Uses for an award #159 • 27 July 2006 • The SnowBlog

Uses for an award #159

          Announcing the publication of the magnificent MamaLamaDingDong! Hooray! 

This excellent memoir, described by the Utne reader as 'the best mothering memoir I've read' and by the Library Journal as 'Essential reading for all urban mothers' will be published next week and available in all stores, especially Waterstone's who are good enough to have popped it on their 3for2 promotion. Read below the cut for a couple of extracts. 
Also announcing yet another use for an industry award: bookstand. 



I hope they don't take it off us for misuse. On placentas: 
If Id really wanted to eat a placenta stir-fried with hot chiles, I should have married a different man. I wish we could have planted it under a tree, but the logistics of that for a yardless urban dweller like me are a nightmare. Maybe thats why theyve taken to posting cops nightly at every entrance to Tompkins Square. Its to prevent women from sneaking in to bury their placentas under the cover of darkness. Even if I could get away with it, I wouldnt want it to be exhumed by a hungry rat, a diseased pigeon or a thrill-seeking gutterpunk. We can let it go, I told Esme.

On breastfeeding on the underground: 
We took the subway to the Cloisters, an hour uptown. I was in denial about her need to hit the biological bottle before we reached our destination. Our closest neighbor was a bald man in his fifties, a working-class Jos who remained where he was despite my fervent wish for him to move. Inkys nickering was on the verge of nutting out. With no choice, as discreetly as I could, I unsheathed myself, studying the ads for Dr. Jonathan Zizmors Miraculous Chemical Peel in an attempt to render everything below my neck invisible. Inky clamped on, grunting in relief. I could feel my neighbors eyes upon me. Breastfeeding! he shouted. 
Emma