HAPPY NEW YEAR! For some time now I’ve thought it would be a good idea to have a place where we can go to check on adoptee rights news. I know I print out a lot of articles and then when I need, them unless I’ve been disciplined enough to file them, I can’t find them. With 2008 shaping up to be a critical year for the movement I believe it is imperative that we have up-to-date news–and a news archive–at our fingertips So, Bastardette is happy to announce the launch today of Adoptee Rights News Blog, a depository for media coverage regarding adoptee rights, birth certificate and identity access, and related legislation. throughout the USA, Canada, and internationally. News collection starts today– January 1, 2008–but there are some articles there from December 2007. All news is tagged by state or country along with other labels (ex: original birth certificates, confidential intermediary bill). I hope ARNB serves as an aid to us our friends, and the media–and also as an inspiration. We are an international movement. Adoptee Rights News Blog:http://adopteerightsnews.blogspot.com Use it! Link it!

I seldom write about personal business. But this being the holiday season, I’m making an exception. I nicer, kinder Bastardette! I never had grandparents–to speak of. On the adoptive side of the family my dad’s mother died in 1952 and my mom’s in 1966 after spending much of her life in state care. (She went crazy in rural Oklahoma and never recovered–a story for another day). Both were in their mid-70s when they died. I never had a grandfather. My mom’s parents were divorced sometime prior to US entry into World War 1 (after my grandmother lost her mind). Much to my mother’s embarrassment, her father ended up married to a tent preacher, a protege of Amiee Semple McPherson. He died in Brownfield, Texas in the mid-1930s. My dad’s father, allegedly a dead ringer (though I don’t see it in pictures) for character actor Cuddles Sakall, died in 1940. On the bio side, my first mother’s mother died in 1992 and I never knew her. My father’s father died a long time ago. All that said, Bastardette, at an indeterminate age and due to the “miracle of reunion,” has a real live and kicking grandma. Recently she turned 100. I’ve Continue Reading →

Yes. I admit it! Bastardette has suffered silently from Ugly Blog Syndrome. For a long time I have really really really hated the look and upkeep of The Daily Bastardette. The baby-puke ochre. The cumbersome technical task of keeping “the classic” look updated. The thought of updating to a spiffy look via the magic of the “new and improved” Blogger was depressing and scary. I’d have to re-do all those links. And what if I lost everything through my unability to comprehend the “simple” instructions? I felt like a big-haired mama on Maury who’s dragged kicking and screaming by her embarrassed kids to an upscale Upper West Side salon and spa for a makeover. Worst of all, I felt alone. Ashamed. I believed I was the only blogger in the entire blogosphere who hated the look of their own blog. Then, a few weeks ago, Claud made a startling and courageous public confession. She, too, was unhappy with her blog. And she, too, found the task of self-improvement onerous. Within a matter of days, though, with the support and help of caring friends, she was able to overcome her fear of change and presented the world with a new-look Musings Continue Reading →