The Funniest Comment Ever

Altogether, people left over 6,000 comments on this blog. The funniest one, however, has been made today by an anonymous reader. Here it is:
You know, Clarissa, you really are just the epitome of everything that is wrong in the world. You may be an Aspie, but that is insignificant in comparison to what a rotten person you are. There is nothing wrong with being provocative, but one should have the

Older Posts

Placing a gadget that randomly shows older posts in the right-hand panel of the blog has been a great idea. I'm glad that people are discovering some of the posts that I wrote a long time ago when the blog only had half a dozen readers. So if you want to leave comments to older posts, feel free to do so. It is never too late to revive the discussion. I will see all your posts immediately, and

An Initiative to End Male Genital Mutilation

What a great initiative that is long overdue in this society:
If the San Diego–based advocacy group MGMbill.org has its way, locker rooms of the future will be a very different place. The group, founded in 2003, is dedicated to preventing the circumcision of newborns. (MGM is the acronym for male genital mutilation.) Last week, the group’s regional directors contacted some 2800 legislators in

Misogynist Priests in Russia

Classes were cancelled today, and I also forgot to bring my external hard drive home. So now all I can do is blog and cook. Which wouldn't be that bad if it happened at any point in the semester. Well, I'll stop complaining now.
My reader Canukistani brought it to my attention that the most recent bizarre pronouncement by a priest of the increasingly radicalized Russian Orthodox Church has made

More Snow

It's snowing really hard, and I'm afraid classes might be cancelled tomorrow. This would be the worst possible moment for that. I have a grant proposal due on Friday, and tomorrow is crucial. Also, I so don't want to cancel any more classes so early in the semester. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Teaching Stories

A colleague presented the syllabus for her advanced course in literature to her students. The students looked over the list of readings and asked:
"Erm. . . will we have to. . . like . . . read these novels."
"Yes, of course," said my colleague.
"Maybe you should just give us like little summaries of these books," one student suggested brightly.
"Yes! Totally!" everybody concurred.

Neil McKenna's The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde: A Review

After the disappointment of Selina Hastings's biography of Somerset Maugham, I didn't expect much from Neil McKenna's The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde, a book that has served as an inspiration to Hastings. Still, I was too sick to process anything more complex than a biography, so I decided to give it a try. To my surprise, I really liked it.

For one, McKenna doesn't take on a task that would be

A Priceless Cartoon on Mark Twain Censorship

Tom Carter at Opinion Forum just posted absolutely the best cartoon I have ever seen. I think it will be a perfect conclusion to our discussion on censoring Mark Twain. Enjoy!

More on Provocative Posts

Come to think about it, people should really be grateful for my posts that provoke their anger. Repressed aggression causes high blood pressure. By letting them release some of their pent-up anger here, I offer such people an opportunity to avoid getting sick. Just imagine how much money I help them save on medical care. And where is the gratitude, I ask you? 

Teaching El Cid

Today I'm teaching Spain's only surviving epic poem about the Medieval hero named el Cid. There is this touching passage where el Cid is saying good-bye to his beloved wife and two little daughters. I'm still kind of weak from my sickness, so I found it hard not to cry in class while I was reading the following passage to the students:The Cid, the nobly bearded, reached down unto the twain,
And

Languages

I really love having native speakers of Spanish in my classes. It's so rewarding to have them come up to me during the first week of class to ask where I am from and to see their astonishment when I respond that I'm from Ukraine. "But how is it possible?" they ask. "How come your Spanish is so perfect?" Learning Spanish is my greatest achievement, the one I'm proud of the most. English is not the

Why Such Provocative Posts?

"Are you doing this on purpose?" a friend writes to me. "Are you trying to provoke people's anger with your posts?"
The answer is that, of course, I am. See, I have this theory that getting people to think is akin to pushing a car down a hill. You need a significant initial effort to get people's brains to start moving. As soon as you get them to move in the direction of independent thinking,

Homeschooling as a Form of Child Abuse

I have been asked by several people to share my opinions on homeschooling. Well, what can I say about this atrocious practice that cripples children socially and intellectually in order to serve the needs of fanatically religious, racist, or socially unadapted parents? When I first heard about this practice, I couldn't believe that a civilized country would allow such a huge percentage of

American Writers and Actors Helping Belarus

Belarus is a country in Eastern Europe that has suffered one misfortune after another. It shares borders with Russia, Poland and Lithuania that disputed these territories for a long time. During World Wat II, Belarus suffered horrible losses at the hands of the Nazis who destroyed over a third of its population and about a half of its economic resources.

The Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986

Looking for Beauty

So I'm watching this show called Millionaire Matchmaker (yes, I'm that sick. After reading this statement, people who know me in person will be grabbing their phones to call me in panic, "Oh my God, you never said you were on the death's door! What's happening?"). I know it's a stupid show, and it would have never occurred to me to watch it had it not been for my getting as sick as this.
The

Special Place

I'm sure that I'm not the only person who uses the "special place" strategy to avoid losing important objects and papers. "This is a crucial document (object)," I always think. "Let me store it in a special place so that it doesn't get lost."
The only problem with this approach is that I always forget where the special place is located. All I remember is that the special place is really special

What's Worse: Being a Gay Male or a Heterosexual Female?

