Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Last PhD comp written!


Hello all!

I am proud to report that I have succeeded in taking my final PhD comprehensive exam. It was touch and go their for a while, between having a husband up and fly off to France for the week, having a sick 11-month-old, and contracting tuberculosis myself (I exaggerate only slightly). AND accidentally getting addicted to watching Breaking Bad on Netflix, my problematic almost didn't get theorized.


In our department we have to write three exams after the master's comps and it's up to us to choose our timeline, our list of texts, and our problematic. (Most people are able to write them in a year and I'm proud to say I stayed within that timeline even though I had a baby!) Then we are given a question and have 5 hours to write a 10-15 page "paper" using only our memories of the texts. This last exam I wrote on Affect theory and "musical" or "sonorous" poetry of the 20th and 21st centuries. It was particularly difficult because I had to memorize lines of poetry in order to quote them, instead of just relying on summarizing a narrative or character profile as I could do in novels.

However, my semester wasn't over until I graded my students' final papers and submitted their overall grades. I was so proud of them. We had a "beach" of a final project (excuse my French), with multiple drafts and edits. I worked them to the bone to emphasize writing a good thesis, using textual evidence, and actually writing a literature paper, something that even the smartest students haven't mastered. I was very proud to read their final drafts, and with the grades submitted, I am officially on holiday!



Brunch at Coca in Lawrenceville 
Papa's so fun
Which one should we get Babis?
Looleemonstaminh saying "who needs gifts? Just pet me, that's gift enough." 




Here I am at age 1 on December 24, 1981!

Here's Antonia wearing my dress 30 years later!


Christmas kisses at a baby shower last weekend

I'm upholding the Swedish tradition of lighting one candle on each Sunday of Advent


I've been busy with all kinds of projects since I've been on break (mainly involving eating) so another update is on its way. We will be spending Christmas in Tucson, Arizona with family. Soon to come, pictures of Antonia near various cacti! 

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Shop smartlike.


So here's an update on my Sophie the Giraffe blog post: In case you were worried I had become a loon from loonville about all this health mumbo jumbo and hippy-type environmental "hogwash," Rest assured, I am, in fact, a loon from loonville. However, please remember that the REASON I wrote about Sophie the Giraffe's potential dangers was not so that you would all hold Sophie bonfires, but so that there would be more of a debate about what we buy, and that we would collectively continue to question companies' claims. I was taught to ALWAYS QUESTION facts and truths (which is why I was not a very popular middle school student but is also why I am such an *amazing* grad student!)

My blog was adapted as a message to pass the Safer Chemicals Act by Safer Chemicals Healthy Families. You can see the adapted blog here:

What?! Sophie the Giraffe tested toxic in France?!

And guess what? Sophie wrote back. She left a comment on my blog, then directed her blog at my false "allegations." (Let's just remember it was Lemonde.fr who originally provided these allegations). She was pissed. (It is funny that this baby toy's blog persona is bitchy). Here is what she said publicly. If you're a grammar snob like me, this might make you cringe a teensy bit:





"Also, I’m quite disappointed with the statement that my handlers in the United States only care about selling more Sophie’s. HOGWASH, I tell you. Bloody hogwash. Their parents as well and considering no one ever reached out to them about this is it is a little unacceptable to claim that their concerns are merely the bottomline."

See more:

Sophie's blog

So for the first time in my life (that I know of, if I'm wrong don't tell me please), I've found myself the target of internet insults. Feels...good? I mean, I guess it's the first time I realize that we have a kind of power in social media discourse. Little old me, with my brand new blog, pissing off Sophie the giraffe? Where could we go with this?
What's strange about this whole thing is that somehow my message about passing regulations to force companies to sell safer products got stuck at the title of my blog. Is Sophie, or is she not, toxic? Like I said, there are results from either side and I for one am certain that she is one of the safer toys out there (which is scary if safe can't really be defined internationally). Here's some more of the scoop on Nitrosamines:

My brother-in-law who is a chemist explained it to me like this:



If we look at the analysis we notice (for each Kg of rubber):
nitrosodiethylamine <0.001 mg/kg
nitrosodipropylamine <0.001 mg/kg
nitrosomorpholine <0.001 mg/kg
nitrosopyrrolidine <0.001 mg/kg

the value is under detection levels 
There have been studies on rats that show levels of toxicity:
nitrosodiethylamine 220 mg/kg 
nitrosodipropylamine 480 mg/kg
nitrosomorpholine 282 mg/kg
nitrosopyrrolidine 900 mg/kg

So here's his quick calculation :
If you have a baby who's 4 kg and a giraffe about 0.5 kg (Sophie is much lighter than that) 
nitrosodiethylamine <0.0005 mg
nitrosodipropylamine <0.0005 mg
nitrosomorpholine <0.0005 mg
nitrosopyrrolidine <0.0005 mg

So a baby would have to ingest 1 760 000 giraffes for it to be a real danger. 

