the educated serf

I just posted a piece on the Green Connoisseur blog about Tom's Shoes , which is this great company that creates very eco-friendly shoes but, even better, donates one pair of shoes to people in Argentina and South Africa for each pair that gets sold.  People who live in warm climates with a lot of volcanic ash in the soil can get podoconiosis, which is a disease of the lymphatic system caused by silicate particles in the bloodstream.  It can be easily prevented by wearing shoes.  The videos of shoe drops and earnest Tom's Shoe's workers delivering beautiful yoga-like slipons to kids in villages is more than any one heart can bear.  And if you hurry up and buy some for your loved ones, Tom's might reach its goal of donating 33,000 pairs by Christmas. And in case anyone who loves me actually reads this thing, that's the pair I want....

We had friends over for Thanksgiving this year.  Odd with no students, but we all had fun, including Scarlett, who had a dog buddy named Riley.  I even think Stephanie, the four year old daughter of our friends, had a good time despite the fact that the other kids were quite a bit older.  Stephanie is bright and funny and creative.  I know she likes Hello Kitty! so before the holiday, we raided the dollar aisle at Target and got her some goodies.  I've never been a huge fan of Hello Kitty! although I have my own anime favorites and allow Zoe and Esme to spend way too much money on other San-X characters ( the platypus! ) at Kawaii (Kawaii means "cute" but it's also the name of a store in Pittsburgh that's full of the stuff).   I did, however, like to buy Hello Kitty! for Leah, especially when she was in the hospital and needed goodies.  It must have been a running conversation between Leah and Arlene (her mom) because I have at least two memories of Arlene making

Have I got any?   Does it matter?   I'm going to add a photo of my new flip-top mittens later today.  I bought them from a Latin American couple who are street vendors on the Strip District.  We'd already bought a few pairs for other people, some ceramic turtles, and I'm edging up to the nice sweaters, but they do look itchy and honestly, who has the money?   Anyway, my pair does not have the flip top thumb because I do not want to be free to text and freeze my fingers.   The inside of the entire mitten, including my thumb, has a nice fleece lining.  These are warm warm warm.  I wish I had the skills to make them, but I'm so glad to pay someone else who does.   Lately, most of my positive contributions to society have been food related (good felafel yesterday...).   I am working on my spring course on the sociology of food and labor . (the course info is in the online catalogue) I am, of course, obsessive about covering everything.  I now know way too much about the hi