When Barbie wonders, “Are they shtupping?,” “shtupping” is not likely to be a word that Barbie would’ve picked up from the family parties at Esther’s parents’ home

In the end, “trans” leaves out some crucial information – specifically, how trans they are (or what kind of trans they are). It’s a term without nuance, that we are expected to accept without question.

There are families in our culture who commemorate the memories of loved ones with rituals such as lighting yahrzeit candles on the anniversary of a loved one’s death, or going out to visit the graves of parents and loved ones, sometimes on particular days or in some cases as a weekly picnic or whatever. If the loved one is frozen, resting in some unclear legal and religious limbo, what happens to these kinds of visits? You wouldn’t exactly be mourning a “loss.” But neither is

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin is offered to us as a book full of insight, a new, fresh, and informed exploration of that stickiest of all human adventures—sex. Within the action of the book, however, we see proclaimed not the joy of sex, but the heroism of abstinence. Estraven, Genly Ai's closest native friend, normally a lusty sort of character (we gather), abandons his sexuality and suffers the tortures of the celibate in the name of the quest.

One of the things that gets a lot of coverage in the news these days is the search for exo-planets circling around other stars in our galaxy and in the universe at large. Recent advances in technology have allowed astronomers to perform ever more sophisticated surveys and analyses on behalf of that search. And indeed, recent results suggest that a sizable number of stars appear to have planets rotating around them. Beyond that, our search is preoccupied with how many of those

“Life is. It goes. And it does not count. That was the hurtling truth that comes to rattle everyone as they grow up, grow old.” Jim Crace, Being Dead (quoted in a book review in Men’s Journal , March 2000, p. 56) "The meaning of life is that it ends." Franz Kafka “It is only as an aesthetic phenomenon that existence and the world are eternally justified.” Friedrich Nietzsche “There’s no way to explain human beings. We shouldn’t be on this planet.” Ancient Aliens (the Histor

June 9, 2009 · Rest in peace, Grasshopper “We have all been in rooms/We cannot die in” “Adultery,” James Dickey In Tarantino’s Kill Bill 2 , David Carradine (Bill) [also called “Grasshopper” by his master in the TV series “Kung Fu”] meets his end at the hands of Uma Thurman (Beatrix Kiddo), whom Bill had tried to kill for leaving him. Beatrix has learned the five-point-palm-exploding-heart technique from the master Bill sent her to for her apprenticeship; when she strikes hi

June 25, 2009 · So apparently philosophy is not dead. In a bid to enrich the passenger experience on the London tube, they have decided to add philosophy to the mix of station announcements and safety messages. Cezanne's, "We live in a rainbow of chaos," and Jean-Paul Sartre's, "Hell is other people," are among the philosophical ideas to be recited by Tube drivers. (The latter being a somewhat odd reminder on an over-crowded rush-hour subway car.) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/