What I've Been Doing in Bed, Month 2

Okay, it hasn't even been a whole month yet, so I guess this is really "Month 2, Vol 1):

"Offline" Reading

• Colonial New England on 5 Shillings a Day
• Prayer by Erik Wikstrom
• Food Matters by Mark Bittman
• The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone
• In Small Things Forgotten (colonial archaeology) by James Deetz
• No Idle Hands on the history of American knitting
• magazines: Buddhadharma

Online Reading

Miscellaneous

• Gender bias in children's storybooks, no surprise here
• the importance of international family planning
• Chaz Bono and trangender issues in new documentary
• on Motherlode: "Why Moms Should Quit"; "My Nanny, Myself"; "The Nanny at the Wedding"; the losses of parenting without parents; "Banning Barbie"; gender-neutral parenting in light of Chaz Bono; night-shift moms; "(Nature vs. Nuture) x Money"
• "Red-tape conversations," or talk about something that isn't practical/logistical
• Mark Bittman on taking a technical break
• Off the beaten Civil War track
• A new edition of Dorian Gray
• Maureen Dowd on Kate Middleton and fairy tales
• Angry Birds competition between father and sons
• The new family quality time
• On Chris "Kurt" Colfer
• On meditating and kids: here and here
• On education: school reform, course title inflation; experimenting with the common core; the effects of teacher layoffs; teaching kids about money via Elmo; more on money and kids here;
• How swearing soothes pain
• Ben Franklin's sister Jane and the importance of education
• On Texas (sigh, none of it's good): Gail Collins on "New Anti-Abortion Math"; praying for rain
• the Ganges in Queens
• typographic illustrations
• real-life Quidditch
• "Why I Don't Post Pictures of My Kids Online"
• In defense of old technology
• For the love of Laura (Ingalls Wilder)
• Poetry: "What Poem Would You Carry in Your Pocket?";
• the phonetic seeds of language
• On Autism: our culture's fascination with it; when do you tell your child?; the "unrepentant autism guru"; ask the NYTimes experts;
• On the failure of economics by elites
• Anne LaMott on motherhood
• A la Amy Chua: tiger daughter; badger mom
• An historian on Civil War reenactors (has good bibli on Civil War books)
• Reliving childhood books about wilderness survival (a la Island of the Blue Dolphins)
• Taking kids to Broadway
• Survivor of Ba'hai persecution
• A blogger, on his own death and life and love
• Cats: loudest cat; cats from hell; cats in war (my favorite is the last slide, "Band of Whiskers"!); cats are from Venus . . .
• Cheating after miserable Mother's Day
• The "badly-married lady" in literature (a la Portrait of a Lady)
• The Alison Bechdel test for literature (or, why are there so few great women talking about something besides men in literature?)
• Ways to say "thank you"
• Uniforms in preschool??
• Can you pass this civics test? (I don't think I could)
• A child's note to MoMA: more dinosaurs
• Of cupcakes and diets
• How to Spot a British Lesbian
• Girl joins the Dark Side
• Southern Baptist relief efforts
• "Physician, Heel Thyself" by Theresa Brown, RN
• And more articles on Bin Laden than I care to link to

Recipes and Food

• Half of the meat you buy in the store has Staph bacteria!
• James Beard award winners-lots to read here
• It's like Jessica Seinfeld for grown ups
• Red coconut rice pudding
• Caramel Rice Flan
• Making crackers
• All about asparagus from Mark Bittman
• Cooking, and cleaning, with children
• English scones
• Creme citron
• Coke for Passover
• recipes for leftover bread
• Is Sugar Toxic?
• Chef Boiardi cookbook

Miscellaneous Media

• "Glee" and all the "Glee" albums
• "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" (HBO/BBC), based on the mystery novels--very good
• the new "Upstairs, Downstairs"
• "The Vicar of Dibley" (1990s BBC comedy)--hilarious!
• The Royal Wedding (all 6 hours of BBC coverage, on fast forward)
• "Hoarders"--oh, how we're cleaning stuff out now!
• "How to Cook Your Life" documentary (see previous post)
• rewatching "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (early seasons)
• "Making Life Wonderful" non-violent communication training video
• Rosetta Stone Italiano
• movies: Angel, American Morning, Did You Hear About the Morgans? All in one day, all pretty mediocre
• Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction CD