Here is the awesome spreadsheet for editors looking for writers of color which we talked about a few weeks ago! LOTSA TOASTIES ON HERE, which warms my heart. Hire away! You can still add your own deets, too.
Everything is the worst. Also, I did cloth diapers with Kid One and have not bothered with Kid Two, but I liked it okay. I think cloth diapers are like the DivaCup: they work decently for many people, are not a good option for others, and if you mention having a mediocre experience of the product, billions of women appear to tell you that you’re doing it incorrectly.
Enjoying the heck out of the New York Times‘ recent coverage of trans issues, but strongly recommend never reading any of the comments.
TV gossip is the best gossip.
I really enjoy and have learned a lot from reading The Navelgazing Midwife, who has been on a real journey these last few years to address mistakes and problems within the midwife community (wagon-circling to protect bad midwives, shoddy information, chart falsification, etc.) and I found this post backing up a recent conversation about “Cytotec Tea” to be absolutely horrifying and I’m really glad she’s shining a light on it. Giving a drug without your patient’s consent is so antithetical to the entire IDEA of midwifery, and if you’re lying/slipping meds to your patient in order to keep her from a hospital transfer she might actually need, you are in the wrong line of work. And what if she GETS a hospital transfer, has complications, and the doctors who treat her have no idea she’s gotten Cytotec in the first place? Anyway, worth reading both pieces:
Somewhere near the end of my time there, I learned that some of the women were being given Cytotec without consent. I was horrified. I thought back to all those post-dates women who miraculously went into labor with the Blue & Black Cohosh (that never worked when I gave it to them!) and realized they had probably gotten Cytotec. The only time I was asked to give it to a woman, it was in Gatorade, melted; I refused to give it to her. The midwife shrugged and went and gave it to her herself. I went back and looked at my charts and saw, “Mom sipping Gatorade” in several places… almost always with post-dates women ready to be risked out. I don’t know if they used Cytotec to augment labors; I never saw that occur.
KLAXON KLAXON COOKING ALERT: I have gotten REALLY into pork chops recently (the thin bone-in kind), and my friend Noted Genius Carvell Wallace introduced me to using chickpea/garbanzo flour (Bob’s Red Mill makes one) and it is a game. changer. My mom has celiac, so it’s a plus on that front, but the FLAVOR!
Here’s what I’ve been doing (two people version = two thin bone-in chops each):
1. Take the pork chops out and let them rest for about half an hour before cooking, to take the chill off.
2. On a large plate, dump out about half a cup of the flour (this also works for regular flour) and add random seasonings (last night I used a couple tablespoons each of smoked paprika, oregano, and cumin), mix with a fork. I try to use enough seasonings to slightly alter the color of the flour, generally speaking.
3. Get your pan nice and hot (I used my 12 inch cast iron, but any large skillet that will fit four chops works) and add a tablespoon of vegetable oil and two tablespoons of butter.
4. Salt and pepper the chops. Dip both sides in the flour mixture (I turn them on their edges to make sure the lovely fat gets a dusting as well.)
5. Once the butter is all melted and the pan is ready to go, put the chops in. Set a timer for four minutes. Flip them. Set another timer for four minutes. Done! Let them rest for at least five minutes so they’ll keep their juice inside and not all over your plate.
6. Eat your chops, then eat the bits of fat your partner inexplicably cuts off their chops. Wish your dog was still here to receive them gleefully. Watch television.
Speaking of television, I have recently gotten really into Silicon Valley, but because I am now a humorless internet scold, I am struggling with this bizarro galaxy in which there are only two Asian people in Palo Alto, one of whom cannot speak English. I have just started season two, so perhaps that will pick up! It makes me mad because I like the show so much, and I expect better from shows which were clearly made with care, you know?
Yesterday’s workout! This is horrible:
