martinimade

Light on links this week because I am under deadline pressure for about six other things. It happens. Next week may have more free time in it. Unless it doesn't. 

• Two takes on Brexit: 1 and 2.
• Undercover as a private prison guard.
• How do you clean a vest made from butterflies?
• Sex, gender, genitals, and sport.
• And in a self-promoting link: have I told you lately that I'm running the NYC Marathon in November? Have I mentioned that I'm thisclose to my fundraising goal and could really use your help? No? Then let me mention it again: I'm raising money for Every Mother Counts, a non-profit dedicated to reducing maternal mortality on a global scale. Please help me support this cause. 

“I am not, by trade or character, a spotlight operator. I’m the goober with a flashlight, stumbling into corners and crannies, not looking for anything specific but knowing when I’ve found it.”

― Mary Roach, Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War

Two (!) tidbits for you today:

1) My fortnightly column for Another Mother Runner is now live. It's all about anxiety. Because I haz it.

2) The lovely Rachael Herron invited me over to her virtual crib to talk about writing. You can drop in on our conversation, too!

• For the win. (Not safe for work. Really.)
• The hate triangle.
• Gorgeous and gory.
• Mail a galaxy.
• Ratfuckers. Or, why the GOP didn't take over the House and Senate because they became more popular.
• Well, now I really want to go there.
• I'm sharing this mostly so that I can remember to watch it later.

This may be a shocker: I can, indeed, write about something other than running. In this case, that "something" is space pirates (and others) over at The Austin Chronicle, a paper of my former employ.*

Also: if you've ever wondered what I sound like (and don't already get to hear my dulcet tones on a daily basis), SBS and I had the chance to talk to Tom Foreman, CNN reporter and writer of My Year of Running Dangerously. He is, as you might imagine, a hoot.

-----------------------------------

* sort of. 

• All women have done/do this, even when we are not aware of it.
• Sarah says some very true things about writing your first book.
• Hope is the thing our brains hold without us having to try.
• Peak white privilege.
• "Elizabeth, carrying a laundry basket..."
• I, too, am an unnatural mother.
• I find this sort of race appealing. 
• My demographic.
• Clip and save for later.

" I’m not super fast but I’m tough and strong with a high threshold for boredom, which is the perfect recipe for an ultra-endurance athlete."

-- Caitlin Constantine on her Iron Man training.

 (I don't aspire to be an ultra-endurance athlete, mind. But this does help explain while I prefer running long to running fast.* 

* That's what she said?)

This week's column at Another Mother Runner is alive! In it, I channel my inner Kimmy Schmidt!

• I have had this exact same argument with myself, for the exact same reasons. 
• Poetry about probability.
• Breaks my heart a little.
• Tear up the script.
• Let America regulate your flow.
• Again, in women, heart attacks don't look like heart attacks.
• Oh, the barking.
• All of this is true.
• No shit.

Every now and again, I have the opportunity to talk with some mother runners via the amr podcast. This time, our guests were Muslimahs who run. Not only that, SBS and I got to talk about a skirt that makes my arse look fantastic....