The Bank of England recently issued a memo to its female employees regarding dress code for them.  Some of the choicer bits include:

‘looking professional, not fashionable; be careful with perfume; always wear a heel of some sort — maximum 2 inches; always wear some sort of makeup — even if it’s just lipstick. Shoes and skirt must be the same color. No-no’s include ankle chains — “professional, but not the one you want to be associated with;” white high heels; overstuffed handbags; an overload of rings, and double-pierced ears.’

There are so many things wrong with this I’m not even sure where to start – the blantant sexism, the inappropriate jokes, or the bad fashion sense. Not only are they attempting to tell their female employees how to dress “like a woman”, they are apparently attempting to get them to dress like their maiden aunts.

Now obviously, men and women are different. Men who work in finance do not often wear skirts, heels, or makeup – except perhaps very late at night – and allowances should be made for gender differences in professional attire.  But in this case the executives of BoE went too far in describing exactly how they believe females should dress.

I also understand than there has been a lapse in dress code standards in many fields, and banks and other fine stuffy institutions do not want employees of either gender to dress inappropriately. Personally, I don’t care if my teller is dressed like streetwalker as long as she counts my money correctly, but I realize most people prefer to be served by those wearing more formal outfits. That’s fine, and an employer should be able to dictate standards within reason, as long as they are not obviously discriminatory.

So, for the benefit of those poor managers who clearly had one too many over lunch the other day, I present an example of a memo on dress standards for all employees that should help keep things looking spiffy over there, with the added benefit of hopefully preventing any class action lawsuits. They are welcome to use it, free of charge, in order to prevent any future missteps of language they may potentially cost them millions of dollars.

“Dear Bank of England Employees,

All employees must dress professionally at all times, in a manner consistent with current standards of formal business dress. Employees must present a clean and neat appearance at all times, and must wear a suit  (either with trousers or a skirt no shorter than knee length) and matching shoes. Heels are acceptable when appropriate, but may not be any higher than 2 inches due safety concerns in the event of an emergency. Visible piercings other than a single set of the earlobes, excessive amounts of jewelry, and visible tattoos are not permitted. Ankle chains are right out. Employees will refrain from wearing strong scents which some customers may be offended by. Make-up is permitted to the extent that it enhances the professional appearance. We don’t care what kind of handbag you bring, as long as you keep it off the damn counter!

Thank you for your cooperation,
Bank of England Managers.”

And what, you ask, are they going to do when a literal minded and enterprising gentleman shows up to work in diamond studs, heels, and Chanel? Tell him to put on some lipstick, of course!

I found the whole inauguration ceremony incredibly moving, despite my lack of access to a visual feed. President Obama’s (it feels so good to type that!) speech was incredible, in every aspect. He spoke honestly and unshirkingly of where our nation is at the moment, and I found it refreshing, touching, and inspiring. I loved every word, but especially gratified to hear these lines:

“We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.”

When I heard that, it was like burden was lifted off my shoulders – the burden of living and working  under a government ruled by dogma, fear, superstition, and religious zealotry. I hope that this speech is a true indication of things to come, and a country in which reason, fairness, and compassion have the final say.

I can’t contain my good feelings today. I have struggled for a long time with my affection for soon-to-be President Obama. Oh, I was always going to vote for him, but I’m cynical and realistic enough to know that no politician is ever as saintly as they appear. It’s clear that he’s an ambitious man (you can’t be president unless you are, and certainly not at so young and age), and I didn’t want to get sucked in to the mentality that he’s this perfect, amazing leader who is going fix all our problems and never lie, or have a scandal, or do any of things all our previous presidents and senators have done.

But finally I realized something… Obama has not ever said or done anything that made me uncomfortable, hinted at dishonesty, or shown anything other than good intentions, extreme intelligence and realism. If there were skeletons in his closet, they would have been found by now. There are things I don’t agree with him about, but I always feel his views are coming from a compassionate and pragmatic place. This makes him either exactly who I want to believe he is, or the world’s best actor. And even if he is the latter (and not that I really believe that), does it really make a difference as long as he keeps doing the things we need him to do? Probably not.

So I for one am choosing to believe in this man – not that he is perfect, but just that he is essentially honest, smart, caring, and will do the best he can for our country while he’s in office. I don’t know if anyone could fix all the problems we have in 4-8 year, but I think he has the best shot at if. So I am giving in. Obama has my complete support, and yes my love and trust as well – something I have never given to any politician before – on his inauguration day. I only wish I could be there to see it in person!

