1.  So, it hasn’t been a very good month or so, for those of us who, um, have rather specifically nerdy tastes in rather specific areas, for we have lost three of our greatest Grand Crazy Ladies:  Yma Sumac, Majel Barrett Roddenberry (wife of the late Gene Roddenberry and voice of the computer on numerous Star Trek series, not to mention the actress responsible for creating the inimitable Lwaxana Troi), and, today, Eartha Kitt.  Miss you, Eartha.

And yesterday we lost Harold Pinter.  Wonderful people are dropping like flies, what gives?

2.  I found myself in this really weird position oh, a couple of weeks ago, I guess, where I found myself in an argument defending Catholics. This was weird because, once upon a time, I was Catholic, but I’m not anymore because, well, I don’t actually believe in the Christian god, and I have obvious huge political reasons for wanting to distance myself from the doctrine of the church because they continue to preach some pretty fucked up things.  And also I am a huge fan of birth control.  It’s the greatest.  So I am pretty much a non-fan of the Catholic church.  (And also, transubstatiation is just plain creepy.)  But anyhow – having said all of this, I think it’s really important to distinguish between the offensiveness of church doctrine and the way church members actually live their lives, because there are thriving leftist activist communities within religion that work for inclusion and change but often get overshadowed by the crazies.  And although I’m not religious by any means, I have a lot of respect for the work that they do, often in opposition to official policy, but the person I was arguing with was a pretty ignorant jerk who would have none of this. Anyhow, the point of all this rambling is:  this post, about a Christmas service with Benedictine nuns was up at Shapely Prose (best blog ev-arrrr!) today (re-posted from last year) and it is really wonderful and great and really makes an important point about the kind of alliances we need to be building as feminists and activists.  And also it’s just a beautiful thing to read for Christmas.

(Cross-posted at Through the Bassline)