I should note for those of you hearing Matilda's conversation in your head, she pronounces "Barack Obama" as one word. It comes out as "Baracka-bama!

I wanted to be the village wise-woman - I would gather up various types of weeds and let them dry in the metal garden shed behind our garage, and pretend they were medicine.

Raise your hand if this surprises you about Andi.

Thought not.

Hearting on Matilda.

Gah, Hil, that sucks. I remember my mother's seemingly never-ending struggles with a bad advisor who was constantly throwing roadblocks and criticizing her choice of topic. (She was working on cognitive development in the children of teenage mothers. He suggested she do something "interesting" like, no lie, mapping the genome of rice.)

Cash, I did not mean to be dismissive at all. I tend to come at things from the educator perspective, and I had my students in my head--especially as I had just come back from class, and I--earlier in the semester--used one the quiz from Understanding Poverty in the class. They really needed it. For a more nuanced reader, I would say, "yeah, these are generalities, and there will be exceptions, but generalities can be really helpful."

Jilli, there are a number of Disney movies that I love the mosic, but not the plot. As a child I liked Belle because she was a brunette and a reader.

Hil, we could totally take care of that adviser issue for you. We know a guy. He may or may not have a hammer.

I did this too!

Sophia, my sister in make-believe herbalism!

Raise your hand if this surprises you about Andi.

Hee.

Hil, you totally have my sympathy.

Matilda is definitely of teh cyoot.

I was also a make-believe herbalist. I spent a lot of time pretending I was a pioneer, when I wasn't playing Tarzan and Jane or Flash Gordon.

Cash, I did not mean to be dismissive at all.

I didn't think YOU were dismissive, Ab! I just happen to have picked up a few articles that were discussing her books critically and wanted a buffista perspective. I figured someone would have read her stuff and could give me an idea before I went off and bought the books.

The biggest criticism seems to be that her generalities can lead to stereotyping and "blaming the victim" type of behavior. The idea that we can "fix" poor people is more attractive that, oh, say, fixing the classist system that penalizes people for being poor.

I don't want to delve too deeply into the psychology of the subject but just get a quick read of some theory of the cycle of poverty.

Ball-peen hammers are actually very common as household death implements...I read this book called "What Cops Know" and they featured quite prominently. I know you needed to know that.

I suspect erika's reading list would scare the shit out of me.

I would think claw hammers were much more common.

I forget the type of hammer featured in this week's Dexter, but it was neither ball-peen nor claw, to my recollection.