I even ordered my inauguration t-shirt from Rock the Vote via CafePress, because I just can’t resist anymore. I want everyone to know how I feel!

If you, like me, don’t deign to have TV in your home (or are stuck at work, also like me!)  you can watch it live online through Cnn.com and Facebook and many other major news outlets.

So that’s it…and please don’t break my heart, Mr. President!

Since we had a little spare time on the way to Science Online 2009, we decided to stop at the North Carolina Zoo for a few hours. Despite the freezing temperatures and the zoo being not exactly “on the way” (try 1.5 hours past our destination), we still had a blast.

The zoo is divided into two parts: “North America” and “Africa”, which are connected by meandering trails. I was actually shocked at the size of the place. There are large spaces between most of the enclosures, as well as many of the enclosures themselves being quite large. Despite the face that the major of animals, particularly the African ones, were not out due to the cold we still got a good feel for the zoo overall, and both agreed it was one of the better zoos we had ever been to.

The exhibits are laid out in a logical manner, and are arrange in clusters by ecosystem as much as possible. As I mentioned before there is a lot of space between exhibits, which makes for a pleasant walking experience, good crowd control  on busy days, and less stress for the animals (Example: At the Bronx Zoo the lions are in plain sight of the Thompson’s gazelle at all times, which I imagine makes the gazelle nervous and the lions frustrated). Much of the space is forest, and a decent attempt is made both at attractive artwork and informative signs in the non-exhibit space.

River otter at the streamside exhibit

Many animals, particularly the grazing and herding animals have simply enormous areas to themselves. The bison and elk share many acres of land and seem to be able to avoid each other when they want to. The chimps and baboons likewise have large three dimensional areas, both inside and outside. The crowning glory, however, was the African savanna/elephant habitat. Despite all the animals being inside in the warm when we were there, the area they have for them is just stunning. We emerged from the African Pavillion to a balcony overlooking what seemed like endless grasslands on which countless grazing animals could roam. This is a far cry from the Philadelphia zoo, where two elephant share a grassless, shadeless, concrete yard.

My only complaint in the habitat size is for some of the larger carnivores, particularly the cougars, lions, and red wolves. I felt that they really could have used some more space to roam around in, although I am ambivilant about keeping large carnivores in zoos at all, even in the best of conditions.

Some of the most memorable attractions were the Sonoran Desert exhibit, a huge glass dome in which many beautiful plants and animals of the American southwest were housed, and the African Pavillion which was a riot of jungle plants and animals, all cleverly seperated but giving the impression that you really were strolling through the jungle with animals all around you. Sadly, we were told the African Pavillion is to be torn down due to problems with the aging structure, but I hope they put something in similar in it’s place, as it was a delight to visit. We did not have time to stop at the aviary, although from what I have heard it was equally spectacular.

Angry humming bird in the Sonoran Desert enclosure

On the whole, it is a zoo definitely worth visiting, and we got a good vibe about how they treat their animals. They even have a school program for high school students, and a wildlife rehab facility on-site.  The only real negative was, as I said, a few small enclosures for carnivores (though at least they have plenty of room to expand into someday). Also, the sheer size of the zoo means that it takes a long time to get from one end to the other, and a long time to see everything, so I recommend setting aside most of the day in which to take it all in, and making sure you leave enough time to get back to your car at the end of the visit.

I hope to go back when it’s warm enough to see more of the animals, and with more time to explore all the nooks and crannies.

Size: Large
Cost: $10 for adults, $8 for students, $6 for children
Animal care/health: A
Variety of animals: B (North America and Africa only, but unusual species from each)
Staff helpfulness: A
Enclosure size: B+
Educational value: A
Handicap access: A+

Overall rating: A

As many of you know, I’ve been at the Science Online 2009 blogging conference with Mr. Laelaps this weekend.  I had a great time and met some awesome people, and was definitely inspired to blog more and blog about science in particular. In light of that, I’ve decided to split up my online presence to make my blog more consistent and readable. In the future all my science related posts will still be here, along with posts relating to politics, environmental issues, and similiar topics.

