An entire month of sassitude

It's women's history month, and I'd like to highly recommend viewing the Ken Burns documentary, "Not For Ourselves Alone," about Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. It's fascinating and beautifully done. The only exposure to the suffrage movement I had as a child was the song "Sister Suffragette" in Mary Poppins, which really ridiculed them. I hope history text books have been updated since, but we never studied it in school.

I'm just back from California. Maggie went with me on a brief, overnight adventure to a teachers conference. It was GLORIOUS to be out in that wonderful weather--trees and ocean and authors and booksellers and teachers--what a combination. Maggie was, of course, a huge hit. All she had to do was smile and coo, and everyone melted. I wasn't going to travel anywhere in her first six months, but the timing was really nice to get out of the house and be together, the two of us. She's pretty wonderful.

On the ride to the San Jose airport, we passed a huge sign off the freeway that said, "HAPPINESS IS SUBMISSION TO COD ALONE," and my mind was tumbling, trying to make sense of it. Why cod? What's wrong with halibut or a little salmon? Am I ignorant to some deep truth about sea fish? It was several seconds before my brain caught up with me and I realized that the "C" must have actually been a "G." Ah. I was a little sorry to realize my mistake. I would've liked there to be some mysterious organization promoting submission to cod.