Linkies, Scoob

--My pal Carol Paik has a fabulous essay in Newsweek this week about being mistaken for other Asian women and the slippery nature of (perceived) racism. You like, yes? Then check out this essay about playing Scrabble with her kids. I love it.

--I read David Shield’s The Thing About Life Is That One Day You’ll Be Dead. It’s a strangely uncategorizable book—part memoir, part biology writing, part rumination on life and mortality. I liked it quite a bit. (The super-minor quibble I do have—that it’s fairly male-oriented when, in someone else's hands, it might not have been—is part of its fabric, the fabric being a blend of father/son stuff. Hey, the fabric of his life! Although not mine! And that’s okay because it’s his book!) Anyhoo, he quotes Woody Allen, and I enjoyed it:

"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve immortality through not dying. I don't want to to live on in the hearts of my countrymen. I would rather live on in my apartment."

--Brené Brown over at Ordinary Courage has a super post on Unilever, the company that makes both the Dove products (with the lovely feminist commercials) and Axe (with the ridiculous male-fantasy commercials). Have a read, have a look. I’m thinking that it’s always going to be the nature of a big corp, that they’ll never stick to one set of ideals, although the people working there (or doing a given ad campaign) may be genuine. But hey, I’m an avowed feminist who nonetheless nurtures an addiction to Rock of Love, so take that for what it’s worth.