The Rose's Grove

I hate when OTF_Wank catches stuff from my city.

The continuing saga of rfjason's little 'prank,' as carried by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Can't we export him and Eyman to some other state yet?

Haven't seen it on any of the major media yet, but word seems to be pass quickly through blogs these days - unless the grapevine in the sci-fi professional community is in error, Octavia Butler died this weekend of injuries related to a stroke.

I met her once, at a Clarion West panel here at the UW in my freshman or sophomore year, and was equally impressed by her presence and patience as I had been by her inventive writing. Back in the days when we still did guest lectures, Dragon's Pen always meant to find a way to have her in, and I always regretted that we never got things worked out before the group disbanded... especially since that was my project for quite a while. I feel more ashamed than ever now that I know we won't have a chance again to hear what this wonderful lady could have taught us.

Here, have a link to the stupidest thing ever. Linked from feminist - some ass-wad clearly has an over-developed sense of entitlement. I'm pleased that said gentleman is going to prison for a series of other charges. Unfortunately, he's probably the sort of psycho whose ego-mania will only be made worse by the ensuing martyr complex of imprisonment.

Nice morning, other than that article.

Also, Seattle folks: I checked the Seattle Center's website, and the Cherry Blossom Festival begins April 9th (doesn't that seem late?). There's also the Irish festival the weekend after finals, which might be what I'll do to entertain myself while you lot are all at Sakura Con. ;)

I don't know how many of you have been following this story, but there's a children's program that's come under fire from the Department of Education's Secretary Margaret Spellings for briefly showing a child with gay parents. The secretary "threatened to withdraw funding from PBS's Ready-to-Learn initiative if PBS distributed the program, which it did not. The initiative is a partnership between the Department of Education and PBS that comes under a grant that, among other things, requires diversity be incorporated into the fabric of the series, "to help children understand and respect differences and learn to live in a multicultural society."

Thankfully, certain PBS stations, beginning with WGBH in Boston, and then KCTS-9 here in Seattle, have seen exactly how wrong this is, and are replying by showing the episode anyway. Here in Seattle, it'll show on Friday, at 4:30pm, if anybody is interested in seeing this supposedly inflammatory piece of television that apparently will erode our nation's moral character.

The Seattle PI article about it is here: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/211351_tv10.html

Here's the thing - we all know that KCTS and the other stations will be getting complaints from conservatives. Fine, they can mouth off all they want. What needs to be done is to make sure that the people who agree with KCTS's decision are just as vocal in their approval.

The address to send comments (praise!!!) to is:
KCTS Viewer Services
401 Mercer St.
Seattle, WA 98109.

You also can call 206-443-6677 or 800-443-9991, or send an e-mail to Start@KCTS.org.

Send letters! Call them on the phone!! Let's make sure that we're not just approving in our quiet corners where nobody can hear us, but loudly enough that not only do the execs at KCTS hear, but also the folks back in the Department of Education who are thumbing their own diversity policies.



In other news, I spent almost an hour talking to the English honors advisor this morning. Owwie. Nice woman, but talking to advisors always makes me kind of nervous.