On a regular basis, people wander onto this blog and say mysteriously, “Haven’t you read what Flavia had to say about this? Just go and read Flavia!” They always refuse to say more or explain themselves, so I began to suspect there was a hidden source of wisdom with the code name of “Flavia.” Finally, one of these enigmatic creatures left me a link to “Flavia.” I dutifully added the “Flavia” blog to my enormous blogroll, and forgot all about it.

Yesterday I was scrolling through my news feed and I caught a glimpse of the word “Flavia” accompanied by another familiar name, Mark Regnerus. Regnerus is a vile freakazoid of the gay-bashing and the “women’s market value” declines steadily as they age” fame. The poor folks who have the great misfortune of working alongside this hate-monger made a statement distancing himself from his bigotry. And the oft-lauded “Flavia” creature got herself into a veritable tizzy in her rush to defend the vicious homophobe she calls “one dissenting researcher.”

Of course, it is not surprising to me that there are woman-hating homophobes aplenty who rush to defend losers like Regnerus. What baffles me is why people could have thought that I might be interested in reading anybody who sees Regnerus as being “on the cutting edge of research”?

I’m in Montreal, and it still is bitterly cold here. This morning, I was walking to a cafe in Old Port with my sister (to the best brunch place in all of the city, I might add), and tears were streaming down my sister’s face because of how viciously cold it was. She has lived in Quebec for almost half of her entire life, so she’s used to cold but this winter has gotten even to her.

Still, we will not be deterred from inaugurating spring in our SELF-CARE AND HAPPINESS challenge, right? And by the way, people have asked me if it’s OK to join the challenge now, in its 6th week, and the answer is, yes, of course. This whole exercise is about pleasing yourself and having fun. People should do as much or as little as they like.

Having said that, this is bot an easy week in the challenge. This week’s assignment is

WAKING UP.

Twice a day this week, we will be doing the best thing we can do to preserve our beauty and awaken our senses to the renewal of the spring season. Take a smooth cube of ice from the freezer and slide it over your entire face and neck. Yes, it will be cold. And if you let yourself feel it, it will be intense. But it’s very invigorating. And fun.

If this sounds too scary, then try dragging the ice cube across the inner part of your wrist. And just melt into the sensation for a moment.

It is extremely useful to get out of one’s own sphere and experience reality from a completely different vantage point.

Here is an example. Whenever I hear of companies that institute a dress code for their employees and offer casual Fridays as a reprieve from formal wear, monitor every movement the workers make, only allow 1 or 2 15-minute coffee breaks, inflict public humiliations on employees who underperform, practice at-will firing, and terrorize employees in many other ways, I immediately think that these employers engage in wanton and gratuitous cruelty because they enjoy making people suffer.

Today, however, I started to suspect that all of these corporate traditions might have a sad practical justification. Employers who detest this way of treating workers and try to do the opposite discover that people simply stop working. And then the business owners face the choice between stooping to dress codes, productivity logs and punch cards or going out of business.

A strong positive motivation that comes from within is rare. Creating it is very hard. For some mysterious reason, it is much easier to seek out a negative motivation and spur oneself to action with pain and suffering. I should know since I used to be a pro at coming up with elaborate ways of terrorizing and guilting myself into productivity.

I don’t have an answer for why negative motivation works so much better than the positive one. I’m looking for the reason but I haven’t found it yet.

I’ve noticed that I always end up teaching the short story. It isn’t like I’m into the short story all that much. I definitely don’t do any scholarship on it. Any course that I design, however, ends up being based on short stories.

I thought about this and I know what’s happening. My students are bright, hard-working, dedicated but they have zero staying power. Unless I give them something new every day of class, they grow so listless that they’re almost catatonic.

Another quality they have is the constant need for exuberant, over-the-top praise.

My sister notices the same tendency amongst the Millenials she tries to place for jobs.

The problem is, however, that success in any area whatsoever is predicated not on brilliance or talent but on a cast-iron ass and love of patient plodding.

Montreal’s Palais de Justice is flying the national flag of Ukraine.

Does anybody else use Feedly? It has been refusing to work since Friday. If anybody knows what’s up with it, please share.

First of all, let me say that we are all intelligent, reasonably well-educated people on this blog, and I’m sure nobody here shares Ian Welsh’s extreme ignorance in believing that until recently, Ukraine has been part of Russia. Even within the USSR, Ukraine was a republic with equal rights within the union of 15 separate republics. The Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic had an anthem and a national flag of its own and was not considered part of Russia by anybody.

Some people are asking why Ukraine should resist becoming part of the Russian Federation today. Russia is much richer, it has oil and gas, and Ukraine’s constant problems with paying to heat and feed itself would be solved.

The problem, however, is that there is, among vast numbers of the Russian people, a deep-seated and completely interiorized xenophobic contempt for Ukrainians. Any Ukrainian will tell you that engaging with Russians in any capacity is not a pleasing experience. There are constant nasty jokes, degrading comments, offensive remarks. If you are gay, transgender, black, Native American, or Jewish, I’m sure you have had this kind of experience.

To give just one among literally hundreds of examples I could adduce, I will tell you about a conversation I once had with N. in the early stages of our relationship. We were having a discussion about the value of higher education when he said, “Well, this is a difference between your provincial worldview and my metropolitan one.”

“I’m sorry, what?” I said. “I lived my entire life in the second largest city in my country. It is a huge industrial and cultural center with a population of 1,5 million people. You come from a tiny town with the population of $35,ooo. How does it follow from this that I’m provincial and you are metropolitan?”

“Well, Ukraine is located on the outskirts,” N. shared cheerfully.

“The outskirts of what?” I asked.

He couldn’t answer, so I grew very agitated and erupted in a long lecture about colonial mentality.

Mind you, this was a conversation between a highly-educated, very well-read man who deeply loved a woman and wanted to make a good impression on her. It simply never occurred to him that there might be anything wrong with this vision of Ukrainians. This was just a fact that he was relating with no desire to wound.

Would it be reasonable for Ukrainians to want to be part of a country where they are despised as a matter of course?

P.S. For those who know Russian, here is a beautiful post on this subject from my favorite blogger, an 89-year-old representative of the true Russian intelligentsia.

At the dinner celebrating the International Women’s Day, an ethnic Ukrainian made a passionate pro-Putin speech. An ethnic Jew grew very annoyed. Another ethnic Ukrainian got angry and denounced Putin.

In the meanwhile, the ethnic Ukrainian / Jewish blogger was thinking, “If the only ethnic Russian in the bunch were here, he’d let us all know why Ukraine’s independence needs to be defended at all costs.”

The Russian-speaking Jewish immigrants of Montreal are writing a collective letter of support for Putin`s invasion of the Crimea.

Contrary to popular belief, not all among my people are smart.

Do you know the difference between a Semite and Anti-Semite?

An Anti-Semite says, “Jews are horrible. But my neighbor Rabinowitz is a lovely person.”

And a Semite says, “Jews are great. But my neighbor Rabinowitz is horrible.”