washwords

The Mommy-track post, or as Maggie Dammit would say, the post in which I lose several readers (in a fiery rage? she didn’t say that part). Anywho, back to my point, which was… am I evil for resenting a “New Parent Community of Practice” recently (heh) spawned at work? Don’t answer yet. Let me explain.

I. Let’s say one works at a federal government agency. Let’s say said anonymous Place of Employment offers flextime, telecommuting, maternity leave, paternity leave, on-site (good) day care, part-time schedules, family-friendly sick leave, use of sick leave and annual leave towards extended maternity/paternity leave, etc.

Photo by N. Farnsworth as printed on Flickr.

II. Let’s further say Place of Employment is a place where work is analytical and done in teams in a Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, this is an actual conversation I heard on the Orange Line towards New Carrolton. Ah, Washington in the summer… bring on the interns and the summer associates. Some towns have sports talk. We have this (transcribed as closely as I could write on the back of an Express newspaper from my nearby seat)

Obvious summer associate 1 (let’s call him L1): The Harvard girl… how old is she?

L2 (yep, another one. I know, in DC. What are the odds?): 30 something.

—LONG PAUSE WHILE L1 AND L2 PONDER HOW OLD HARVARD GIRL IS. IT ALMOST DEFIES EXPLANATION! —

L2: She took some time off. [me and L1, thinking, “ahh. that explains it.”

L2: To work for the Cheneys.

L1: What??

L2: She took some time off, to work for the Cheneys.

L1 (and me):     !

L2 repeats again.

L1: Really?

L2: Yes. On a Project.

L1: (smirking) which was…. Read the rest of this entry »

Round red tomato implicated
in outbreak

This guy just LOOKs like a bad seed, you can tell. Tune in next week for more of FDA’s most wanted (produce.) Yep, this is straight from FDA’s Web site. hee. Special thanks to my pal, SuperT, for her award-winning health policy research skills that yielded this tip!