Thursday

The other day we went to see the Devil Wears Prada, the sequel to Dolly Parton's 9 to 5, Billy Crystal's Forget Paris, and Working Girl. The movie stars the Olsen twins as plucky Anne Hathaway and a cross-dressing Dabney Coleman as the titular "devil." Do you think I'm stupid, Hollywood? Filmmakers have trotted out the plot of Coyote Ugly one more time, added a dash of gay Paree, anchored to bestselling chic non-fic lit. They've justified the resulting cliché-driven plod with a stellar performance by Meryl Streep. The galling thing? Streep still manages to make me happy I saw this. But the words need typing: this is one more movie which demonizes the professional goals of women. The movie presents female success as the abandonment of friends, family, ideals, and happiness, going so far as to equate evil and ambition in the title. In the news: Today in Oaxaca, local business shut down the capital city again for a (planned) duration of forty-eight hours.* Business leaders, tired of the siege-like environment over the last few months are calling on federal police support. Yesterday, Oaxacans raided stores before the shutdown. Ulises Ruiz has appointed people to fill administrative positions vacated by teachers who refused to show up for work on Tuesday (and that's all of them) after an ultimatum last week. Those same teachers are tightening the roadblocks and prepping Molotov cocktails, anticipating an impending clash with counter insurgents in this tourist destination cum battleground.* Seem like a lot of protests? Today in México City, members of the telephone operators union marched en masse along key streets recently reopened after AMLO's reign. The cops responded quickly, erecting barricades.* And a biblical-sounding plague of locusts is protesting Cancún.* Gentlemen militia with backpacks full of insecticide are patrolling the streets. [Cavin]