On Women's Month, Houseplants and YouTube: This Week in Links:

March was always Marble Month, as I remembered it -- a chance to bring those cat-eyes, boulders and steelies to the elementary school sandbox for a single month of unrestricted play. This is the first time I've ever known March as the International Month of the Woman. First, a chance to fight back against the atrocities of abortion and the problems male preference has wreaked upon Asia (as if the wife-finding prospects in China weren't already ridiculously competitive). And also a good chance to explore how women have brought sanity to politics from the very beginning. Dolly Madison, for example, didn't just rescue the portrait of Washington from the White House -- she also brought people together in a fledgling nation simply by being nice.

Speaking of nice, I never knew Norwegians had a reputation of being so tough and so NICE until I read this column about an unbelievable WWII-era rescue in the New York Times. No wonder they win as many winter gold medals as the States despite having about two percent of our population!

Not every nation can be as lucky in luge as Norway. Take Rwanda, for example. But perhaps, as The Onion satirically posits, it's because they don't have a houseplant.

My campaign for lifelong learning continues this week with a venture into the music realm. The artsy/indie/insightful editor of Biola Magazine compiled this sweet list of the 50 Best Songs of 2009, which I am systematically listening to for free thanks to YouTube. Other educational ventures included a trip to the Rembrandt exhibit at the Getty museum, which I highly recommend to anyone living within 100 miles of L.A., and a challenging article I wrote about a congregation in Nevada City that forced me to learn the ins and outs of Eastern Orthodoxy.

Oh, and if you're wondering what happened to Last Week in Links, the only explanation I can give is that I was away from my computer, lovin' life at the happiest place on earth with my delightful host and amiga, Claire!

Until next time ...