strong Tie. It's a company owned by a well-known Bay Area philanthropist. As his company's products hold my house together, I hold his values of giving back close. Give what you can. Leverage what you have, but not to excess. Ultimately, we can all affect the well-being of others (people, animal, planet).

So tell me in the comments:  where and how do you live?

Dragon New Year Wishes

Happy Chinese New Year! It's the year of the dragon!

Can you see the sea dragon here? Look for the sea horse's snout in the upper right and you'll see him (or her) in all the floating glory.

You can enjoy spectacular sea horse and underwater wonders at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey. The sea dragons are part of the Secret Lives of Seahorses. I managed to see it before falling terribly ill for nearly a week. 2012 has not been super great thus far.

Kung Hei Fat Choy!