"If you can't feed 100 people, just feed 1" - Mother Theresa

Sometimes I feel like 1/2 the world is starving because they have no access to good food, and the other 1/2 is starving themselves on purpose. I've had friends in both camps.

Not to sound like a PSA, but It's National Eating Disorders week, and if anyone you love or you yourself are struggling with food issues, please check out their website.

"we don't have a pair without fur, so we can't do a reliable test." -sij

In my recent Torontonian adventures (I learned to ice skate backwards! Granted, it's like baby steps, but still), my boots were the subject of much debate.

For the record, I got them at Nordstrom Rack for $26.00. What I like: They are insulated and fuzzy and kept my feet nice and dry in the mounds of snowy Arctic conditions in Toronto. What I don't like: They have tanks on them. As in, military tanks. On the flap where you lace up, so it's not really noticeable, but it is disturbing to me that I'm wearing them. They were the only snow boots there that looked reasonable and practical, however, so I bought them anyway. I don't really think a pacifist should wear things with tanks on them. There is probably more to this story, but I'm stopping here.

Sij wanted to know if the fur was merely decorative or really kept snow out. She suggested dragging a leg through a snow drift just to see what would happen. I didn't take her up on this idea, although it would have been great product testing. I think it's pretty decorative, but I also think the lining is superb enough and does not require fur.

I put the boots away in the back of my closet when I got home this week, only to drag them out again yesterday morning when it snowed. Seattle weather is beyond me.

"This is an extraordinary time in our country, an extraordinary time to be working on education" - Arne Duncan

- from the Confirmation hearings, published in the Washington Post, Monday, 2/19

I met Mr. Duncan once several years ago at a Teach for America event in D.C., and was blown away by the passion for kids he exuded simply sitting in a room. My favorite part, highlights mine:

"I believe the fight for quality education is about so much more than education. It's a fight for social justice.

I come to this work with three deeply held beliefs.

First, that every child from every background absolutely can be successful. Rural, suburban, urban, gifted, special ed., ELL, poor, minority -- it simply doesn't matter. When we -- when we -- when we, as adults, do our job and we give them opportunities to succeed, all of children can be extraordinarily successful.

Secondly, maybe the flip of that, when we fail to properly educate children, we as educators, we perpetuate poverty and we perpetuate social failure. And that's not something that I want to be a part of.

And third, our children have one chance -- one chance at a quality education, so that we must work with an extraordinary sense of urgency. Simply put, we cannot wait because they cannot wait."

LOVE it.

say my glory was I had such friends - w.b.yeats

I love that poem.

I'm on my way to visit a glorious friend in Toronto for a bit. I'm sure I'll have some good stories when I get back. For now, read a good poem and have a great week!

"that's a lot of prepositions" - Javier

I went to see He's Just not That Into You last week, having not yet read any reviews for it. I figured it would be shallow, have at least a couple laugh out loud lines, and an ending I'd be mostly pleased with.

While it delivered on two of those counts, upon reflection, I've got a couple problems with it.

1) the opening scene in which women around the world complain about men. The scene of women in africa was painfully demeaning.

2) the movie was set in Baltimore, a city I love and lived in for 3 years. But this was not a Baltimore I recognized...it had a glossy, happy veneer on it. It was the nice, polished Fells Point, Inner Harbor, or Mt. Vernon neighborhoods, except airbrushed versions of even these. And it was very, very, very white. For more thoughts on this, see latoya peterson's review.