Linky Thursday Randutiae with Rage (And Some Sweet Things, Too)

In France, in order to protect women from being oppressed by Muslim men who tell them what to wear, white men with guns force women to take their clothes off. I have so much fury and contempt for this racism, Islamophobia, and misogyny disguised as “liberation” and “secular values” that I don’t even have enough… Read more »

Another Paris Picture Roundup

If you’re a gargoyle, Sacre Coeur is probably a nice thing to be a gargoyle on, and Montmartre a nice part of Paris to look out over…  Outside the Musée Rodin, people stick their entrance stickers onto poles – a spontaneous public arts project 🙂  On one of the footbridges over the Seine – I think it’s… Read more »

Paris: Graffiti

At the flea markets de la porte de Clignancourt. Outside the markets. Skeleton grate. Somewhere in the 7th, I think…. On Quai de Jemmapes. I think this was in Le Marais… And this near Place de la Bastille. This too.

Paris: Clocks. (And Snoods.)

The Musée d’Orsay, which contains the world’s largest collection of impressionist andpost-impressionist paintings, is in what used to be the Gare d’Orsay — a Beaux-Arts train stationbuilt at the turn of the 20th century. A number of the windows, like this one in the café, are clocks(to show the time to the outside world).  Here’s… Read more »

Bots High, Émile Zola, and yes, more 2CELLOS

I adore Bots High, which is a documentary about high school students in Miami building combat robots and competing in a national robotics competition. Incidentally, many, many of the robot engineers are girls. That’s only one of the reasons to watch — I love these kids, love their smarts, creativity, procrastination, anxiety, heart, the ways… Read more »

For Writers: A Quick Tip on Starting

When writing, there’s a danger in depending too much on preparation. Yes, preparation is important, but you’re not going to figure everything out about a writing project before you start it. Part of the point is that you figure it out while doing it. You’re planning a book, and you can’t figure out the solution… Read more »

Paris: Work and Play

A day of work at the Bibliothèque Mazarine… followed by window shoppingon Boulevard Saint-Germain. (These shoes had ice cream cone heels!) Maybe hard to see — this was a shirt. Apparently wearing Ralph Lauren makes you climb up onto the bar. Incidentally, the umbrellas at Alexandra Sojfer were the main reason I needed to go… Read more »