Despite the heat LA has experienced in the last few days I know it’s October at night. There must be something about the proximity & angles of the moon to the northern hemisphere in October, because I can tell what month it is by looking at the moon regardless of where I’ve found myself of an October. It’s big, orange, and slightly obscured by clouds in a painfully romantic way.

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This is born of discussions here & here about sex in “His Dark Materials” and violence in Harry Potter. The gist is this: books for children or young teens often skimp on sexuality, whereas they are free to be graphically violent. I’d like to explore this from two directions: first with regard to the unacceptability of sexuality and second with regard to sexuality as violent in itself.

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I’ve heard arguments for and against DST and the reasons generally center around “we’re used to it” or “we’re not farmers”. Recently I heard that the Candy Lobby (there’s a lobby for everything, it seems, and all of them have more votes than me) wants DST to occur before Hallowe’en so that kids can go eat candy while it’s still light out. Which defeats the purpose of going out, in my mind (part of the fun of Hallowe’en is that it’s dark out—it’s scary, it’s not something you’re normally allowed to do, &c.), but ignores a major point: standardization isn’t.

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