However, my more personal stuff such as recipes, sewing or knitting projects, and pictures of my cats will mostly be found at my new blogs, Domestic Blips. This is partly an attempt to make my posting here more professional, and partly because I like to put things in boxes. =)

And now, our trip in pictures:

Leaving for North Carolina at midnight

Sea Lions at the NC Zoo

Romeo, the only diadem sifaka in captivity in the world, at the Duke Lemur Center

Mr. Laelaps speaking on blogging and science education

I recently found out I have to have a rather unpleasant medical procedure. It’s nothing serious and I’m told the procedure can be performed in my doctors office with a local anesthetic. However, I have not had good experiences with doctors over the past 10 years of my life. My doctor assured me the procedure is “not that much more unpleasant than the test [i took to diagnose the need for the procedure]“.

Unfortunately for her, that test was one of the most painful and traumatic experiences of my life and the four advil she suggested I take beforehand did nothing to counteract it (and I assume the four advil she told me to take before this procedure will likewise be unhelpful). And while I will have a local, there are several things she has to do prior to administering the local (including the giant needle in a sensitive place) that I can expect varying degrees of pain from, in addition to the pain afterward, and the emotional discomfort from the sight of smoke coming from part of my body and the smell of burning I have been told to expect.

I asked my doc repeatedly if I could either be put out for this or receive a dose of an oral pain medication to help me cope with the discomfort and sheer fear the situation. She’s refused, but did agree to give me a Valium beforehand because I’m clearly not going to experience pain – I’m just being emotional. Well, I am being emotional, but only because I was in so much pain last time!

All this leads me to reflect on my previous experiences with the medical community, how many bad incidents I have had, and how many of them may have been related to me being a woman. I have no way to prove sexism in any of these cases, and indeed the offenses mostly came from female doctors, but if it wasn’t sexism then it was elitism – the assumption of the doctor that he or she knows everything about you, including how you feel or what you will feel, and the refusal to listen to what you are telling them about your own body.

I actually don’t have any childhood memories of scary pediatrician visits. I don’t really remember my early docs but they seemed nice enough and I never minded shots much. My first memorable run-in came when I was 16 and went in to get medicine for an ear infection. My mother was there and the doctor sent her out of the room and proceeded to quiz me about my sex life. Since I didn’t have one at the time I was puzzled by this, but politely told her I was not active, had never been active, did not have a boyfriend, and was too busy with school to want a boyfriend at the moment. She insisted that she could not tell my mother and that I should just tell her the truth and she could prescribe me birth control without anyone knowing. I repeated my protestations of my virginity, from which she concluded that I was a lesbian and told me I should “still use some protection to avoid STD’s”.

That alone was enough to put me off doctors. But alas, in my sophmore year of college I found myself with another ear infection and went to the campus health center to get some medicine. While I did receive medicine, I also received a lecture from a doctor I had never met before on how I was clinically obese and needed to do something about that (I am about 20 lbs heavier now than then and still not considered obese). She concluded that I was unhealthily fat without taking my BMI, cholesterol, or blood pressure measurements.

The next year I found myself at the doctor’s again, this time for Lyme disease from my job working in tick-infested forests. I had a rash on my back the size of Jupiter and could barely drag myself to the appointment. The doctor again was female, older and Chinese with a poor grasp of English. She brought with her a teenage American boy. She never explained his presence (I assumed he was shadowing her but he was much too young to be a med student) or asked my permission for him to be in the room during the exam. There’s nothing like feeling like crap on a stick while wearing a hospital gown and having a 17 year old ogle you. I didn’t protest because frankly I was too sick to care at the time but once I recovered I got really angry about it. The doctor even took pictures of my rash without asking me.

Add to this an oral surgeon who lied to me about my being knocked out for the procedure and removed my wisdom teeth while I was both awake and before the local kicked in, an orthodontist with shaky hands who cut my mouth in several places, a dentist who gave extremely painful cleanings while forcibly holding me down, another orthodontist who just plain smelled bad, a chiropractor who tried to control the things I ate, and yet another orthodontist who screwed up so badly that my teeth managed to look slightly worse after two years of braces. It’s been a rough decade on the medical front for me. Oh yes, and let’s not forget the doctor who missed the broken rib on the x-ray and sent me home with nothing!

The thing that really gets to me is that I am not a passive person. I don’t usually accept poor, rude, or inconsiderate treatment from anyone. But when one is sick, one is helpless. And even if you are physically able to speak up for yourself, you still are facing someone who, by definition knows more about medicine then you do. If they fail to listen to you what recourse do you have?

