With Mercury Stubbornly Retrograde, Dr. Pretentious Concocts A Cunning Plan Which Cannot Fail

For three years, I've had my eye on the reading series Ellen Datlow and Gavin Grant run. I've managed to get to a reading there all of once. This Wednesday I figured, well, I'd be at Sloane-Kettering to see G anyway, so I could just hop the 6 train, no problem. If you know me well enough to read this, you probably know my relationship with clock-time can be kind of tenuous, but that's not why I didn't get there. Doctors have this inconvenient habit of doing rounds. The HIPAA legislation that protects our privacy means that, once a pack of doctors starts doing rounds, nobody enters the ward and nobody gets out, so that nobody hears about cases they're not related to. For most of an hour, C and I were pinned down in the isolation room in the ICU as if by enemy fire. (Well, probably not very much like enemy fire, but it was fun to say.) By the time I got to the Bleecker Street station, the reading was pretty much over.

Next month, though, matociquala will be the featured reader. That's Wednesday, 7pm, August 16th, for anyone who's interested. I'll get there if I have to paddle across Raritan Bay in Meagan the Mariner's sea kayak. Hm. Probably Meagan the Mariner will be reclaiming her boats this weekend--isn't that just Mercury retrograde for you? And, as witness my infamous Silly Canoeing Accident on the Delware & Raritan Canal, I'm actually not very good at steering boats. So I suppose I'd better make other arrangements.

My current notion is that I'll clear my calendar of students for the day and take the train into Manhattan around noon. If no other diversions present themselves, I'll probably spend the afternoon hanging out in the reading room at Poets House, though if something interesting is showing at the Angellika, I might be tempted. (Other diversions are welcome to present themselves.) After missing the reading on Wednesday, I stumbled across a restaurant so delightful, I half expect it to disappear into Faerie before I find it again. My definition of delightful, in this case, involves goat cheese with fennel pollen. I'm inclined to go back.

The tutoring practice is booming. I have more students than I know what to do with. In September, when the kids who are off visiting their grandparents in Taipei and Bangalore and St. Petersberg all come back for the school year, I may actually have to start turning students away. I can afford take one weekday off, dammit.

Your Tax Dollars At Work, Part Two

I've posted before about religiously affiliated antiabortion "crisis pregnancy centers" that advertise themselves as abortion providers to lure in pregnant girls and women who are seeking abortions and/or medical advice. Some of these fake clinics are receiving federal funding.

Now, Rep. Henry Waxman has released a report on an investigation that shows that 87% of the federally funded fake clinics offer false and misleading medical information. Investigators called these clinics and claimed to be 17-year-old girls, pregnant, and in need of abortions. The report includes a number of illuminating quotations from the clinics' staffers. At the above link, you can find a condensed version of the report and the full text in .pdf.

It is possible to hold a reasoned position that opposes abortion. If you do, I have to ask you if you think the nation's tax dollars ought to be spent on clinics that systematically present as medical fact information that absolutely contradicts scientific consensus based on numerous studies. I have to ask you whether you think the government should be in the business of funding deliberate lies to people who are asking for unbiased medical information. It's an honorable thing to argue for the position you hold, but it seems to me dishonorable to engage in a campaign of medical fraud to get a political result you've consistently failed to get through the democratic process.

As I mention in my old post, Rep. Carolyn Maloney is sponsoring H.R. 5052, the Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women's Services Act. My old post has links to her description of the bill, her reasons for believing the bill necessary, and the full text of the bill itself. You can write to your representatives at www.house.gov. Whatever your opinion is, this is a good time to tell them about it.