A Hero Falls

By on May 10, 2019 in Rape Posts | 2 comments

Fairytales are part of life. I loved them as a child, especially Rumpelstiltskin because it had three good witches and only one mean one. In the version I had, the girl in the story bested mean old Rumpelstiltskin. I guess …

Rape in the News, May 2019

By on May 4, 2019 in Newsletter | 0 comments

Dear Readers, This is the first of monthly newsletters on rape and sexual assault in the news for the month of May plus a short commentary. Read, comment if you like, and let me know if I missed something important. Don't forget to subscribe. Thanks, Hannah

Rape, Race and Rebellion: Nate Parker and the movie, Birth of a Nation

By on Sep 8, 2016 in Rape Posts | 3 comments

For those of you who haven't been paying attention to the scandal and drama that was triggered by Nate Parker's new movie, here is a brief recap.

Rafael Guastavino and The Basilica of Saint Lawrence

By on May 13, 2016 in Other Blog Posts, Rants & Raves | 2 comments

An article on Rafael Guastavino, his life and his work and one building close to my heart, The Basilica of Saint Lawrence in Asheville, NC.

Catholicism and Me

By on Mar 12, 2016 in Other Blog Posts, Rants & Raves | 2 comments

I'm Catholic. I'm a Catholic in my heart, in my morality and in my soul. I didn't practice Catholicism for a long time — it may well have been forty years. If someone asked me my religion during that time, I said, "I'm a recovering Catholic." Get it?  

Flannery O’Connor, A Short Story Review

By on Jan 28, 2016 in Other Blog Posts, Reviews | 1 comment

flannery_oconnor O'Connor's metaphors and character descriptions are so vivid they jar the mind. Her writing is energetic and barbed with such naked honesty it initially struck me as rude or written by a rube but nothing could be further from the truth.    

Fixing The Rape Kit Backlog

By on Nov 6, 2015 in Rape Posts | 4 comments

Hundreds of thousands of rape kits lay moldering away on storage shelves, prey to dust mites and mushrooming mould. But times are changing.  

Svetlana Alexievich, Chernobyl and the Nobel Prize

By on Oct 24, 2015 in Other Blog Posts, Reviews | 5 comments

Svetlana Alexievich wrote Voices from Chernobyl: A History of a Nuclear Disaster, a compilation of the stories of many people tied together by one uncomfortable fact; they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were there when the Chernobyl plant blew.

Draupadi and the Mahabharata

By on Aug 25, 2015 in Other Blog Posts, Rants & Raves | 0 comments

The Indian epic, the Mahabharata, is a tale of love, of hate, of two clans who vie for a kingdom, of a dice game where a kingdom is lost . . . and of a war to the death fought to gain back that kingdom.