Remembering Leonard Nimoy z”l | Coffee Shop Rabbi

So many remembrances of Leonard Nimoy this weekend. This is one of my favorites.

Remembering Leonard Nimoy z”l | Coffee Shop Rabbi.

English: Leonard Nimoy at the 2011 Phoenix Comicon in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Workout corsets! For real…

And more bad celebrity health advice. Corsets are a thing now? Oh dear. Thanks to Fitness Is a Feminist Issue for writing about this. I want to read Caulfield’s book now, too.

FIT IS A FEMINIST ISSUE

I’m looking forward to reading Timothy Caulfield’s new book Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong about Everything?

In it Caulfield debunks the health and fitness trends perpetuated by celebrities, everything from juice cleanses to to gluten-free diets.

Sometimes it seems as if celebrity diet and fitness advice ought to have a giant negation sign put in front of it. If Gwyneth Paltrow says to do something, that’s almost a reason not to do that very thing. Think of the Costanza maneuver, doing the opposite.

What’s the latest version? I know, vaginal steaming. But I’m not going there. How about exercise corsets? Apparently Kim Kardashian recommends them. I don’t know if Caulfield’s book covers the claims made on behalf of exercise corsets but here’s James Fell’s assessment, Kim Kardashian: Queen of Celebrity Weight Loss Dumbassery

What in the holy mother of crap?

Here is part of the marketing pitch from the…

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Why feminism is still needed

Woke up to this lovely obit this morning. What old coot (in attitude if not age) wrote this?

FIT IS A FEMINIST ISSUE

Michael Rowe shared this on Facebook with the following comment: “I can’t help but wonder what it would look like if a male author who had sold 30 million copies of one book (in this case, THE THORN BIRDS, which was made into the second-highest rated miniseries of all time) was eulogized as being “plain of feature and certainly overweight,” especially in the first paragraph of his obituary. I’m still wondering, because I just can’t picture it happening. (Photo by @vanbadham, via Twitter.)”

Thanks Peter K for sharing

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Suzette Haden Elgin 1936 – 2015

Suzette Haden Elgin; photo by George Elgin

One of our elders left us this week. Suzette Haden Elgin was a writer of science fiction, a professor linguistics, the founder of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, and a feminist, among many other things.

Gwyneth Paltrow says steam your vagina, an OB/GYN says don’t

Reblogging this because, well, read for yourself. Don’t do this!

Dr. Jen Gunter

On today’s episode of ask the experts we pit the gynecologic advice of Gwyneth Paltrow, a consciously uncoupled actress and self-professed lifestyle expert who dabbles in vaginal health, against that of yours truly, a board certified OB/GYN who has completed a 5 year OB/GYN residency and a fellowship in infectious diseases and is an expert in vulvovaginal disorders.

Ms. Paltrow, recommends a V-steam. Her words:  “You sit on what is essentially a mini-throne, and a combination of infrared and mugwort steam cleanses your uterus, et al. It is an energetic release—not just a steam douche—that balances female hormone levels. If you’re in LA, you have to do it.”

My response: Don’t.

Here’s why.

The vagina (and uterus and vulva for that matter) should be viewed as self-cleaning ovens. We know that douching is harmful, heck, even seminal fluid can be harmful (exposure to multiple partners without condoms is…

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The Creature Chronicles by Tom Weaver, David Schecter & Steve Kronenberg – A Review

The Creature Chronicles: Exploring the Black Lagoon Trilogy Tom Weaver, David Schecter, Steve Kronenberg McFarland & Company (November 2014) nonfiction (5/5)

Hi, everyone! My brain decided that the first weeks of January was blog vacation time, it would seem. Fair enough. It’s a good time of year to reset. Not sure what I’ve reset to, but I guess time will tell.

Top Ten Posts of 2014

2014 is almost at an end. (You probably don’t need me to tell you that, though, huh?) Anyway, I thought it would be fun to post links to the most-read posts of my blog for 2014. Interesting mix of topics and content, at least to me. I’m glad folks are finding them.

The Apex Book of World SF 3 – A Review

The Apex Book of World SF 3 Lavie Tidhar, Editor Apex Book Company (June 2014) science fiction/fantasy/horror 4.13/5

I’m back with another LibraryThing review.

Chain of Evil by Michael R. Collings – A Review

Chain of Evil: Journalstone’s Guide to Writing Darkness Michael R. Collings JournalStone (August 2014) nonfiction (2.75/5)

I’ve had a mixed experience with the books that JournalStone publishes. The last JournalStone book I received through LibraryThing‘s Early Reviewer program didn’t do much for me. On the other hand, I found Mr. October to be a fairly strong collection and I have high hopes for JournalStone’s latest collection Out of Tune (it’s edited by Jonathan Maberry and contains a story from Seanan McGuire, among others–how can I not?).

Monday Morning Music

I’ve been a fan of the Be Good Tanyas for a while now. One of the reasons is Frazey Ford’s gorgeous voice. Here’s a new solo piece from her most recent album, Indian Ocean. The track’s called “September Fields” and my only complaint about it is that it wanders away with a fadeout at the end. Still good, though. Enjoy!