Comstock, Pesach, and Pneumonia
I studied Anthony Comstock while I was writing SEX WARS. He’s one of the viewpoint characters in the novel. He burned books, raided legal adult shops, pursued the best abortionist in NYC to her death.
Abortion was perfectly legal at that time, shortly after the Civil War, Abortionists used to advertise in the New York Times. One reason he was able to get his prohibitions through Congress is that the AMA was angry that so many women were making money as abortionists. Male doctors were sometimes active, but by and large, it was a woman’s industry. The woman he hounded to suicide was a skillful and trustworthy abortionist with a sliding scale. She lost only one patient in all her years of practicing, and then only because the woman had lied about how far along she was so that Madame would perform the operation in spite of the danger.
Another way Comstock got his anti-sex bill through congress was blackmail. He kept a file on prominent politicians and was able to coerce enough Congressmen and Senators get to the bill passed. Comstock was a nasty and dangerous man whose major concern was to keeping women in their place – exactly the motives of Republicans. Oh, how most of them want the 1950’s back, when women, people of color and minorities knew their supine place. To some Republicans, that’s not nearly enough. They want the 19th century back—back to the time women couldn’t vote, couldn’t win custody of their children (who belonged to their fathers), couldn’t control any part of their lives. Sometimes I think some of the extreme rightwing Catholics wish the Middle Ages back: a time when ‘uppity women’ were burned.
I had a very busy late March and early April, and like last year, I got sick. But this time, my occasional lung infection turned into pneumonia. Bacterial, not viral – one thing to be thankful for. I’m not contagious. But I sure was sick and still am very weak and wobbly. I haven’t written anything. Too damned sick. High fever, vomiting, coughing all night so I couldn’t sleep. Now at least, the fever is gone and I slept at least five hours the last several nights. Some nights, I had to sit up all night and couldn’t sleep, coughing constantly.
Monday is Pesach and one of my aims all through this period is to be well enough to do my part of the cooking, then conduct the seder. I began very slowly revising my Haggadah. I felt it was necessary to discuss Israel and the Middle East. I took out some stuff. I have to cut some every year or it would be long enough to last 8 hours. It’s 34 pp as it stands now.
Cooking for the seder is relatively easy. I only have to hard cook 8 or 9 eggs the day before and make Sephardic charoset. Then on the day of the seder, I make fennel cucumber egg salad and then roast a leg of lamb. Woody makes his great matzah ball soup. Bonnie is bringing dessert, Chaim and Theresa are bringing super gefilteh fish from NYC. Lilli always brings an assortment of interesting wines (although Woody won’t drink anything but sticky sweet Manishewtiz). Pesach is my favorite holiday of the whole year.
Getting such a serious illness has made me realize what Woody has been saying for a year. I have to cut back. I cannot go on giving a lot of big parties for which I or Melenie and I do most of the labor I have to think seriously about what I can no longer continue. I love parties, but this round of them, mine and going to so many other peoples’ really did me in.