blueberry muffins

Today I had to make blueberry muffins. It was just one of those days. I periodically have these muffin moods. They're just perfect snacking food, I don't feel like eating leftovers (I know, not a proper dinner), and I've been eating too much chocolate (orange wrapped individual pieces from my friend, Melissa, yummy housewarming present).

We caught a mouse last night and felt so triumphant. Unfortunately, our victory was short lived. We saw another mouse scurry across the kitchen in front of us. Currently, the mouse is trapped in the closet with us hoping that eventually it will not be able to help itself and stick to one of the glue traps we have in there.

The local news is full of the possible MTA transit strike. It seems to me a case of being used to having it good and not wanting anything taken away. I realize it's not the best job, but a subway train driver makes $60,000. Currently, they can retire at 55 (MTA wants to move it up to 62 for new employees). If they select a HMO for their health plan they don't even have a co-pay. When they retire they can half of their salary annually. They have a really good deal. Ezer and I could walk most of the places we need to go - it's good that Manhattan is a small island. But his job at 168th would be a bit of a stretch - maybe a 50-minute walk? On campus next week is finals week...students who live in Brooklyn would not be happy campers.

A good read: Why so slow? The Advancement of Women by Virginia Valian It was recommended by two women professors who head the subcommittee on diversity in science at Columbia. I'm sure I'm totally guilty of gender schema behavior and been affected by it as well.

"A scholarly and convincing explanation of women's slow progress in the professions. Whether in business, law, medicine, or academia, women are not advancing at the same rate as men. They're not paid as well, they occupy less-powerful positions, and they are not as respected. In this copiously researched book, Valian (Psychology and Linguistics/Hunter Coll.) attempts to explain why. She argues that we all have unarticulated, often subconscious ideas about gender that affect both our behavior and, perhaps even more importantly, our evaluations of one another. For instance, we think men are logical, women are social; men are competent, women are flaky. As a result, men are consistently overrated and women underrated by coworkers, bosses--and themselves. The resulting advantages and disadvantages may be small, but they accrue over time to create large gaps in advancement. Valian reviews numerous studies, enlivens her material with personal anecdotes, and offers both personal and societal solutions. She looks not only at the workplace, but at its context--data on how girls and boys are raised and educated differently and the extremely inconclusive biological research on men and women's ``inherent'' differences (she has a refreshingly balanced take on the latter, noting that there may be a few differences, but they don't justify our discriminatory assumptions and practices). Throughout much of the book, Valian is in effect synthesizing the work of other researchers--but her take on the material, which draws richly on a linguist's sensitivity to nuances of verbal exhcanges, is fresh, and it's worth doing, since few readers will ever see the obscure studies she cites. Probably too academic in tone for most readers, but for anyone concerned about gender inequality--or perhaps even more importantly, readers who think they aren't--it's worth a look. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP."