books read

Diana Vreeland (and ghostwriters), DV (1984).
This autobiography of the former Harper's Bazaar and Vogue editor remind me why I have given up my long-held subscriptions to fashion magazines. I like clothes, a lot. I am interested in pictures of clothes, discussions of why a garment works or doesn't, what garments are flattering to what bodies, and women's personal style. My favorite Vogue article ever was one by memfault, a famous female author, on how she dressed and why she chose the clothes she did. It was very much, "I am 70 years old, and I know what looks good on me, and I know what doesn't, and I get pants made that fit me by a dressmaker, buy Keds, and buy couture, because I know my needs." Diana Vreeland's book is about the other part of fashion magazines - the name-droppery and the "ooooh, it's fabulous!" She's also appallingly racist and classist (even for a woman born at the turn of the century) - black people uniformly have innate style, and various Europeans are described in approving terms as "a complete peasant." Also, who names their kid Frecky? I spent the whole book wondering what it was short for.

Lenemaja Friedman, Shirley Jackson (1975).
I read most of this book - it's a little bit biography, mostly literary criticism - because it was the only thing the library had on-shelf about Jackson. It's not a good book. Don't read it. Especially don't read our copy, because it has very annoying pen underlining all over it. The best thing about this book was that it made me think about how life has changed since the 1950s (Jackson and her friends all drank like fish; today they'd all be on anti-depressants, and in Jackson's case probably needfully so) and it contained this gem, a quotation from Jackson's daughter Joanne, "...although she wasn't what anyone could rationally call beautiful she was an extraordinarily charming woman and throughout my childhood there were hundreds of people who partied at our house and came to see her for the pleasure of rapping with her" which keeps making me go into giggles over the thought of Ms. Jackson bustin' rhymes over the sherry while she's cooking dinner. (Yes, I know "rapping" had a different meaning in 1975. Still, hee!)

health care rant

We're talking about having another child next year. We decided to keep our current insurance level - the broader coverage is $50 more per month for me and Casper (mr. flea is covered through his school). The broader insurance would have covered (mostly, with higher copays, etc.) delivery either through the midwives at the local State U hospital (an excellent practice, I believe they delivered ste_noni's Ellie) or the midwives at the local freestanding birth center. But we decided against it, and decided that instead if we do have a child I'll go with the practice I went with for Casper, despite the fact that they have dropped midwifery coverage and added "aesthetic services," and I wrote them a nasty letter about these actions last year. (One assumes said nasty letter isn't in my medical file!) I tried another local Ob/Gyn but found them sort of "eh" (I asked the NP how the practice felt about natural childbirth and she was all amazed that I'd delivered a baby without an epidural and wanted to do it again) and my former practice at least had worked with midwives for many years, so were midwife-friendly. And their nurses seemed nice.

Except my neighbor who's having a baby next week told me last night that they've now joined forces with another local practice, so there are 10 doctors on the call rotation, so your odds of getting any given doctor when you actually go into labor are 1 in 10. And she discovered that one of the doctors from the other practice had a DUI last summer - she looked up the papers - on a day she was on call, with a BAC that implied 6-8 drinks under the belt, at 4pm, and hit another car and left the scene of the accident. Naturally this incident has not affected her ablity to practice medicine in any way. When my neighbor asked the head doctor of the practice about the DUI, he said that if patients had personal conflicts with any of the doctors the practice encouraged that they communicate and talk it out. Somehow I don't class, "You had a DUI arrest last summer; are you an alcoholic? Are you fit to practice medicine?" to be a 'personal conflict.'

So what the hell is a girl who wants to have a baby supposed to do? I sort of feel like I might as well get no prenatal care and just show up at the hospital when in labor, for all the personal attention I can expect from any of these practices. And carry a hand-held breathalyzer just in case Doctor X is on call. I suppose the real answer is, pick the practice with the best nurses, and hope the L&D nurses at the childbirth-friendly hospital and your doula will manage to overcome the fact that you've barely met the doctor who's delivering the baby.