Author Archives: nikki
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jew-ish: the life and times of a one-sixteenth jew
Posted on October 30, 2013 by nikki in family, odds and sods, politics and religion, unexpected adventures.I am one-sixteenth Jewish. It’s funny to say it like that, but that’s what it comes down to on the family tree. And, I guess that’s how much Jewish I feel. One-sixteenth. How exactly does that translate? Most of the time I don’t feel Jewish, but I don’t feel not Jewish either. I feel Jewish-ish. […]
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this old house: my life in a highly permeable membrane
Posted on May 10, 2013 by nikki in aid work, odds and sods, unexpected adventures.My house breathes. That’s not the technical term for it, of course – the technical term is that it has “excessive air infiltration.” I had an energy efficiency audit last week that confirmed it. Jim from the energy utility here in Austin hooked up a blower door to my entryway and let it rip. The […]
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murderers are more reliable
Posted on February 21, 2013 by nikki in odds and sods, science/research.The other day I stopped by the criminal defense attorney’s office that I’ve been doing some work for. His paralegal and I got talking about a particularly unsympathetic client. A young guy with three DWI’s and of course it was always someone else’s fault. I admitted I’d had an easier time working on a recent […]
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they do it better in dutch: sex workers and the disabled
Posted on January 15, 2013 by nikki in health and beauty, movie review, politics and religion, unexpected adventures.My mom’s last two blog posts about sexual surrogacy and the movie “The Sessions” (see part 1 and part 2) reminded me of one of my old pieces of dinner party trivia. In Holland, the government pays sex workers to have sex with physically disabled people. I know – crazy, right? At least that was […]
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thanksgiving in jail
Posted on December 1, 2012 by nikki in holidays, unexpected adventures.In September I started teaching a journalism class at the county jail here in Austin. The homework assignment I left the students with before Thanksgiving was to write a review of something they experienced either in jail or in their past: a TV show, a movie, a concert. I gave them five minutes of class […]
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