Molly Ivins dies of cancer at 62
AUSTIN, Texas - Best-selling author and columnist Molly Ivins, the sharp-witted liberal who skewered the political establishment died Wednesday after a long battle with breast cancer. She was 62.
More than 400 newspapers subscribed to her nationally syndicated column, which combined strong liberal views and populist humor. Ivins’ illness did not seem to hurt her ability to deliver biting one-liners.
Some details about Ms. Ivins
- She worked was the first woman police reporter in the Minneapolis. Subsequently, the Minneapolis police force’s decided to name its mascot pig after her.
- She studied in Paris for a year at the Institute of Political Sciences.
- Sources say her humor and wit were a bit too much for The New York Times.
Don’t talk to a man first (and don’t ask him to dance)
Never? Not even “lets have a coffee,” or “Do you come here often?” Right, not even these seemingly harmless openers. Otherwise, how will know if spotted you first, was smitten by you and had to have you, or is just being polite?
Seriously!?! Seriously.
Last night I went to the parkside lounge to see the first ever Delusions of Spandex show. Delusions of Spandex is a sketch comedy show hosted by Phaea Crede and Becca Jones, two New York City sketch comedy artists who have been on the scene for a few years now. Beside being utterly hilarious, the show offered a clever commentary on current events and pop culture.
Some funny things I learned:
- Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz broke up. (Yes, its funny. Not sure why yet but it is.)
- Where you throw out your trash is very important in the middle school/ high school popularity hierarchy.
- Sometimes female Jehova’s Witnesses wear pants.
- Wearing makeup can only get you so far in life.
It was an awesomely funny night. Congrats on the first show ladies!
COMEDY WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY WOMEN RULEZ!
My mom took me to my first pro-choice march when we lived in DC in the late 80s. I’m glad she took me.
This is all I can say about this important milestone in women’s history.
is fast approaching. I’ve been trying to read up on the pro-choice and pro-life movements and the history of abortion in the United States. I’ve been feeling a need to beef up on some integral cornerstones of American women’s history or subjects I thought I already knew “too” much about in college when I was intellectually snotty and thought I was all that.
I read Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood by Kristin Luker. I was first assigned to read this book my senior year of college. But I never got around to it because I was in the midst of writing final papers and couldn’t be bothered to read about a subject I already “knew” about. Well, I was full of it. I learned a LOT from this book especially about the motivation behind the founding of the pro-life movement. The truth is I don’t know that side of the story. I still am pro-choice but I like to have an understanding of where pro-life women are coming from. I do felt like the Luker did not really get into analyzing the inspiration behind the pro-choice movement as she did with the pro-life movement.
The next book I read was When Abortion Was a Crime: Women, Medicine, and Law in the United States, 1867-1973 by Leslie J. Reagan. Reagan, a historian, is clearly pro-choice between the lines. Her study provides a deep and moving history of abortion focusing on women in Chicago. I also learned a lot from this book as well specifically what encouraged the illegality of abortion in certain areas.
Last year, I read How the Pro-choice Movement Saved America: Freedom, Politics, And the War on Sex which provided compelling reasons as to why the Roe v. Wade decision benefited women’s lives and health in numerous ways.
The 24th anniversary occurs on January 22. Whether your or pro-choice, kinda choice, pro-life, on the fence, it is impossible to deny Roe v. Wade’s undeniably vital place in American history.
BTW HI MOM & DAD!!!!!
(I know you’re reading.)
Last night, I couldn’t sleep because a horrible headache was gnawing away at my brain cells.
A thought occurred to me in the middle of the night…what’s the difference between a suffragist and a suffragette? I decided to take a look on the good old internets.
- About.com describes a suffragette as “Definition: Suffragette is a term sometimes used for women active in the woman suffrage movement.”
- About.com and Wikipedia are on the same page with their assertion that “suffragette” was first used in the UK.
- MOST INTRIGUING!: from Wikipedia: ” Suffragist is a more general term for members of the movement, whether radical or conservative, male or female. American women preferred this more inclusive title, but people in the United States who were hostile to suffrage for the American woman used the UK word - pejoratively so, since the feminine-sounding version could be dismissed more easily.”
I never knew that each word had such historically significant meanings. I better go back and review my women’s suffrage books.
(Don’t worry I’m not falling back on not trusting Wikipedia as a definitive source BUT it so much fun to say and I’m lazy and sleep deprived.)
Anyway!