Pirate Category
Do You Believe in Miracles? Not when it comes to the 1980 US Men’s Hockey Team.
If you know anything about hockey, just from pop culture – you probably know two things. The Mighty Ducks and Miracle – the movie about the 1980 US Men’s Hockey Team. The Miracle on Ice The Men’s Hockey Team defeated the Soviet team. Which was a big deal! Our national team was made up of mostly college players, the youngest team in competition – the USSR had a senior team who trained together constantly. They had that team cohesion and a government back training system and just steamrolled everyone. They’d won the gold the previous 4 Olympics. In the lead…
When Kindness is a Trap
I’m a mom – one of the first things I did as a mother was teach my boys about kindness. Its importance to be a good human being. That you respect others. They weren’t very old when I started to teach them that there were exceptions to kindness. I’m not suggesting that they be cruel to others, but I wanted to make sure that they could recognize that some people do not deserve respect or kindness because of their actions towards others. Why am I talking about this now? For the home game opener for the Dallas Stars, I watched…
Crohns Recovery – Week 8 at the gym
Crohns recovery means something different every time I’ve brought it up. Up until this last year, recovery meant laying down until a flare passed. Or sometimes it meant switching to a new medicine or doing a course of steroids. Ultimately, after two separate hospital stays of 3 weeks each, which included two major surgeries, recovery meant something else entirely. I lost 30 pounds. It was nearly all muscle tone, but that was a lot of weight to lose. I lost all my stamina after a year or so of “taking it easy” while my body ate away at itself. My…
We Are Not Things
No matter what your personal opinion is, whether or not you would have an abortion or not – you should always support creating a healthy environment for a person debating abortion to make that informed decision. As states try to legislate away access to abortion or birth control – please stand up for those who deserve the right to make the decision for themselves. It’s well and fine to say that putting a child up for adoption should be an option – we do not have the infrastructure in the US to do that. Not only that, pregnancy can be…
Assuming the Worst: Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper
All I’ve heard for days were rapturous fans going on and on about Lady Gagy and Bradley Cooper’s Oscars performance of Shallow from A Star is Born. Fair disclaimer: I haven’t seen the movie. Having seen two different versions of the movie, I felt like it’s a story I’m pretty familiar with. The performance was fine, and ending with the two of them on the piano was sweet. Which is why I was surprised to see every female oriented site and most of the women in my feeds insisting that the performance proved that Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper are…
The Problem with Cancel Culture
Cancel Culture. Even if you don’t know the term, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about – a celebrity is terrible online and we declare them cancelled. Most of the time, it’s a worthy target. A continuously gross celebrity (like Roseanne Barr) who spews intolerance and hate. Someone’s who has proven that over the years they haven’t changed and remain just as gross, if not worse. Sometimes though, you run into a situation where someone said or did a lot of stupid things when they were younger – but have grown up and apologized for what they’d done/said previously…
Chris Hardwick: Why We Need to Talk About Sexual Coercion
The big story of the week is the piece that Chloe Dykstra quietly posted on Medium, where she talked about her former long-term relationship with a podcaster turned CEO, who had been older and he’d been emotionally abusive. The internet has been trying to pigeon hole this discussion into categories, and I’m here to tell you that discussions about abuse are not easy to define. Every story is unique, and should be treated that way (even if you’re talking about the same abuser). But people want to fit things into nice neat categories, so you see people try to dismiss…
Why Hockey is For Everyone… isn’t.
Note: Despite the tone, I wouldn’t be this harsh if I didn’t love the sport. My two favorite teams are both called out, because I think they could do better. We’re entering Hockey is For Everyone month. This is the second year of the NHL’s initiative for inclusivity. To highlight disabled players, women’s hockey as well as LGBT inclusivity by hosting You Can Play nights. Last year saw mostly merchandise put out by the NHL – t-shirts that boasted Hockey is For Everyone, as well as pride flavored shirts for every single team. I don’t recall seeing if any of…
#MeToo: Exposing how deep rape culture goes.
This has been a couple of wonderful and terrible months – all because of the wave of victims coming forward to talk about their experiences being sexually harassed or assaulted. (Content and Trigger warnings for discussion of sexual harassment, sexual assault and misogynistic responses to accusations) It is hard to share your story. So many people think it was easy for me to write or vlog about what happened to me, and every time I had to convince myself to share it. Especially the vlog. I didn’t want anyone to see my rage or my tears. I didn’t want to…
Choices and Image Rehabilitation.
Last night on the Emmys, one of the most talked about moments was Sean Spicer coming out with a podium – ala Melissa McCarthy’s performance of him. The crowd at the Emmys was stunned, but it got laughs. And indeed, a lot of people found it funny online. And heck, James Corden, tried to kiss him on the cheek afterwards. But I wasn’t laughing. There’s a lot to be said about giving people second chances – but after Spicer left the administration, people were immediately downplaying his role in the White House. He was just the messenger, don’t you feel…
