Dammit

The other day Maybelle and Biffle came by my office at the end of the work day, so that we could bike home together.  As I was holding Maybelle, I asked her to name everybody in the room--a sort of cute and also educational strategy we engage in a lot. 

"Who is here?"  I asked.  I pointed to myself.  "Mama," Maybelle said, then, "Boppa," and "Amber," who works in the office and babysits for Maybelle fairly often.  Then I pointed to Ashley, who's come to our house on multiple occasions.

"Dammit," said Maybelle.

"What?" I asked.  "Her name is Ashley."

"Dammit," Maybelle confirmed.  I got her to repeat the word Ashley, but that seems only to be a friendly nickname we offer.  In Maybelle's mind, the girl's name is somehow inexplicably "Dammit."

Of course, we inadvertently reinforced this misnomer by laughing every time Maybelle identified Ashley that way.  Claire warns that it's cute now, but once she gets to public school, we'll have to be sure Maybelle understands that the teachers there don't find swearing as adorable as we do.

Jawgrind

Please go below and read Biffle's post, "Continuing a long tradition of putting very personal things in public places" (such a true statement about Biffle).

Then come back up here for something much funnier:  I am a guest star on Uncle Trey's podcast, Jawgrind!  It's episode 22, "Respectable Voltage." I was brought on as the feminist expert to comment on the misogyny of "Metamorphosis," an episode from the second season of the original Star Trek.  "Jawgrind" is all about old episodes of Star Trek.  The hosts are full-on nerds:  all computer-based careers, and all white guys.  AND they're all guys I'd like to hang out with (let's be honest, who did I spend my college career with?).

Uncle Trey records the conversations and then edits them, so he does hours of work to make "Jawgrind" happen.  It's pretty cool stuff.  This is a new level of fame for me.

No content beyond a video of Maybelle, and a great picture

Since Robin commented recently that she was disappointed not to get to see a video of Maybelle, we've decided to oblige (we're very reader-friendly here at Baxter Sez).  If you're looking for a Maybelle fix, this post is for you.  Here you get to see Maybelle's developing skills with the Mary Poppins song "Let's Go Fly a Kite":


Let's go fly a kite, 9-16-17 from Alison, Walter, and Maybelle on Vimeo.

Also, here's a picture her Uncle Trey took of her on the playground Friday:

Where the hell are the Biffle-Piepmeiers?

I know, I know--we've been really absent on the blog these days.  I haven't been reading blogs lately, either, so if my blog friends are up to amazing things, I don't know about it yet.  I'll catch up eventually--we've just had a lot going on.

Some highlights:

• Palmetto Invitational Band Classic:  On Saturday, Biffle, Maybelle, Uncle Trey, and I went to this fabulous showcase in the football stadium around the corner from us.  The event was so cool that I realized as I was writing a blog post about it that I really need to write an article for the City Paper about it.  This is one of the weird bummers about having a new/different writing outlet:  some of the things that would have gone here a few months ago now need to go somewhere else, and all that will go here is a link to the column.  I mean, I love having a column with the City Paper, but it feels a bit like I'm letting Baxter Sez readers down.  Kenneth Burns, is this why you stopped blogging?
• Please notice in the picture above that Maybelle is carrying a cloth doll.  Her name is Leah, and she's a hand-me-down Groovy Girl from Nina, the person in the world most like an older sister to Maybelle.  As I write this blog post, Maybelle is eating breakfast, and Leah is sitting at the table with her.  Leah is much beloved, and she's quite the dancer.  It's interesting that out of the three Groovy Girls Nina gave Maybelle, Maybelle has identified Leah as her favorite--and that's the doll that was Nina's favorite, so much so that she has a notable bald spot from all the loving she received from Nina back in the day.
• Visiting speakers:  Ann Fox is in town right now, and she's an ideal person to bring to campus, because not only is she fun to hang out with, but she's legitimately interested in the thoughts and experiences of every single person she encounters.  As I told Biffle last night, if she were sitting at the table with us, she'd ask Biffle what he does, and when he said he was a woodworker, she'd immediately have three truly curious questions about the work he does--questions that would be interesting for him to answer.  She's having lunch with some students today, and they're going to love her.
• Jawgrind:  Here's the big news for tonight:  I've been invited to be a guest on the podcast Jawgrind!  I'll admit here that my friend Eliza made a tiny bit of fun of me for expressing my excitement for being on this podcast in which Trey and his friends discuss old episodes of Star Trek.  It is a bit of a nerd herd phenomenon, but I love the nerd herd.  Nerds are my people.  Plus, nerds are often a bunch of white boys, and they need some diversity, so I will at least bring the white woman voice to the herd.  Rest assured I'll post a link here when the podcast is up.
• Family pictures:  One more thing:  check out the picture below.  What do you think?  Thanks, Trey!

Evidence that Spielberg wisely refused the monkey penis that Lucas shoved deep into his neck pouch

Raiders of the Lost Ark is out on IMAX this week.  We saw it last night.  Do you know what Spielberg changed in the 30 years since he created the film?

Nothing.

Every bit of the film is the same as it was, all the melty faces and everything.

"He didn't even focus scenes that were blurry!" I announced with joy after the movie.

"That's because it was his artistic vision," Biffle said.  Neither of us needed to point out that Lucas doesn't even know the meaning of "artistic vision."

And where, nerd herd, were you last night?  Why weren't you all with us at the IMAX, loving loving loving Raiders of the Lost Ark?

My day yesterday

Before you read this, please watch the video on the post below.

Alright, now, here are some images that document my day yesterday.

My day started at 5:30, when Maybelle woke up. Biffle got up shortly thereafter and offered to let me go back to bed, but the second I woke up, my brain started spinning around and around the fact that bell hooks is on campus today!  I would not be going back to sleep.


Here's Maybelle just before we got on the bike to go to school--she figured out how to climb onto Biffle's back.



Of course the big event of the day was bell hooks!  She gave a free public lecture in one of the biggest auditoriums on campus, and it was full.  Folks came from all over--Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Georgetown--because she's that important.  The questions were fascinating, and bell (I get to call her that now because I know her) talked about the various things she's reading and thinking about.  Here she is with Amber Cantrell, who planned every detail and managed all the last minute crises that arose. If Amber didn't work for WGS, bell hooks would not have spoken on our campus.

And here's some of the winding down that happened after I got home from the series of successful events with bell hooks: Maybelle demonstrated that she finally knows how to sing "Let's Go Fly a Kite" from Mary Poppins.

"Let's Go Fly a Kite," 8-31-12 from Alison, Walter, and Maybelle on Vimeo.

Extreme parenting video

I've got other things to blog about today, so come back and check for those updates, but for right now I need you all to go check out this amazing video made by my blog-friend Elizabeth.  Biffle and I both make appearances, as do many, many other wonderful parents from around the country.

Elizabeth asked us to send in photos of the message we wished we could have given ourselves when we learned that our child has a disability.