Swiss Pantry

The staff at the state park where we stayed on vacation last month recommended the Swiss Pantry as a good place to eat, so one day we checked it out. The food looked good, but we had sadly already eaten lunch. We did have room for dessert:

They offered free coffee and a small seating area.

There was a small bakery section and sweets galore. You can take a virtual tour:

and see photos of their products at their website here. They have a Facebook page.

This little side-stop was a fun addition to our week at Tims Ford State Park.

Back at home now, we looked forward to the eclipse. Memphis got the eclipse at 93%, and we were prepared with our home-made viewers:

As it got close to time, though, the cloud cover increased:

The rain began soon after:

The next total eclipse will be viewable from Hot Springs, and I plan on going for it!

Please join the weekly blogger gathering hosted by Bleubeard and Elizabeth where we share a post that includes a drink.

Sophie G. Friedman

I saw the plaque pictured above at Overton Park near the Memphis College of Art and was fascinated. It reads:

Memphis Chapter Of
American War Mothers

A Tribute To
Sophie G. Friedman

For The Activities In Having
Had Enacted First Marriage Law
In Tennessee General Assembly
Abolishing Child Marriage
-
Sponsored By
Tennessee League Of Women Voters

Finding information on her online wasn't easy, but it seems Ms. Friedman, according to this site, "graduated Memphis (Tennessee) University of Law, 1922 and became the first woman to practice law in Natchez, Mississippi." She seems to have been active in issues concerning women and children, including the women's suffrage movement.

Periodic Table of SF Women

Tansyrr wants to know how many of these 117 authors folks have read, and I've put the ones I remember reading novels by (short stories read in my youth are just too hard for me to remember, and I don't read short stories any more) in bold print:

Andre Norton
C. L. Moore
Evangeline Walton
Leigh Brackett
Judith Merril
Joanna Russ
Margaret St. Clair
Katherine MacLean
Carol Emshwiller
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Zenna Henderson
Madeline L’Engle
Angela Carter
Ursula LeGuin
Anne McCaffrey
Diana Wynne Jones
Kit Reed
James Tiptree, Jr.
Rachel Pollack
Jane Yolen
Marta Randall
Eleanor Arnason
Ellen Asher
Patricia A. McKillip
Suzy McKee Charnas
Lisa Tuttle
Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Tanith Lee
Pamela Sargent
Jayge Carr
Vonda McIntyre
Octavia E. Butler
Kate Wilhelm
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Sheila Finch
Mary Gentle
Jessia Amanda Salmonson
C. J. Cherryh
Joan D. Vinge
Teresa Nielsen Hayden
Ellen Kushner
Ellen Datlow
Nancy Kress
Pat Murphy
Lisa Goldstein
Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Mary Turzillo
Connie Willis
Barbara Hambly
Nancy Holder
Sheri S. Tepper
Melissa Scott
Margaret Atwood
Lois McMaster Bujold
Jeanne Cavelos
Karen Joy Fowler
Leigh Kennedy
Judith Moffett
Rebecca Ore
Emma Bull
Pat Cadigan
Kathryn Cramer
Laura Mixon
Eileen Gunn
Elizabeth Hand
Kij Johnson
Delia Sherman
Elizabeth Moon
Michaela Roessner
Terri Windling
Sharon Lee
Sherwood Smith
Katherine Kurtz
Margo Lanagan
Laura Resnick
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Sheila Williams
Farah Mendlesohn
Gwyneth Jones
Ardath Mayhar
Esther Friesner
Debra Doyle
Nicola Griffith
Amy Thomson
Martha Wells
Catherine Asaro
Kate Elliott
Kathleen Ann Goonan
Shawna McCarthy
Caitlin Kiernan
Maureen McHugh
Cheryl Morgan
Nisi Shawl
Mary Doria Russell
Kage Baker
Kelly Link
Nancy Springer
J. K. Rowling
Nalo Hopkinson
Ellen Klages
Tananarive Due
M. Rickert
Theodora Goss
Mary Anne Mohanraj
S. L. Viehl
Jo Walton
Kristine Smith
Deborah Layne
Cherie Priest
Wen Spencer
K. J. Bishop
Catherynne M. Valente
Elizabeth Bear
Ekaterina Sedia
Naomi Novik
Mary Robinette Kowal
Ann VanderMeer

Women's Equality Day

Today is Women's Equality Day, a celebration of the anniversary of the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. That was a short 89 years ago. When my mother was born women were not allowed to vote. My maternal grandmother had 3 children before the 19th Amendment was passed.

