Sarah Smarsh (ssmarsh)

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Will You Soap My Back?

Magic Carpet sells some awesome olive oil soap that lasts for ages, FYI. Catching it on sale is advised.

July 25, 2008 at 3:30 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Style Scout: Daiquiri Ice Carnahan

The stylish artist formerly known as Daiquiri Ice now is known as Milkweed.

September 19, 2006 at 12:16 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

Artists Who Pay the Bills

Thanks for the thoughtful post, Dave. Just to add to the MFA-employment files... I finished my MFA in writing last year at Columbia. Could've worked in publishing in New York, but moved back to the Heartland... Anyway, I won't really be a prime candidate for teaching at the university level until I get my book published. So I freelanced, bartended and starved for a while. Just started grantwriting full-time for a nonprofit in Topeka. Another example of the unexpected places MFAs take you! I would love to start some sort of network of MFA-holders in the Lawrence area, for the purpose of trading employment info, resources, loan-repayment tips, support in a world that got no love for us! Anybody know MFAers in the writing realm? Tell them to email me! ssmarsh@gmail.com

February 13, 2006 at 11:42 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

The big gamble

So true: "I think our health care system is putting people in a real catch-22 of graduating from college and pursuing their dreams of being an artist and not having any of the benefits of health insurance versus getting a factory job." Allow me to speak here on birth control. This is tangential and personal but demonstrates the absurdity of our country's health care system... So. Birth control can be extremely difficult to obtain for the uninsured (the effects of which go without saying). Anyhoo, Planned Parenthood and others do provide free/low-cost oral contraceptives, etc., but the brands and types are limited. For most women, their oral contraceptive or whatever is sacred, unnegotiable and necessary to their health (this is an extreme example, but once I dabbled with another brand's hormone levels and vomited blood all night). When I finished grad school last year, I joined the masses of uninsured freelance writers. Planned Parenthood doesn't carry my brand, so I had to just pay full price at a pharmacy. My monthly payment for the pill went from $10 (insured) to $40 (uninsured), but more importantly I've had to keep tricking my grad school physician into refilling the prescription. Cuz any ol' doctor won't refill it if you haven't had a pelvic exam in the last year. But, without insurance, I can hardly afford to hop to the OB/GYN for $200. Now grad school doc is on to me (um, yeah, I haven't been a student at Columbia since May...), so I'm going to the Heartland Clinic to pay for an exam (their reduced fee of $50, not too shabby), so that I can get a pill refill, so that I can pay $40 for one month of tablets. I do have a "real job" now, but my health benefits don't kick in until May. So there you have it.

February 7, 2006 at 10:37 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

De-classified

Among the selected FBI documents (PDF file available above), you'll find a memo regarding a planned protest at a Nixon speech at Kansas State University. Earlier today, the same lecture series brought President Bush to K-State. It's an interesting parallel--that both came to Manhattan, Kan., while under fire about Vietnam and Iraq, respectively, and while conducting extensive domestic surveillance.

January 23, 2006 at 9:19 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

I (heart) Neil Diamond

Felt obligated to share this with the masses.
http://www.pitch.com/issues/2003-06-0...

January 9, 2006 at 7:35 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

God, science and the kooky Kansans who love them both!

Good point, Nanalina. The article might have been strengthened by explicit definitions of science and religion, as opposed to simply offering the "how" vs. "why" approach of several sources. The story also should have clarified what those sources were suggesting: That some religious people indeed use supernatural explanations for "how" the world works, and that they have the right to do so, but such explanations will only become scientific if and when empirical evidence proves their validity. At that point, those explanations would cease to be "supernatural" anyway, of course. That said, I personally do not share your conundrum. But as the author of the story, perhaps I did not make the sources' arguments clear enough--that people may look to science for "why," and may use religion to explain "how," but perhaps shouldn't do either. Thanks for reading!

December 8, 2005 at 3:12 p.m. ( | suggest removal )