On small breasts

The New Neo Posted on by

In an effort to boost my traffic, I am writing about breasts today. Small breasts. But breasts nonetheless

As did the NY Times recently, in a piece about a new trend: lingerie stores that cater to and celebrate the less-endowed woman.

I’ll keep a respectful silence about my own particular form; that much traffic I’m not seeking. But back when I was a dancer, I observed that small-breasted women had it sort of good, at least in the ballet and fashion world. Their bodies created a better line for both dance and the display of fashionable clothing.

And I never understood the later trend towards implants, especially of the perfectly round variety, a shape that does not exist in nature for the human female breast but has become a standard of sorts. When you view enough of these orange- or grapefruit-like objects in catalogs such as Victoria’s Secret which purport to show the ideal female body, the unreal becomes the sought-after, unobtainable except through surgery.

Men being men, there’s a certain tendency I’ve noticed for larger breasts to be considered better—at least, up to a point (pun unintended). But men also being men, there’s a certain tendency I’ve also noticed for a pretty wide range of more-than-acceptable possibilities for the desirable female form.

And speaking of wide ranges, there is actually a website dedicated to photos of unenhanced, non-surgically altered female breasts. It’s not meant to be prurient, although some might certainly find it so. It’s meant to demonstrate to girls growing up in the age of the ubiquitous implant what a natural breast actually looks like, so they don’t get the idea that theirs are abnormal. That’s what it’s come to.

[NOTE: You might enjoy Nora Ephron’s comic 1975 meditation on her own small-breast woes. I especially love this sentence; a perfect description of the bathing suits I recall from the late 50s and early 60s:

That was the era when you could lay an uninhabited bathing suit on the beach and someone would make a pass at it. ]

Connectivity

The New Neo Posted on by

I’m having connectivity problems. Hopefully they will be temporary.

I just got online, and I’m slapping this post up to let you know what’s happening, just in case I lose the connection forthwith.

[ADDENDUM: About 45 minutes later it’s still on, so I think I can safely assume it’s fixed.]

My mother has another adventure

The New Neo Posted on by

Many of you have followed the story of my mother’s stroke and rehabilitation, and her move back to assisted living in New York, where she’s been doing pretty well for the last four years.

“Doing pretty well” at the age of 96 is not quite the same as doing pretty well at forty or fifty. But, as my mother says, “I can’t complain. Actually, I could; but I won’t.”

She had reached a certain homeostatic equanimity: walking with a walker, doing a lot of reading, and needing assistance only for taking her medications and showering. And this despite the fact that the staff at her initial rehab facility five years ago had predicted she would need 24-hour-a-day assistance for the rest of her life.

Doing pretty well—until last Thursday, that is, when I got one of those dread phone calls. This one was from my sister-in-law, saying that my mother had fallen and had been rushed to the emergency room with a broken hip.

My first reaction was a short expletive. I know the score on broken hips in the elderly, and my mother is nothing if not elderly.

The first good news we got was that her heart was strong enough to withstand surgery. The second was that the procedure (partial hip replacement) had gone well. The third was that she didn’t have any of the extra confusion so many elderly people get from the anesthetic. The fourth was that she seems to be doing okay painwise after having been taken off morphine two days ago (her surgery was Saturday).

And the fifth, which I witnessed yesterday (having come down to New York to spell off my brother and sister-in-law), was that she took a few steps. I would not have believed it had I not seen it myself. Two youngish physical therapists came by and announced that she was going to stand, and my mother’s reasonable response of “No, I’m not!” was overruled.

With only a single muttered “It hurts!,” my mother cooperated, allowing them to support her heavily while she leaned on her walker, stood, and took a couple of tiny shuffles forward and back. Then she sat down on the edge of the bed and did it again at their behest.

I well know that the road ahead contains many possible pitfalls. But after witnessing that scene—and after one of the therapists turned to me and said, “Your mother must have a very high pain threshold”—I have to admit that my mother seems to have a lot more grit than anyone ever gave her credit for. Which is a good thing, because extreme old age is not for sissies.