Tennessee was the deciding vote for the 19th Amendment, which states

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

This is the text of the Joint Resolution of Congress in 1971:

WHEREAS, the women of the United States have been treated as second-class citizens and have not been entitled the full rights and privileges, public or private, legal or institutional, which are available to male citizens of the United States; and

WHEREAS, the women of the United States have united to assure that these rights and privileges are available to all citizens equally regardless of sex; and

WHEREAS, the women of the United States have designated August 26, the anniversary date of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, as symbol of the continued fight for equal rights: and

WHEREAS, the women of United States are to be commended and supported in their organizations and activities,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that August 26th of each year is designated as Women’s Equality Day, and the President is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation annually in commemoration of that day in 1920, on which the women of America were first given the right to vote, and that day in 1970, on which a nationwide demonstration for women’s rights took place.

We should not forget the battles that have been fought on our behalf, and we should show our appreciation by educating ourselves about the issues and exercising our rights. Before they take that right away from us, too.

The Life of Oharu

The Life of Oharu is a 1952 Japanese film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi.

trailer:

Slant Magazine has a review. The New York Times doesn't like it. Senses of Cinema calls it

a chronicle of the endemic commodification and objectification of women in a society where identity, privilege and the retention of power are achieved through the conventionally masculine attributes of aggression and virility.

Bright Lights Film Journal says,

Oharu (1952) is a tragedy with few peers in or out of the cinema; it's 137 minutes of almost unrelieved grimness, made unsettlingly real by the director's ravishing pictorialism and above all by the performance of Kinuyo Tanaka as a woman who falls from a respected member of the Imperial Japanese Court to a broken-down whore and beggar ravaged by disease.

Time Out says,

Feminists should unequivocally applaud the narrative simplicity and the clarity with which the second-class status of women is implicitly questioned almost everywhere in the film.

Mother's Day Proclamation

Mother's Day Proclamation

by
Julia Ward Howe

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly:
"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

Sita Sings the Blues

With those ugly copyright (copywrong?) issues dealt with, Nina Paley's Sita Sings the Blues can actually be seen and enjoyed.

In addition to all the other delightful aspects of this work there is a cat named Lexie. Just so you'll know. So, Pal, if you weren't planning on watching it, now you have a compelling reason to sit a spell and watch.

At the Internet Archive or from googlevideo:


Roger Ebert loves it. Variety describes it as a "delightfully subversive feminist musical version of the "Ramayana,"".

11/24/2009: Cartoon Brew: "Filmmaker Nina Paley explains in the Wall Street Journal how she’s earned $55,000 from her animated feature Sita Sings the Blues by giving it away for free."

Sylvia Pankhurst

Today is the anniversary of the death in 1960 of British suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst. There is a short biographical sketch here at the main Sylvia Pankhurst site, and the BBC has a couple of paragraphs as part of a women's history timeline. There is a list of resources, mainly books, here.

excerpt from lyrics to the Sister Suffragette song, celebrating Emmeline Pankhurst (Sylvia's mother's) suffrage work, from Mary Poppins:

"From Kensington to Billingsgate
One hears the restless cries!
From every corner of the land:
"Womankind, arise!"
Political equality and equal rights with men!
Take heart! For Mrs. Pankhurst has been clapped in irons again!
No more the meek and mild subservients we!
We're fighting for our rights, militantly!
Never you fear!""

Women's Equality

Today is Women's Equality Day, a celebration of the anniversary of the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. That was a short 88 years ago. When my mother was born women were not allowed to vote. My maternal grandmother had 3 children before the 19th Amendment was passed.

Madeleine L'Engle: Feminist

The latest Feminist SFF Carnival is up here, and the last mention is a link to a post at blogher explaining what makes Madeleine L'Engle a feminist writer.

L’Engle’s strong, realistic heroines gave girls and young women characters to admire and inspire, and introduced many to a lifelong love of science fiction. Feminist bloggers are noting how important L’Engle’s work was to them, grieving, and celebrating her contributions to science fiction, feminism, and faith.

Links to other bloggers' reflections follow.

Are You a Feminist?

I am. No surprises here:

You Are 100% Feminist

You are a total feminist. This doesn't mean you're a man hater (in fact, you may be a man). You just think that men and women should be treated equally. It's a simple idea but somehow complicated for the world to put into action.

Are You a Feminist?

HT: Half-Bakered