Bekah McNeel

Author: Bekah McNeel

Moira Brings the News: Secretary Castro

May 17, 2014 No Comments

San Antonio’s Mayor Julián Castro is moving on up. We’re sad to see him go, as he has been a voice for progress in the city, ushering in the decade of downtown, SA202o, and other forward-thinking initiatives like Pre-K4SA.

Castro has been tapped for a position on President Obama’s cabinet as Housing and Urban Development Secretary. We’ll know he’ll do a fantastic job, and we hope to see him on another ballot someday so that we can, again cast our vote for him.

In the meantime, over to our junior correspondent, Moira Sage, who has some thoughts for the Mayor, as he joins Obama’s cabinet:

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Urban Baby: What we see on our walks

May 12, 2014 No Comments

People told me that when I had a baby I would throw in the towel on the inner city, and head for the shady streets of suburbia. Good school districts. Safe strolling. Quiet nights.

I’m not going to lie, when my neighbor’s five pitbulls bark ALL NIGHT LONG, I do think about how nice it would be to have an HOA to tattle to, instead of just SAPD, which always feels extreme.

And yes, I have to stroll underneath 281 to get to our favorite walking path…but that walking path is the Museum Reach of the San Antonio River, and I can get there in 5 minutes on foot. We take this walk almost every day.

Plus, for my first Mother’s Day, Lewis bought me a membership to the San Antonio Museum of Art, where Moira and I can stroll and take in all the air-conditioning and art we want.

Along the way we have epic adventures passing animals, vagrants, fancy parties, kickball games, and running into friends.

Right now Moira sleeps through most of the walk, but when she looks around, she sees…

A bridge overlooking downtown, smattered with cyclists, yogi’s, and, soon, brewery-goers.

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Moira Brings the News: MERS

May 6, 2014 No Comments

There’s a new health scare, this time coming from the Middle East. As though Americans needed one more reason to be scared of the Middle East.

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) arrived onto US soil via a healthcare worker who had been in Saudi Arabia. According to this Reuters story, the man is improving and all exposed have been quarantined, but worldwide there have been 93 MERS-related deaths.

MERS is a virus-cousin of SARS, which came to us from China, another place Americans didn’t need another reason to fear. And just so you know, MERS is a coronavirus, and it’s spread through the air and through poop. So, two simple precautions for those taking the utmost care not to contract the deadly disease: don’t handle unfamiliar feces and don’t breathe.

For more on the precautions we should be taking to protect ourselves from MERS, we turn to Moira Sage:

Don't breathe on me

 

 

 

Something New and Good: We are Three

May 5, 2014 8 Comments

Moira is a month old. Five weeks, actually. It’s amazing how much each week of age matters at this point.

I’ve been hesitant to sit down and try to write anything meaningful, because life has not been marked by long stretches of uninterrupted thinking as of late.

It’s not actually entirely Moira’s doing. I often feel like she senses when we are about to have guests and decides to time her epic naps to avoid interaction. She’s an introvert. Or she obligingly naps through errands and restaurant meals. So I have lots of uninterrupted visits and meals…but that the time for reflecting and thinking is allotted to her 20 minute catnaps or 15 minute stretches of peaceful looking around. The rest of the time we are breastfeeding, changing diapers, and walking off my baby weight.

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And I’ll be perfectly honest. Sometimes I just use those catnaps and peaceful time to stare at her.

But, sometimes in the shower, or when we are driving (Moira is a champion car rider), I’ve given some thought to this first month. It’s in snippets, but in this case the form is the content.

So…in the first month of being a family of three, here were the things that surprised me. …

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Moira Brings the News

April 30, 2014 No Comments

Sex, drugs, and perjury. Congress is back in session.

NPR reports on John Boehner’s rough Monday as the House reconvened amid a dust cloud of scandal kicked up by various GOP Representatives.

Rep. Michael Grimm got busted for perjury (and 19 other things), and morally “boo!”‘ed for his hypocrisy on immigration.

Rep. McAllister got caught smoochin’ with the staff.

And it’s not too soon to forget that Rep. Trey Radel got busted for trying to buy cocaine. Apparently while on duty as a Congressman.

And now to Moira Sage, for her comments on the news…

Moira, in light of yet another round of scandals and misconduct, what’s your prognosis for the upcoming legislative session?

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Moira Brings the News

April 23, 2014 No Comments

We here at Free Bekah would like to welcome our newest contributor, Moira Sage to the team. Moira comes to us from, well, my uterus, with a background in focusing her eyes, chewing on her fingers, and kicking her legs. She blew us away with her astute analysis of the daily news cycle, and so we thought we’d make it official, and welcome Moira to share a weekly news analysis with the readers here at Free Bekah.

Today’s news story (we’re going to start her off in the culture category):

Lupita Nyong’o was named People Magazine’s most beautiful person. Fashionista, Oscar winner, and all around girl-you-want-as-your-BFF, Nyong’o continues to, like the champagne bubbles that inspired her Prada Oscar night gown, float to the top.

Here’s the full list of beauties.

We here at Free Bekah think that it’s nice to see someone so obviously lovely on the inside, being honored for how it shines through to the outside, which is why we’ve asked our newest correspondent to make this her first official story. It seems strange to see a face so new to the Hollywood scene at the top of the list, but we find that, like everything else about Nyong’o, refreshing.

Over to you, Moira. Do you think People Magazine made the best choice for their most beautiful person of the year?

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The Theology of Woody Allen

March 19, 2014 No Comments

“If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” – Woody Allen

One would expect the neurotic, muttering, Woody Allen to say this. It fits with all of his fretful, eternally pessimistic movie-personas (or rather his one persona, reincarnate in every film he makes).

But what surprised me the other day was that this quote, more than any Scripture, had come to describe how I believe God relates to me.

We’re constantly being admonished to be careful what we pray for, to never say never, etc. Looking around, I think that we, the ironic generation, have come to believe that this is how God relates to us- ironically.

God is a controlling boss, who makes you work the weekend, just because he heard you had plans to go out of town.

God is an older sibling who takes the last cookie that you’ve been saving and saving.

God is like….”rain on your wedding day. A free ride, when you’ve already paid. The good advice that you just didn’t take. And who would have thought, it fig’rs.” (That’s the hymn for this theology).

…

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Florence’s So-Called Life, Season 1, ep 9

February 28, 2014 No Comments

In which Florence experiences her first bout of puppy love.

(read in the voice of Florence, which sounds uncannily like a 14-year-old Claire Danes)

Sigh…so this is love.

I guess I just…didn’t get it. I mean, it’s like, for your whole life there’s really just one human male that you trust and want to spend time with. Your Lewis.

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I love my Lewis. He plays with me, gives me treats, even takes me out running. I thought that this was the only human male I’d ever really need in my life. Like human girls think they are going to marry their dads. …

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Lewis is Nesting

February 23, 2014 No Comments

So I’m supposed to be frantically nesting, apparently. So far this has meant ordering things on Amazon and scheduling lunch dates with all the people I’m afraid I won’t see again for years once I have my constant companion.

Lewis, on the other hand, has taken to nesting quite earnestly. Or maybe he’s taking advantage of my lack of energy and slower speed to buzz around and get all of my crap organized before I can stop him. Either way, things are getting done around here.

In case you hadn’t gotten the idea yet from this blog, I think my husband is a total rockstar. And I’m pretty sure our daughter is going to share that opinion. …

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