Oyate Fundraising update

Reposting from a mailing list, because I haven't seen this on my flist yet:

To those of you who contributed to our challenge grant from Two Rivers Circle, I have great news to report: In a short time, Oyate received 213 donations, for a total of $7,935, way more than we ever imagined! Most of the donations were small, and reflected both the economic crisis and the generosity of lots of people who care about what we do. Many donations came in from members of progressive organizations (including, of course, ChildLit) that spread the news on their listservs and blogs. What all of this means is that we are going forward with the overhauling and redesign of our website! This is all very exciting. Stay tuned.

-Beverly Slapin

$7935, folks! How amazing is that?

ETA Well, I might have checked first to see if it was news to anyone but me, but that doesn't make me any less pleased.

My slapstick life

While in the grips of the migraine I decided that what I needed was caffeine.

I could have gone to the coffee shop two buildings down.

Instead, I put the kettle on, went back to bed, forgot I had the kettle on, took off my glasses, heard the kettle whistle, tramped down the hallway clutching my glasses in one hand, stepped in cat vomit, slid half the length of the hallway towards the gas flame and boiling water, knocked an entire package of tea out of the cupboard, and yelped in dismay.

"Are you all right?" Diana called from her room.

"Fine," I whimpered, mostly because I was too close to losing it to elaborate.

I managed to get tea bag, tea cup, and hot water together without further incident.

I went back to bed. I drank my tea. By 1:15 before work, my headache had improved to the point where I could get on shoes and stumble in the direction of the subway.

Sorry about the trail of smushed cat vomit, Diana.

(no subject)

The New Yorker has an article on Rose and Laura Wilder that doesn't quite plumb the depths of all the issues it raises -- Rose Wilder's nascent libertarianism and its influence on the Little House books, for example -- but is nonetheless worth reading.

The wilders had, in fact received unacknowledged help from their families, and the Ingallses, like all pioneers, were dependent, to some degree, on [various government-funded institutions] and, most of all, on the federal government, which had cleared their land of its previous owners. "There were no people" on the prairie, Laura, or Rose, had written. "Only Indians lived there." ([Pamela Smith] Hill writes that Wilder agreed to amend the sentence when an outraged reader objected, calling it "a stupid blunder." It now reads, "There were no settlers.")