Know-vember: Byron Ballard

Yes, it's your Village Witch, the Appalachian wise woman, Ms Ballard. We first met at the witchcraft conference at Harvard and managed to keep up with one another ever since. I'm hoping Byron will be able to manage a trip over here while I'm in Ireland. Should be wonderful to have her in the land of the ancient Celts -- many megaliths and pubs to visit. Of course she would be welcome company any time, any where.

1. What's the first thing you do upon waking in the morning?

I lie still for a few minutes and imagine the day ahead. Then I get up, put away the futon that is my bed, open the shades at the window. And go pee.

2. What's a song you might be persuaded to dance to?

I will waggle my ample backside to almost any kind of music--yes, I have danced to Mozart's Requiem--but I love classic metal, trad Brit, bluegrass. They require different dances...or do they?

3. Where in the world do you live?

I live in the oldest mountains in the world in the southern highlands of Appalachia. From my window, I can see the third oldest river in the world. So here in NC, I feel pretty young.

4. What's a great night out for you?

A great night out would be seeing a play done well (a rarity), a bottle of excellent French wine, and something delicious to eat--all with friends.

5. What's a great night in?

A few friends in for high tea that morphs into us making dinner, listening to or playing music, telling stories and jokes. Perhaps a fire outside in the fire pit.

6. If you were offered an all expenses paid trip anywhere in the world, where would you go?


My first thought is always either Meath or London but since someone else is picking up the tab, I'll go a bit further afield. Crete or Greece, I think.

7. What book do you wish everyone would read so you could talk about it?


Whichever book I'm reading at the time. Schiff's Cleopatra bio is my current one.

8. What movie makes you cry?

Gad, I cry at all of them. I'm a big sap. So, Love Actually, Calendar Girls all that sentimental rubbish. I love it.

9. What makes you laugh?

I never tire of Hot Fuzz. I've seen it a zillion times and I still fall out at "NWA" on the door of the Neighborhood Watch group.

10. Are there fairies at the bottom of your garden?


Um, yes. I call them the Cousins and we have a fair working relationship in the growing of veg, as long as I remember my place. There is also a disgruntled djinn who can't figure out how to get home and has taken up residence in the shed. Long story, I'll show you the scar sometime.

Thank you!

BitchBuzz: Little Earthquakes

My latest column for BitchBuzz touches on the laughable comment by an Islamic cleric that women's provocative dressing and sexual desire causes earthquakes. Ridiculous because even small children who look for logical answers to natural phenomena know about fault lines, but just another depressing indication of the scapegoating of women that goes on. Until my friend Byron turned my head around:

Dust kicked up across the net this week when a Iranian cleric, Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi, claimed that women dressing provocatively and "spreading adultery" were responsible for earthquakes. Kind of makes you wonder if some woman's solo pleasure caused the eruption of the Icelandic volcano (since apparently [she says arching a disbelieving eyebrow] masturbation is the last sexual taboo remaining).

The responses across the globe were predictably a mix of amused and angered: amused that someone in the 21st century could so ignore so much accumulated scientific fact, angered that it's still possible for so many people to blame women for a wide variety of evils...

Read on to see the insight my pal gave me (and gratuitous Tori Amos lyrics :-)

Nearly the end of the semester so everything is busy madness. Yesterday was a non-stop day from when I awoke far too early from a bad dream, teaching, office hours, teaching, faculty meeting (where I had to present the Women's and Gender Studies Certificate for approval, which it received despite some cranky emails before the day), a reception for our first volume of the undergraduate research journal, back to write my column, off to meet up with friends and then back home again in time to finish writing the column and off to bed. 

Wow -- even makes me tired just typing it.

Happy Earth Day, folks. Do something nice for the planet -- and not just today, either.