When I grow-up, I want to be Betty White.

Yes to this, too! Isn't this the point of e-mail? Concise, quick, readable, etc.? My students and my adviser enter "the zone" whenever I send them an e-mail, so bullet points and monosyllables definitely work best.

Oh and she's Shi'a, too? That's like the Islamic version of a "Kick Me HARD" sign.

Hearted.

No shit.

@JeNeSaisTwat, You should check-out Edward Said's "Orientalism" as he himself was an professor of English and Comparative Lit at Columbia. "Orientalism" is metric tonne of literary theory and Said's scope is really fascinating. It's sort of the seminal work for contemporary Middle Eastern Studies/Islamic Studies.…

Intellectually and emotionally this is really jarring. The unprofessional side of me wants to point the finger and say, "Wow, you have some balls, pal!" but I know that my own personal and professional uneasiness and anger with this whole situation does prove his point about "liberal Orientalism." As someone who also…

And I also enjoy how the West continues to be obsessed with the supposed virility of Muslim/Eastern/insert conflation here. Never going to let that one go, are we? Nope.

I'm starting to see where the West gets its information on Muhammad. I used to think it was almost exclusively from medieval sources written by monks or later works by prominent Orientalists, but now I see that they're from contemporary biographies of Osama bin Laden because obvi Osama was so pious and obeyed all of…

All I seem to be reading about lately is tragically-exploited-and-now-deceased blondes.

Yeah! That's what interested me, too... what is it like to be that beautiful "without having to work at it, very much" and to be totally un-tweaked.

I was just looking at the picture of Kim Kardashian and now this thread on Anna Nicole Smith and it makes me wonder: what's it like to be that beautiful? I always thought being really obviously, aesthetically beautiful would make life easier, but it seems to be proven over-and-over again, from the Kardashians to Anna…

This will be devastating if it is a hoax and I am sickened to even think that it could be a hoax. The internet and social media should be a powerful tool for dissent without us having to waste time figuring-out if who or what is behind the sensation is real or not. Unfortunately, I realise that's not always feasible.…

"If there were any danger in early marriage, Allah would have forbidden it," a Yemeni member of parliament named Mohammed Al-Hamzi told me in the capital city of Sanaa one day. "Something that Allah himself did not forbid, we cannot forbid."

That was gorgeous. Thank you. xx

If the positive reinforcement thing works, that's great: that's one less kid on a pharmaceutical.

Anne of Green Gables made me embrace my red hair (and gave me a desire to make it redder, much to my mother's chagrin), made me unafraid to be smart, which was a pretty big deal in 5th grade, and introduced me to the wonders of Alfred Lord Tennyson. Wow, I think I'm going to read it again this summer and see if it…

This should be a movie that goes straight to video. You know, like when you're so desperate for something to watch and someone more desperate than you has already rented "Weekend at Bernie's" so you settle for the next best thing which happens to be this crap.

Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there…

When I taught Intro to Women's Studies, I used to use YouTube for music videos related to whatever the topic of the day/week was and it was a great way to get the students thinking critically and unpack the larger issue if they could use popular culture as a bridge. One of my most successful classes used Beyonce's "If…