I'm still enfeebled by my sickness, and this is why I can't read anything very complex or demanding of intellectual investment.  Not reading anything at all is out of the question, so I picked up Neil McKenna's The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde. I will post the review of the book when I'm finished, but for now I wanted to discuss the differences between the oppression of gay men and of heterosexual

The Rich vs the Dying in British Columbia

What kind of a monster can possibly oppose the building of a terminal care facility? Well, apparently a rich one. Most people thought that building a hospice at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada was a great idea, but the owners of expensive condos in a nearby building disagreed:
A plan to build a hospice at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver has run into

Random Posts Widget

I just added a Random Posts Widget to the blog. It brings up posts from the past on a random basis, showing how many comments they got and allowing to read more from the posts you find interesting. These widget reminded me about some of the posts that I wrote a while ago and forgot about completely since then. I think this widget is cute, but feel free to tell me if you hate it. Also, if you know

Being Hated by Conservatives vs Being Hated by Liberals

Due to the "contrarian nature" of many of my blog posts that some of the readers have mentioned as one of the blog's main attractions, I have been excoriated by both liberal and conservative bloggers. My progressive readers are not too happy about my lack of unqualified, starry-eyed admiration of Assange and his WikiLeaks project, they get annoyed with my questioning of "choice feminism" that

Academic Job Interviews

One thing that really annoys me about getting sick at this particular moment in time is that I will be missing an especially important round of interviews for an academic position at my department. This is such a crucial hiring process that I considered dragging myself there anyways but it didn't seem like a good idea to scare the candidate with little yelps I emit every time I move without being

Hans Rosling's Video on Health and Income Growth

OK, since everybody is putting up this video, I don't want to deprive my readers either. The video offers a really well-done animated chart of the health and income growth among 200 countries. Enjoy!

Aspies and Medical Care

This nasty pericarditis has left me so debilitated that all I can do is lie in bed and ponder a variety of issues. I've been thinking, for instance, about how much more complicated it is to take care of your health if you are autistic.

Hospitals and doctors' offices are places where you are examined, scrutinized, poked, asked endless questions by strangers, and left for long stretches of time

Clarissa's Chupe de mariscos from Peru (Peruvian Seafood Soup)

We have Peruvians in the family, so Peru's wonderful cuisine is very appreciated. Today I will share with you my version of my favorite Peruvian dish - Chupe de mariscos, or a seafood soup. Peruvian food is not only delicious and healthy. It is also aesthetically pleasing, which this particular chupe showcases beautifully.



Ingredients for the
chupe de mariscos The fruit obviously are not

While I'm Sick. . .

. . . make sure you check out this short story by an author I really like that I placed right here in Readers' Contributions. The story's title is "Choices." Comments are welcome.

Vicious Conducts and Gender Disparity

In every society, there are approved ways of doing things, and approved manners of orderliness. Any departure from the approved norms is termed criminal behavior. For crime to occur there has to be an infringement of criminal code or code of a society. In my opinion, I believe crime is not normal but inevitable, without it there could be no social change and progress. Due to the innate nature of crime, every individual has tendency of committing it. Hence, it is inherent. Though there is no universal crime: it varies such that, what constitutes a crime in a situation, may not in another. It goes with dynamism of the society and varies from time to time.

Choices and Chances - Does America Know the Difference

The stimulus bills one and two are being heralded as the best way to jumpstart the economy. If representatives had been listening to the American people as they were elected to do there would be no stimulus bill. The political class decided that we were too dumb to decide such an important matter and our choice was ignored.

We are about to take a chance on the repeal of the military's 'don't ask - don't tell' rule. We will be crushing the choice that millions of young people want to make by leaving the matter of sexual preference at the door of civilian life and getting on with unhindered service to their country. Unseen or unrecognized is the possibility that taking this chance will change the choice of untold numbers of young men and women to join the military at all.

Magic Bullets Review: Boost Your Confidence And Your Knowledge To Stop "Dodging" Women

What man would not like the idea of having a personal dating coach when they're trying to get the girl? When you're single and want love, a personal dating coach is just the answer you are looking for. Thus, this Magic Bullets review can help you locate a product that's designed to give you the results you want; a product with a system that's been proven successful and recognized nationally by the mass media.

The Magic Bullets system was created by Love Systems CEO Nick Savoy. This Magic Bullets review isn't just talking about what ordinary folks have said regarding the book; it also looks into what Tyra Banks and Dr. Phil have said about it. The book gives men the needed tools and guide to get over the awkwardness of approaching women and understanding them.

The Awakening - A Fictional Short Story From a Woman's Perspective - Written by a Man

When does that day come when you wake up and look in the mirror to see a stranger looking back at you? That day when what you once saw yourself as, is no longer looking back at you in the mirror? Does it creep up on your gradually or is it one day you wake up and see a stranger looking back at you? For me, I guess, it was a gradual process, without me really catching the signs. That is, until that day I looked into my partners face in the wee morning hours before he awoke to think to myself, "When did he start to age". It was not even a month ago he looked as young as the day we met, or was it longer? What has taken over the face of the love of my life? It was then when I realized, oh my, I wonder how many mornings he watched on while I slept and wondered the exact same thing.