I left without my boots. I thought, “the zoo is paved! Surely mud will not be a factor.” Oh how wrong I was. It was Friday night. I’d gone for a Zoo Late Nights event with some friends. We expected that, with the pouring down rain, we would be the only ones there. But no! … Continue reading
Author Archives: Caitlin McDonald
Career Opportunities
As you may know, Skirt!istas, I’m assiduously job hunting away here in London. Many different paths are making themselves known to me, some odder than others. For instance, given my prediliction for Wodehousian hyperbole worked into structured, cascading sentences, a friend and fellow Wodehouse acolyte has recommended a foray into writing parody romance novels along … Continue reading
The River Walk
I don’t know if you’ve ever found yourself walking along a sleepy river through the outskirts of London on a Saturday afternoon, but I can highly recommend it. I was in Victoria Park. I needed to be up in the wilds of Clapton. I consulted the map. A blue ribbon of water stretched from where … Continue reading
Dedicated followers of fashion in Dubai
This is an excerpt from a blog I wrote for the Independent. Click the link to read the rest: o For women in the Arab world, cross-dressing can be a way of accessing masculine power and privilege. In September 2010 a widely circulated New York Times article covered the practice, believed to be fairly common … Continue reading
Want a Tip for Taking Off Ten Years? How About a Massive Pimple?
Actually it’s a series of pimples, one between my eyes, a couple lurking right under my bottom lip, and one leviathan looming right next to my nose. I looked in the mirror this morning and that thing practically winked at me. It was so startling it took me straight back to being fourteen again, and … Continue reading
“Yeah, we did it.”
This is an excerpt from a blog I wrote for the Independent. Click the link to read the rest: o Sexual assault and rape are well-documented weapons in situations of armed conflict. They also feature as a control technique deployed by many totalitarian regimes. This includes the newly overthrown Egyptian government, in which the sexual … Continue reading
Nobody Lies about Lard!
I decided to bake some strawberry shortcakes. One of the recipes I looked up called for shortening. As I will be serving these shortcakes to vegetarians, I substituted a veggie-friendly option. But the idea of shortening called to mind a story from way back in the wilds of my first year at Simon’s Rock. I … Continue reading
The Soup Gnomes of Despair
The weekend started off well. A friend invited me to a barbecue at his workplace in a lovely square in central London–one of the locked ones you can’t normally get inside. Not only was there free food (see previous post on graduate students’ attachment to free wine) but I always like to explore a secret … Continue reading
Sewing Red
Late Friday night I found myself with a handful of red fabric in my hands, swearing under my breath and sewing furiously. I’d agreed (under a tiny amount of duress) to perform at the final Saqarah hafla in its monthly format. (There will be more Saqarah, just not monthly.) The performance was the following night, … Continue reading
Grad School: a Cost-Benefit Analysis
Excerpt from Skirt.com, click the link to read the rest: Last night I went to a set of talks being held for British Academy Literature Week. The British Academy is a wonderful institution, and among their other works they present a series of fascinating talks on topics ranging from ancient relics to modern neuroscience. These … Continue reading
Caitiewrites 