The Chief Diversity Officer at Gallaudet was put on administrative leave a few weeks ago, when someone found out that she had signed a petition to make same-sex marriage illegal in Maryland. People on campus have been pretty surprised by this, because part of her job was organizing the LGBT student groups, and generally being an advocate for minorities on campus, including LGBT students, and according to pretty much everybody, she was excellent at her job and a great ally. Today, two different black church groups organized protests at the Gallaudet campus over this issue. One group was for marriage equality, the other was against marriage equality, but they were both calling for McCaskill to be reinstated. (From what I can tell from blogs and stuff, the general feeling on campus is that she should be reinstated later, but right now people want time to process and discuss and let things cool down a little.) They also seem to have not really thought through "How do we get our message across to a Deaf university?" since their protest involved chanting and megaphones. [link]

Suzi,

also try Zazzle. They have some good shit.

Although possibly red wine and candy corn is not the best mixture.

Serious Eats doesn't have a recommendation [link] so I say go for it.

Suzi, maybe topatoco?

Suzi, Threadless.

Ooh, I just saw my first tv ad for the new Joe Kennedy running for Congress, and he looks good -- redheaded, not too Kennedy-ish. He can get it, is what I'm saying. Not my vote, because I'm in the wrong district.

Learn to read, ita ! coworkers. She doesn't need you to add to her misery.

It certainly looks like a hell of a storm, and with the kind of wind they're predicting, there will outages. The good news is that there's plenty of warning, so other utilities will have crews prestaged to help.

The main effect predicted here is that it will push arctic air this way, so I need to pick the last of the basil. It's pesto time!

A local weather person has a geeky explanation of the storm: [link]

OK, I actually got all of these right, but it's a little scary how similar they are:

Islamic Fundamentalist or Christian Republican?

[link]

flea, I will try to post it when I get home...

I am hoping Irene and the derecho took out all the weak links in my grid. Hoping. But I will do all my laundry and vacuuming this weekend before the fun really starts.

But I guess it is time to bring in the plants and deck furniture for the season. I need to wash it before I prep it to restain and oil, but that can wait until I get back.

I'm listening to the annual reading of The Raven on my local PR station.