[ADDENDUM: I’m not crazy enough to think this sort of thing is in the future for my mother and me—but take a look at this perfectly astounding mother-daughter duo:

RightNetwork

The New Neo Posted on by

Today is the launch of RightNetwork. Have a look:

At RIGHTNETWORK we have created an entertainment television network for Right-Minded people. RIGHTNETWORK will have a presence on the web, your mobile device and, yes, your television….Here you’ll find a fresh daily perspective that is unapologetically American. Everything will be presented with humor, insight, wit, and an optimistic turn.

And the editor-in-chief of the site is none other than Gerard Vanderleun, a blogger with whom you’re probably already familiar.

Obama the feisty

The New Neo Posted on by

This odd piece by John Dickerson in Slate seems to be saying that:

(1) Obama has returned to campaign mode.

(3) Obama has become feisty again.

(2) Obama has fastened on the argument “those mean old do-nothing Republicans are to blame for any problems I’ve had.”

(4) The above three will energize the base.

The problem is that:

(1) Obama has never really left campaign mode.

(2) Ditto with the feistiness, at least in his rhetoric.

(3) Obama’s constant song has been to blame the Republicans (plus Bush and Cheney) for all his faults.

(4) Even a great many Democrats are heartily sick of the first three above. Plus, none of these approaches is likely to convert a single Independent or Republican to the other side in 2010.

The problem with Obama and the Democrats this year is not what they haven’t done, it’s what they have. And nothing Obama can say—and certainly not these tired devices—is likely to make a particle of difference.

[ADDENDUM: And this approach doesn’t show a whole lot of promise either. Highlighting the Obama’s family’s personal economic troubles? Pul-eeze.]

Do we talk about Obama like we talk about dogs?

The New Neo Posted on by

I dunno; how do we talk about dogs? What did Obama mean when he said:

Some powerful interests who had been dominating the agenda in Washington for a very long time and they’re not always happy with me. They talk about me like a dog.

I used to have a fluffy little white dog, a cockerpoo. He lived to be fifteen, and he was a real sweetheart. When I talked about him, this is the kind of thing I said: “such a good dog,” “so friendly,” and “not too barky for a small dog.” And in fact, most of the talk I’ve ever heard about dogs has been on the order of: “dogs are better than people; they give you unconditional love.” Nice stuff.

People tend to love their dogs.

But somehow I don’t think that’s the sort of talk Obama meant. Obama’s odd phrase is another off-the-cuff statement of his that reveals a certain awkwardness with the vernacular. Did he mean “treat me like a dog?” At least that’s an expression we can recognize.

His remark reminds me somewhat of Richard Nixon, who famously said to the press in 1962 after his failed run for the governorship of California, “You won’t have Richard Nixon to kick around any more”—the candidate as despised object and self-pitying victim.

It’s unlikely that Obama was trying to emulate Nixon, however. More likely Clinton, whose homey folksy metaphor “I’ll be with you till the last dog dies” and second place finish during the New Hampshire 1992 primary helped earn him the sobriquet “the comeback kid.” Obama wouldn’t mind a bit of a comeback himself right now.

But no, it’s not Clintonesque. I think the original source has actually been located, and it’s Jimi Hendrix. And if you don’t believe me, listen up at 0:27:

Jackie Evancho: the voice

The New Neo Posted on by

I don’t ordinarily watch “America’s Got Talent.” But I’ve heard of the 10-year-old singing phenom on the show, Jackie Evancho.

She’s a tiny girl who’s not hit puberty yet, with a voice both beautiful and surpassingly strange. What would be lovely, but not all that remarkable, coming out of an adult, is freakish emanating from a child. If there was a disconnect listening to Susan Boyle because her powerful and self-assured singing voice contrasted oddly with her awkward social personality, at least it was a grownup voice emerging from a grownup body. With Evancho, it’s not. Eerily, a grownup voice is emanating from a child (and no, she’s not lip-synching):

What interests me most is the question: how does she do it? This is the only article I’ve found so far that goes into the physiology and technique behind what’s happening:

The difference between Evancho and fellow Pittsburgher Christina Aguilera is how they produce their sound. A pop voice is “like revving a motorcycle,” says Anne Tomlinson, music director of the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus. “The sound is produced right on the larynx. In bel canto, which is actually the technique opera singers use, the breath is used to support the voice like water supports a boat.”…