When you add up all these experiences of mine, plus the many stories I have heard from friends of similiar treatment, you have to wonder what is going on in the healthcare professional, and how much of it has to do with my being a woman and much to do with doctors being trained to be unemotional and superior. While I’m sure some of it was just the luck of the draw, I can’t help but wonder…would that campus doc have told a similarly proportioned male he was obese? Would the older doctor have asked my permission for a stranger to be in the room, or at least explained his presence,  if I were a man? Would my long ago PCP have assumed I was lying or a lesbian for saying I was a virgin if I was a teen boy? And finally, if I were a man, with a male doctor, having an an equivalent procedure to the one I have scheduled for next week, would I still be getting a pill to calm my hysterics and advil to cope with the pain, or would I be supplied with a general anesthesia and so much pain medicine that I wouldn’t be able to see straight?

I don’t know the answer to these questions – certainly plenty of men have undergone bad treatment by doctors of both genders. But it feels qualitatively different to me.  What I do know is that while it is too late to change doctors or postpone this procedure, as soon as it is over and I’ve had my follow up I’m finding myself a new healthcare professional. And until then, I will turn to a good friend who has a prescription for everything and get the pain medicine I need from her. I wonder how my doctor would feel knowing I had to break the law to cope with what she’s putting me through?

For New Year’s Day I decided to make a fancy, five course dinner for my parents who were visiting from the Great White North. All of it (with one small exception) came out well, but I was especially pleased with the fruit tart that I made. It was my first time trying anything of the kind.

New Year's Fruit Tart

I cobbled together modified bits of several different recipes I found while trawling through the web and was worried it wouldn’t all work together.  Here’s the recipe I used in its final incarnation – try it, it’s nowhere near as hard as it looks!

Shell:
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 Tbsp heavy cream
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 2/3 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 8 Tbsp cold butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

Whisk yolk, cream, and vanilla in a small bowl and set aside.

Place flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl and mix. Cut in butter and mix together until resembles coarse meal. Pour in egg mixture; mix with your hands (don’t be shy!) until dough just comes together but is still sticky. Make a ball and press it into a 6 inch round between two sheets of wax paper. Chill for at least 1 hour.

When dough is chilled, remove from fridge and and let stand at room temp until just malleable. Roll out between lightly floured sheets of parchment to a 13 inch circle. Transfer dough to 9 inch pie pan (NOTE: You can and should use a tart pan with a removable bottom if you have one – I don’t!)

Heat oven to 375 degrees F with rack in middle position. Place pan on baking sheet, line with foil, and fill tart with pie weights or dry beans. Bake for 30 minutes on baking sheet, rotating half-way through. Remove from the oven and carefully remove foil and weights. Bake another 5 to 8 minutes, until tart shell is deep golden brown. Set baking sheet on wire rack to cool shell completely.

Pastry Cream
- 2 cups half and half
- 1/2 cup sugar
- pinch of salt
- 5 large egg yolks
- 3 Tbsp corn starch
- 4 Tbsp cold butter, cut into 4 pieces
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Heat the half and half, 6 Tbsp sugar, and the salt in a saucepan over medium heat until simmering, stirring occassionally. Meanwhile, whisk egg yolks and 2 Tbsp sugar in medium bowl until creamy, about 15 seconds. Whisk in corn starch until pale and thick, about 30 more seconds.

SLOWLY whisk simmering half and half mixture into egg yolks to temper. Too much at a time will cook your egg yolks. When it is all combines, return mixture to saucepan and bring to simmer over medium heat, whisking , until a few bubbles burst on surface and the mixture is thickened to a pudding-like consistency. Remove from heat. Add butter and vanilla, and stir until butter is melted through and you have a homogeneous mixture. Pour into the pastry shell and chill until cold all through with plastic wrap or wax paper pressed to the surface to prevent a skin forming.

Fruit:

Any kind or combo is fine, whatever you prefer and think will look beautiful. I used 3 kiwis, 1/2 pt of blackberries, 1/2 pt of blueberries, and 1 pt of strawberries. Peaches, raspberries, pineapple, and tangerines are also great ideas.

Glaze:

- 3 tablespoons sugar

- 2 teaspoons cornstarch

- 1 tbs lemon juice

Whisk together glaze. Add more lemon juice if needed to dissolve the sugar. Remove cover from pastry and cream, and top with fruit as desired. Brush entire top with glaze, being careful to coat every exposed inch of fruit. This glaze will keep the fruit fresh and prevent it from turning brown for at least a day. Chill in fridge until ready to serve.

