Home and Shopping

Do you talk to your dog? Apparently that’s fairly common, especially with human contact reduced during the Covid 19 pandemic; and there’s no need to be concerned — unless your dog talks back. Just yesterday I had a heated (no pun intended) argument with my air conditioner. “Are you kidding me? You picked the hottest day of the year to quit?! Then, of course, there’s Alexa. She’s great, and always available to answer my questions, serenade me with my favorite music, play games, or just chat. I also talk to my blood pressure monitor (“That can’t be right!”); my check book register (“Wait a minute! I’m sure my balance is way higher than that!”); and my smart phone and smart watch, which are too smart for me.                               more »

Ferida Wolff writes: I try not to casually dismiss each plant’s possibilities of expressing itself. I feel the same about people. We each have the possibility of offering the best of ourselves and especially in this difficult pandemic time, I hope that consideration of others is part of our social interaction. I notice lately that neighbors are waving and smiling when I take a walk, a friendly and welcome but sensitive distant greeting. more »

Jo Freeman Reviews: Joni Ernst describes herself as a "farmer, soldier, mother, Senator." Born in 1970, Ernst greatly benefitted from the doors opened by the 1960s women’s liberation movement, becoming the first woman to be elected to Congress from Iowa. Girls born in 1970 were still expected to be wives and mothers and not much more. During the Iraq War she was sent to Kuwait where she experienced combat first hand. All these experiences put serving veterans high on her personal priority list. more »

The word “housewife” was spelled “husewif” when it showed up in Sawles Warde, an early Middle English homily written around 1200: “Inwið beoð his hinen in se moni mislich þonc to cwemen wel þe husewif aȝein godes wille” (“Indoors, both his servants have a great many miserable thoughts about how to please the housewife against God’s will”). The OED says “housewife” originally meant pretty much what it does today: “A (typically married) woman whose main occupation is managing the general running of a household, such as caring for her family, performing domestic tasks, etc.” However, the dictionary has this interesting note: “There is some evidence that in Middle English the word housewife in the general sense ‘housekeeper’ could be applied to both men and women.” Oxford provides an example of “hussy” used this way in Samuel Richardson’s novel Pamela (1740): “So I … dropt purposely my Hussy.” more »