“[The voice] needs to be able to function as it is and at the stage of development it’s at,” says Mike McCarthy. As music director at the National Cathedral in Washington, one of McCarthy’s main responsibilities is training the child sopranos to sing in the traditional Anglican men and boys choir. “There is a question of the development of the voice in its more natural form, and by natural I don’t mean like an innocent, sort of treble white ”” I just mean as it matures, it doesn’t try to sound too old, doesn’t try to imitate the sound of an older singer.”…

Carol Tingle is a Los Angeles-area voice teacher who has been instructing private students since 1966. “Technically what’s she’s doing is lowering her larynx to get that opera sound. Singers are incredible imitators of sound. It wouldn’t surprise me if she hasn’t listened to many opera singers, so what she’d be able to do is adjust the larynx and imitate the sound she is hearing either recording or by her coach.”

All children imitate their heroes, whether it’s basketball or singing. A good teacher will make sure pupils channel that enthusiasm into finding their own style. In Evancho’s case, her teacher has an additional challenge: safeguarding that voice.

Puberty may pose a challenge to Evancho as well, as it often does to child singers. Will it change her voice for the worse, or the better? She probably has at least a few years ahead of her, though, to earn the big bucks before it happens. She seems to be a nice, unspoiled kid; let’s hope success is kind to both her psyche and her voice. It will almost undoubtedly be kind to her pocketbook.

A Day for Labor

The New Neo Posted on by

Labor Day is the bookend on the opposite end of summer from its holiday beginning, Memorial Day.

July Fourth is its early peak, with the promise of many long light-filled days ahead. But Labor Day is summer’s last gasp, the moment I dreaded as a child because it marked the finish of vacation and the start of the school year. Spiffy new clothes, a shiny bookbag, freshly sharpened pencils, and the promise of beautiful autumn leaves’ arrival were nice. But they couldn’t make up for the fact that a new school year was beginning. Where oh where had the summer gone?

Now let’s celebrate the fact that we don’t have to worry about that anymore—except, perhaps, for the teachers among you.

As for politics—Obama will celebrate the holiday by speaking at a union function in Milwaukee. He’s one of the most union-friendly presidents in history, so at least the crowd will know he’s sincere. Soon, as part of a new economic proposal, he will ask for $50 billion dollars to improve public infrastructure.

But wait a minute—didn’t we just do something like that as part of the hated stimulus bill? Is this not a perfect example of sending good money after bad? Does Obama really think that members of Congress running for re-election are going to be eager to vote yea on this one? And most importantly, does he not realize that the temporary jobs it will create are not what the nation needs most—-that people want government to stop its anti-business stance and to create a climate that will encourage the private sector to hire more permanently?

And Obama’s anemic proposal for a $100 million tax credit for businesses that develop new technologies will hardly do the trick, either. Obama’s focus has been so profoundly off, his emphasis so transparently wrong, his delay in offering any sort of meaningful relief so protracted in the face of mounting crises, that Americans do not trust him—and rightly so—whether they think him a fool, a knave, or both.

[ADDENDUM: Hey folks—I forgot to wish you a Happy Labor Day! So consider it wished.]

[ADDENDUM II: The tax credit is for $100 billion; not so anemic. But still not inclined to do the trick, for the aforementioned reasons.]

Bragging on HCR

The New Neo Posted on by

It’s not really surprising that Blue Dog Democrats who voted against HCR in the House are bragging on that fact in their 2010 campaign ads. They’re from relatively conservative districts, and it makes sense that they would point up their opposition.

What’s more surprising is that no Democrat, even those in liberal districts, is bragging on having voted for the bill:

…[P]arty officials in Washington can’t identify a single House member who’s running an ad boasting of a “yes” vote ”” despite the fact that 219 House Democrats voted in favor of final passage in March.

One Democratic strategist said it would be “political malfeasance” to run such an ad now.

Democrats have taken that advice to heart; it appears that no Democratic incumbent ”” in the House or in the Senate ”” has run a pro-reform TV ad since April, when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) ran one.

And President Obama? Democratic candidates are saying, “Who? Never heard of him.”