Mr. Laelaps and I have been trying to eat healthier lately, and part of this plan involves the daily smoothie breakfast (or mid morning snack). I am a smoothie purist… I don’t mess around with ice and sugar. Fruit, juice, and yogurt – that’s it. I love my smoothies and I love to experiment with different fruit combos, especially exotic ones. I find it cheapest and healthiest to buy whatever fruit is seasonal/cheap at the market, cut it up, and freeze it in containers for future smoothies (this is usual quite a savings over purchasing frozen fruit).

My typical smoothie recipe goes something like this:
1 fresh banana (the riper the better)
1.5 c of other frozen fruit (pineapple, strawberries, blackberries, mangoes, etc – I try to make sure at least 1/2 c of that is blueberries, my favored superfood)
3/4 c plain yogurt or kefir (I prefer kefir for health reasons but sometimes it is difficult to find near me)
Just enough orange or apple juice to allow everything to blend (usually 1/2-3/4 c)

This makes two large glasses of smoothie for two people. I probably should make less, actually, but I’m not good at scaling down and at least it’s healthy. Given that I leave for work between 5:30-6 am, I usually make the smoothies the night before and put them in thermoses in the freezer, which I’ve found keeps them at something resembling the correct consistency overnight.

Recently, as yet another part of my health kick, I began adding 1/4 c ground flaxseed (for omega-3’s, healthy lignans, and fiber) and 1/4 c wheat germ (for vitamin, foliate, other vitamins, still more fiber, and protein). I must admit it changes the taste of the smoothie a bit, but it’s still yummy and I think I will probably get used to the new additions. The first time I tried this was over the weekend and the smoothies were drunk immediately. No problem!

Enthusiastically, I added the flax and wheat germ to the ones I made last night for today’s consumption. The result, when I tried it around 9am this morning was slightly less appealing. While it wasn’t actually bad, the wheat germ seemed to have glutenized (is that even a word?) the whole drink, making it thicker and with a wheaty aftertaste. After drinking one had the vague sensation of having consumed a thick slice of fruitcake that had gone through the blender.

I’m hoping I have a solution to this problem that will let us have our nutrients and drink them too. Perhaps if I make the smoothie the night before as usually, but add the wheat germ at work when I pour it, it might prevent any unpleasant bready resemblance. Anyways, now you know – if you want to add wheat germ to a smoothie, drink it right away!

One of my many many New Year’s resolutions for 2009 was to start this thing up again. We’ll see how it goes. As I may have mentioned previously, I am a horribly inconsistent person. However, I have realized part of my problem previously was that I was being defeated by my own perfectionism.

I didn’t want to have one of those boring “here’s what I did today” blogs with writing more suited to the journal of a teenaged girl. I wanted it to be about something specific. Like my cousin’s blog or my husband’s blog, both wonderful and insightful. I thought I need to have it be just about beauty, or science, or politics, or cooking, or environmentalism, or gardening. But then I would look at all the blogs already out there about those things and get depressed, thinking I would never be as good as them and unable to decide what I even wanted my main theme to be.

This year, I decided that I would be okay with not having a direction, a theme, or a way to market my blog. I will just post what I wanted to post and see where it leads me. Any topic or incident is fair game. Maybe I will develop a direction as I go, and maybe I will just continue to post random pictures, recipes, movie reviews, sermon recaps, and news items throughout the year. And hopefully, I will be able to cope with that level of uncertainty.

Like to buy used clothes but hate trying to find a good thrift shop or search through the endless racks for something in your size that didn’t go out with the 80’s? Then Swango, is the place for you! It’s an online clothing swap/non-profit. You simple upload a picture of the clothing you have that you don’t want anymore, and when someone “buys” it you recieve credits with which to “purchase” something else on the site. Everything has a $.99 transaction (some of which goes to keeping the site running and the rest of which goes to Dignity U Wear, a foundation that provides new clothes for disadvantaged kids), and costs a number of credits ranging from 2 to 6. Shipping costs are split between seller and buyer, usually amounting to about 2 bucks a pop. That’s actually cheaper than my local thrift store for items like jeans and dresses especially.

It seems like a great system. Not only does it prevent clothes build-up by making you give something to get something, it goes to good cause and ensures that the buyer doesn’t just throw their old stuff away when they get new things. Plus, for the first ten items you post, you get 1 credit each just for putting them up! I haven’t put up anything yet, mostly because I’m at work and don’t have snapshots of my wardrobe handy. Also, most the clothes I have that I don’t wear I’m holding onto in the perhaps vain hope that I will one dya soon lose weight and fit into them again. But I’m sure I can rustle up something to try and swap for that adorable, cowl necked cashmire shell I saw on the site…