All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

This law, of course, gave rise to the “separate but equal” racial discrimination clauses, those same clauses that were done away with at the same time the anti-miscegenation laws were repealed (although it might be worth noting that the last anti-miscegenation law was not removed from the books, as it were, until 2000, in Alabama; Virginia was the last state to prosecute, in 1967).

In Loving v. Virginia, which has to be one of the most poetic legal case titles there will ever be, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled

Marriage is one of the “basic civil rights of man,” fundamental to our very existence and survival…. To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State’s citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discriminations. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State.

Twenty-nine years ago, our country realized that love is colourblind. How much longer will it be before the country realizes that swapping gender for race in the Loving decision is a simple swap made so because of this very first line: marriage is one of the “basic civil rights of man,” fundamental to our very existence and survival.

If you believe that, if you believe the State does not have the right to tell you who to marry, then you can only watch with anger and disbelief as the Washington Supreme Court violates the very basic civil rights of man laid so clearly out those 29 years prior.

Here’s hoping the case continues forward in appeal, and that the United States Supreme Court heeds its own words and rules that “classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State’s citizens of liberty without due process of law.”

Well, since we’re talking about 826 Seattle, let me take a moment to share with you news of the new tour, Revenge of the Bookeaters. Apparently these shows, and this tour, are asking the eternal question: which is better, words or music? And being 826 benefits, they, well, benefit the centers nationwide.

In Seattle, this question is being poised by John Hodgman, of the Mac v. PC advertisements. If you’ve managed to miss those advertse, then perhaps you know him from The Daily Show -= he’s their expert. On everything. If you’ve missed that, since about the only way you’d miss the Mac v. PC adverts is if you didn’t watch TV, which would preclude The Daily Show, then you might know him through his book, The Areas of My Expertise, which as I mentioned, is everything. If not, then I’m afraid I cannot help you.

Anyhow, John will be hosting a veritable, uh, large-ish container shaped something like a croissant of people! Stephin Merritt, the always-present Daniel Handler, Dave Eggers, Sarah Vowell and apparently more!

And since y’all definitely support 826 (even though, in my sadness, I’ve never been to the space shop – cry!), y’all definitely want to know about the Seattle tour and date, right? Right! So here ya go:

September 1, 2006
McCaw Hall
Seattle, WA

Tickets are on sale now.

It sounds like loads of fun, and Seattle has a great lineup for the shows. I do wish I could see it myself, but I’m going to be on the other side of the country by then. Of course, I couldn’t let such a fabulous opportunity pass me by, so I’ll be seeing the first show, benefiting 826 NYC, on August 23rd, with Sufjan Stevens, David Byrne, Dave Eggers…and Jon Stewart.

Did I mention my tickets are 2nd row, dead center?

I’ll let y’all know how it is, and I promise not to gloat. …much.

Did you miss Firefly when it aired on TV? Want to see Serenity in the theatre again? Well, you’re in luck! The Kirkland Performance Center is once again running a Firefly/Serenity marathon. They’ll be showing three episodes of Firefly (The Train Job, The Message, Objects in Space) as well as Serenity. Long, but well worth it! Go for the ‘verse, stay for the singalong!

Burn the land and boil the sea, you can’t take the sky from me.

The gritty details:
Firefly / Serenity Marathon
July 22, 5:00 PM
Adults $12.00 • Sr $12.00 • Youth $12.00

To purchase tickets, click here. They sold out last year, so getting the tickets fast would be a good idea.

Fully admitting that I’m sitting at my computer killing time today – unable to go back to bed no matter how badly I want to, due to parental scorn on the couch – I, through the miracle of clicking links, found my way onto a TV-scoop website. And what did my wandering eyes see, but a small update on next season’s Grey’s Anatomy! I figured, if you’re like me, you’re in mid-summer withdrawal, wondering just when the new season starts, and what in the world is going to happen!

Well, now I can tell you one thing: our wonderful McVet, Chris O’Donnell? Only listed as a recurring character for part of the season.

Hmm… ;)

There’s a new handwritten prescription ban in Washington that has doctors and pharmacists both a touch puzzled. According to this new law, doc’s must print. But that printing can be block printed, written letters or computer printed. Typewriters are also valid, although when’s the last time you saw a doc office with a typewriter? This legislation leaves a lot of folks wondering “who decides what legible handwriting is, anyhow?” No cursive? Not even my mother’s Catholic school perfect penmanship? What if they have my blockprint handwriting, poor souls? How about that smudgy inbetween? And if something isn’t legible, and it’s a necessary-for-life drug, is a pharmacist going to have to play bad cop and refuse to fill the prescription?