Here's another article that breaks it down from the other side:

Not so fast Sophie meanies

So in conclusion, what can we do about this? (Because throwing away Sophie is obviously not going to solve the bigger problem) I found some sites that can help lead us in the right direction. For those of us not willing to sell one of our kidneys in order to buy natural, organic, vegetable based toys, just try to pick and choose with what you think is important. Maybe make one purchase to support a company you feel is taking our long-term health seriously.

http://www.healthystuff.org/


http://safemama.com/toyguide2011/


http://www.theglassbabybottle.com/


http://www.beginagaintoys.com/mission/mission.html


http://raisingnaturalkids.com/


http://healthychild.org/main/


Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Watch out! Mama on the warpath!


Sophie la girafe toxique?!


I find myself on the warpath. Since I have become a mother, certain health issues suddenly seem more important. The more I learn about what I buy, ingest, and subject myself to, the more I want to protect my 11-month-old from. In researching and talking to people about how live a more healthy life, I find myself teetering between two poles. Either I have to give up on trying to avoid unhealthy chemicals, or I have to go live in the woods and eat stone soup like a total nut job. Or do I? Isn’t there a way to make certain healthy and important choices without everyone rolling their eyes at you?

I recently read an article on one of France’s leading newspaper sites lemonde.fr about how my daughter’s (and many other babies’) favorite teething toy “Sophie the Giraffe” had tested positive for potentially cancer causing nitrosamines that are illegal in baby bottles and pacifiers in Europe. This has of course caused a big debate about both journalism and marketing. Sophie is marketed as being one of the safest toys out there.


Vulli, the company that has made Sophie the Giraffe for fifty years, quickly released a statement saying their toy was safe and another very reputable (if more right wing) French newspaper (Le Figaro) published the following article:


Here’s the thing. I know that most plastics and chemicals are potentially dangerous. And I know that many of what is harmful occurs naturally, such as nitrosamines. However, I’m frustrated that it seems impossible to get a straight answer from any company when what is important is the bottom line. Saying Sophie the Giraffe may cause cancer is going to HURT SALES. And in this economy, that’s BAD. So a quick fix is to keep moms buying. I’m not the first person to say this, but aren’t our priorities a teensy bit skewed?

Whenever I bring up conversation topics about preventable health concerns I’m always met with the same response: there’s always something worse. Smoking is worse! Pollution is worse! We’re all going to die of cancer anyway. (These are all responses I’ve got to telling people about the potential danger of Sophie) It seems that people in general don’t take seriously what will potentially affect them in 20 or 30 years. This is understandable. I’ve smoked. I drink. I’ve bought vinyl shower curtains and plastic water bottles. I make choices that I know are bad for my body, and for the environment. So my question is, what choices can we focus on without drowning in scientific data that just makes us want to throw in the towel?

I was lucky to have grown up in one of the most beautiful and cleanest places on the planet: Bozeman, Montana. After-school outings included horseback riding, hikes, sledding, skiing. We ate organic produce from my mom’s garden all summer and drank and ate gallons of Macintosh apple cider and applesauce from our apple tree year round. After bouncing around the globe, I find myself settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where life is not as pristine. And I love it here. I really, truly LOVE Pittsburgh. But I need to feel safe, and I need to feel that my daughter is not growing up ingesting preventable carcinogens.

I am a graduate student in French Literature at the University of Pittsburgh, so by speaking French, I have access to media that many other American parents do not. However, I feel that I need someone to trust here in the U.S. Is it the government’s role to prevent potential cancer in future generations? Or is it up to me to wade through thousands of contradictory scientific sources and wield my “power” as a consumer to only buy what I think is safest for my child? The sites I use like healthychild.org and healthystuff.org are great, as are the good people at Safer Chemicals Healthy Families that I follow on facebook. But let's do more!

In her book Bossypants, Tina Fey makes fun of the kind of mom who breastfeeds snobbishly and buys wooden toys (gasp). I’ll admit it, I’m that mom. But I’m also the mom who needs to juggle school, teaching, family, life, comfort, convenience, and health. And I think we need someone to trust who has our back. Not our back now. Our back 50 years from now.

Because, see, I don’t have the time. I’m too busy kissing my baby.



Friday, December 2, 2011

Blame the Economy!

Don't tell my advisor but I LOVE to teach. This semester I'm teaching "Approaches to French Literature" and I was able to create the syllabus and choose all the texts all by my lonesome! I know it's not *cool* to be overly enthusiastic but I love my class. Especially since I have some interesting students.

Since it's a small class (12 students), one absence is very noticeable. And absence excuses are the best. Today a student who has missed the last week of class told me it's because of the bad economy.





When I pried further I found out he meant he has so many parking tickets that his car was towed and he can't afford to pay the towing fines and tickets to get it back. And busses are just inconvenient. So he needs a job or needs to sell his car. I asked him how he was paying for the class. Loans. I asked him if he felt like re-paying for it when he has to retake the class next semester. He won't be absent again.

Is this mean? Harsh? Maybe. Ask me what I do if someone falls asleep in my class.