I am now 18,000 words into my YA novel (not, by any stretch, a “winning” NaNoWriMo, but a HUGE accomplishment for me… and the reason I’ve not been blogging), and am simultaneously reading some recent YA titles, for tonal inspiration. When I started writing my novel, I didn’t even know what my heroine looked like. [...]

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I have a love/hate relationship with Halloween, and Halloween costumes. OK, it’s mostly a hate-based relationship. I haven’t dressed up since I was ten and the few occasions where I have “worn a costume,” it’s been my making a half-assed attempt to be something where I could wear clothes I already owned (see: Bridget Jones [...]

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I usually don’t comment on Gawker (or even Jezebel), as I don’t like getting drawn into fights. Instead, one of my favorite past times is watching OTHER people getting drawn into fights. There are some epic threads that make for good reading. But yesterday, on a post about a man who opened up a plus-size [...]

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The concept of food deserts — areas where a significant population, usually low-income, has no access to supermarkets and/or affordable, healthy food — came up in Monday’s post about the cost of junk food vs. healthy food. It’s easy, especially for those of us who live in cities and read blogs using our high speed [...]

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Last week, The New York Times published an editorial begging the question of whether junk food really is cheaper than good, healthy food. It’s conclusion was more or less no, that buying ingredients at a grocery store and cooking at home will always be more cost effective than picking up fast food. We must teach [...]

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I’ve been avidly following the saga of American Apparel’s “plus-size” model competition, and the entry of a fantastic woman named Nancy Upton, but previously chose not to add to the many, many blogs about it. Until now. Quick refresher: American Apparel, which makes skimpy clothing for very small people who like to pose naked, decided [...]

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Trigger warning: body snarking, fat shaming, fat hate, Democrat hate, racism, sizeism, ridiculous slurs against President Obama and his wife. Oh Lordy. LORDY LORDY LOO. This one is a doozy. I am torn between RAGE and crying. So the L.A. Times has an editorial questioning whether New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who is overweight/obese and [...]

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I am NERDING OUT. I stumbled upon an academic article published in 2010, which examined media portrayals of the eating disorders anorexia & bulimia, vs. obesity & the eating disorder of food addiction, over approximately a ten year period. The article is by a professor and grad student at UCLA. For those of you who [...]

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So AskMen.com, in an effort to aid men in Being Awesome and Having Hot Girlfriends, has published an interesting top ten list. Top 10: Subtle Ways To Tell Her She’s Getting Fat.” … Amazingly, unlike with most journalism nowadays, this isn’t just the case of an incendiary headline + mundane article. AskMen.com reaches truly new [...]

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Kenlie’s Friend Makin’ Monday topic is “girly stuff,” though I would contend we call it woman stuff   FMM: Girly Questions 1. Do you like to shop? Not really.  Unless I have something specific that I want/need and am going to a store where I know I have a high likelihood of finding it, I [...]

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