The pharmacists interviewed in the Seattle Times article all said they were planning on ignoring the legislation and doing what they always do: call the doctor’s office if a prescription is unclear, or doesn’t make any sense. And frankly, this seems to be the most sensible idea of all.

I do have to wonder how easy it’s going to be to forge the printed prescriptions. My own doctor has been printing all but schedule 2 prescriptions for a few years now, and it’s occured to me a few times that it’s not the most secure method of prescription writing ever. Recently, they switched to printing schedule 2 prescriptions on special paper which is both a funky colour and appears to have some sort of watermark built in.

The legislation itself should make significant strides in reducing patient death due to misfilled prescriptions. I think my main problem with this legislation is that it puts pharmacists in the uncomfortable position of having to police doctors to follow the law. I just think it’d be best if they mandated a target date for all doc offices in the state to move to printed prescriptions – remove the ambiguity and necessity of the pharmacist playing cop. Because as I’ve said elsewhere, that’s not their job, either.

The NYTimes clip used to highlight Seattle and the Hutch.

If you didn’t know better, you might think that The Colbert Report was filming in Seattle this week. First we get the end of last week Death Cab for Cutie reference, and then we get the episode last night (June 19th). Leading with a long monologue about Bill Gates retiring from Microsoft, Stephen then switches gears to talk about risky business, his own frequent risk taking (including doing stupid things with his wife around), and how this is suddenly all explained by mice and researchers at the Hutch who’ve isolated genetic causes for risk taking, and its environmental reward. This was the basis for one of the main segments of the show, The Word.

Will the trend continue a third night running?

It’s often been said that you know you’ve made it when people start making fun of you. And in that case, Bellingham natives Death Cab for Cutie have definitely made it: on the June 15th episode of Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, the very bad play on words “Death Cab to Cuba” was the title of the segment on Gitmo and the continued detainment of hundreds of people.

With special thanks to the LJ community TCR_Images for providing the screenshot, and a place to ask for it!

Well, I’m rather pleased to say that the day before leaving Seattle, I finally made it to Gasworks Park. What a weird mix of industrial waste and beautiful scenery; I’d love to know who thought “hey, industrial waste’d make a great playground!”

Today was definitely the day to go, too – almost perfect colour saturation at the time we were there.

We hit the Troll on the way out, too, and got to watch some teenagers rehearsing Romeo & Juliet. It was cute; they looked sort of like Phantom of the Opera hit a weird discoglitter gang version of the Capulets and Montague’s.

To wrap up our night out, we had dinner at The Cellar, a cute little Italian restaurant on the back side of the Hill, on 10th. The food and service was excellent; my one complaint would have been the heat. And goodness, if you go, beware! That red velvet cake, although delicious, is actually a small mountain masquerading as a cake, and it’s gonna take at least three people to summit the damn thing!

Saying goodbye at the end of a quarter is always hard. Although the quarter is only 10 weeks long, you get really attached to the kids that come through the classroom; or at least, I do. This quarter, I spent two days a week in a two hour lecture with the students, as well as another 90-120 minutes alone on Friday. And we had fun. We talked about a wide range of subjects, and manage to tie everything from ancient birth control to American Idol, pop music and improv comedy to the class subject, and all done with a lot of laughter and affection. I’ve read their journals, helped with their midterms, and on Monday, I get to see their projects. One girl will be wearing hers – I can’t wati! (And I hope to snap at least a few photos to share with everyone. I figure y’all might like to see what’s kept me away from my blogging duties here.)

But this was a little harder than most goodbyes. It’s the last time I’ll be teaching at the University of Washington, and the last time I’ll be teaching at all in at least a year. Teaching has, in a large way, become part of how and who I define myself as; letting go isn’t easy. But I managed to stave off tears by going out to The Mix ice cream parlour on The Ave with half my students. We ate and talked and reached into one another’s ice cream cups without bothering to ask, and it was comfortable and warm, and the perfect way to remember everyone.

I doubt any of them will see this – but thanks, Section AA of CHID 270. Y’all were amazing, and made this quarter so very worth it. Thanks for humouring the idea that a fellow undergraduate might have something interesting to say, and for following me down this twisted rabbit hole of a quarter.

For the rest of you – brace yourself. One week, and the University graduates an awful lot of us. Next weekend ought to be a crowded mess of graduates and their guests!

- able to feed 2 vegetarians and 6 omnivores, 2 of whom are picky eaters
- not strongly ethnic (one of those picky eaters very much prefers simpleness, like steak and not so much with the pad thai)
- less than $20 per person (for the budget of the person paying, eek!)
- accesible parking

Since we have cars, we can go just about anywhere in the greater Seattle area. Just…send me somewhere nice, eh? I even promise pictures and a review after! How often do you, dear reader, get to direct a Metblog author’s subject?