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May, 2005

  1. everytime two men kiss

    May 30, 2005 by elenamary

    Miles explained yesterday that watching women make out is “hot”. He then went on to say that he almost likes watching guys make out as much as the laides. When I asked why he responded:

    “Everytime two men kiss, a woman is free.”

    If only we could convince hetero-conservatives to join in Miles’ view on the world, this would be a step forward.


  2. Sudoku

    May 27, 2005 by elenamary

    I’ve been doing puzzles the last few days. My co-worker a math major showed me this puzzle called SuDoku. It is kind of like a numerical crossword, print one out and try it.

    I went to my favorite coffee shop with my friend Perry. I was having a terrible time focusing as I kept getting distracted by the puzzle, so Perry entertained herself and paged through my economist magazine which I had yet to read. What should she find but an article titled “Do you sudoku?: The business of brain teasers, a puzzeling global phenomenon“.
    The first line opens with

    To its fans, it is addictive

    No shit? No wonder I’ve completed at least 1/2 dozen of these puzzles in the last 3 days. Give it a try.


  3. Gays in Mexico

    May 27, 2005 by elenamary

    The Closet is for Clothes.jpg

    This week’s (May 21st-27th) The Economist Has an article titled: Gays in Mexico: Out and Proud.
    It has the following image with the text “The closet is for clothes”. The article discusses how Gays are compartively a lot more out in Mexico City then they were before. Their descrptions of the gay scene in Mexico City is one of out and mostly accepted. They describe a section of Mexico City, La Zona Rosa, as “The area is also home to an impresive range of gay clubs, bars and restuarants, from the sex-driven to the status-conscious, as well as an array of travela gents, bookshops and even a lawyer’s office, all specialising in service for gay people.”

    The thing that most stood out for me from the article was one sentence in describing gay shopping tendincies to those of heterosexuals. “Mexican lesbians, for example, spend 60% more on beauty products than the average adult female, and are six times more likely to have access to the internet.”

    I am not surprised by the internet statistic. I think one of the great things about the internet is that it allowed gays to communicate and create support groups anonymously before coming out. With the internet you can also discuss sexuality and desires without the fear that this person somewhere else will physically harm you.

    What I am suprised about is that cosmetic spending by lesbians. I guess I am just being sterotypical but I don’t usually think of lesbians as big cosmetic shoppers.

    If you would like to read the whole article you can check it out here. Or you can read it all below because I know some of you won’t bother to sit through the ad to read the article.
    (more…)


  4. Ohio & Mexico

    May 25, 2005 by elenamary

    I used to work as a union organizer for FLOC, (the Farm Labor Ogranizing Committee) whose headquarters are located here in Ohio, as a Union Organizer. FLOC recently won the right to represent H2A “guestworkers” from Mexico. Evidently though the Mexican government isn’t too keen on this as I got the following email from FLOC this afternoon.

    TAKE URGENT ACTION!
    STOP DEPORTATION OF FLOC ORGANIZER FROM MEXICO !!!!!
    The Mexican Government has ordered the Monterrey, Mexico, FLOC office director Brendan Greene to appear at an immediate deportation hearing tomorrow Thursday, May 26, 2005.

    Greene reports that he has been detained 7 times by local, state and federal Mexican police for simply conducting meetings in villages educating workers about their rights under the precedent-setting collective-bargaining agreement with the North Carolina Growers Association and the Mt.Olive Pickle Company. The agreement, signed last September, covers 8,000 H2A guestworkers from Mexico. FLOC president, Baldemar Velasquez is immediately protesting this action citing it as “misguided in an air of ignorance thereby accommodating wrongdoing by recruiters of H2A workers and perhaps corrupt local officials.”

    Greene has also been investigating grievances by workers who have been charged more than the required amounts for their visa interviews and travel by agents of the recruiters of the Association. Velasquez said, “apparently, Brendan has touched a nerve in the corrupt element in this process and there is now an attempt to get him out of the country.” Velasquez continued, “It is becoming evident that the Mexican government from Fox on down have little regard if not profound ignorance of the realities of low wage jobs in the United States. Not only does Fox voice insensitivity in his comments about the relationship between African-Americans and Mexican immigrants, this deportation action signals an attitude of not caring about the plight of his countrymen once they are in the United States with or without documents.”

    A surprised Greene says “I just received the deportation hearing notice yesterday (Tuesday May 24) and the hearing is tomorrow Thursday.” FLOC will immediately form a national effort to protest with Mexican consulates around the country and the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C.
    (more…)


  5. Free College for Latinos

    May 24, 2005 by elenamary

    A free ticket to college
    Lincoln High students to go on state’s dime
    By Allison Sherry

    By withholding hard-earned high school diplomas and interpreting a state law literally that guarantees an education to students up to 21 years old, principal Scott Mendelsberg is sending 100 Denver seniors to college this fall – and he’s charging the state…

    …A little more than 86 percent of the roughly 1,300 Lincoln students are Latino, and about 67 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, a guideline for poverty…

    …Of 238 graduates last school year, only 40 went to college. This year, when about 200 students walk in gowns on Saturday, 125 are slated to head to college this fall – 100 of them enrolled in his program….


  6. Five Questions About Books

    May 23, 2005 by elenamary

    (Thivai Abhor from Dialogic hit me with a book tag back in April)

    Q1 — You’re stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to save?

    Man I’ve never read Fahrenheit 451, I don’t even know what it is about. I should feel ashamed huh? I also have never seen Fahrenheit 9/11. I’ve actively avoided seeing it. I was invited to see it multiple times before the election and I always declined saying that I was already depressed and didn’t need to be more so. I would wait until after Bush was removed from office. Anyway, so is Fahrenheit 451 some kind of spaceship thing? What would I take on a spaceship? I guess I would take my favorite book about an earth man raised on mars, Stranger in a Strange Land.

    Q2 — Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
    Yes, Gilbert Blythe, from Lucy Maud Montgomery‘s Anne of Green Gables series.

    Q3 — The last book you bought is?
    Stripping and other stories by Pagan Kennedy

    Q4 — What books are you currently reading?
    That is a tough question. I have at least a half dozen books that are in some process of reading. I think the two I am the most likely to completly finish that I am currently reading are Primary Colors and Hasta no verte Jesus Mio by Elena Poniatowska.

    Q5 — Five books you would take to a desert[ed] island?
    hmmm this is a tough one. The letter with the most entries from an Encylopedia–is that ‘S’?, A good survival cookbook, a survival book, a book on solitary games, and last but not least a book on urban planning.