I figured I should sit here and write a post because I have a busy week ahead and will not be spending much time at my computer.
Next Saturday I am hosting a baby shower for my grandson-to-be. I'd post pictures of my decorations, but I don't want to spoil the surprise for the mother-to-be. That makes me a grandma-to-be. Considering how many of my friends were grandmothers in their 50's, I do not at all feel old at the prospect.
We have actually seen the sun a few times this past week and some of the snow is melting. I can actually see the pavement in the street. While some more snow is expected this week, it looks to be nice for the upcoming weekend.
As for local news, the same-sex marriage trial in Federal court ended this week here in Detroit. I cannot believe (or maybe I can) that the state brought in an 'expert' witness to testify that homosexuals were going to hell if they did not repent. I guess he will see them there eventually since I would think that is where bigots go, assuming you believe in heaven and hell. I thought we had separation of church and state but I guess that only applies when the state wants it to apply. The Federal judge in the case lives up the road from me and is a great guy whom I met several years ago. I wonder how he averted a big eye roll when this 'expert' was on the stand.
Today is also the first day of 'daylight saving time'. I hate DST. But I am sure I have blogged about that fact in the past. Friday one of the radio stations was interviewing the 'guy/gal on the street' about moving their clocks forward.
One woman said she was so happy because she really liked having more daylight. HUH? DST has nothing to do with more daylight. We still have the same numbers of hours of daylight that we would have if we didn't change our clocks. She must be related to the woman who tried to argue with me that the sun is directly overhead at noon and that is why we have our different time zones. (And I am sure she votes too.) Oh well.
I hope each of you enjoy your coming week. I'll be busy getting the food ready and while I'll likely not be posting, I'll be busy working on my A to Z posts. I still have lots to do.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
International Women's Day
I have been meaning to write a post about independent women ever since I returned from my trip to Germany last year. One thing leads to another and I either write about something else or don't write at all. I am so busy write now preparing my A to Z post and planning a baby shower that it keeps slipping my mind.
But the other day, just out of curiosity, I decided to Google 'women's liberation day' and, lo and behold, I came up with March 8, 2014, International Women's Day. Yes, celebrations in the UK. Where are the celebrations here in the USA?
As a college student and worker in the 1960's, I never considered myself a feminist or a 'women's libber'. I just assumed, wrongly it seems, that women would be treated equally in the workplace if they had equal abilities. At the time, the profession of laboratory medicine was dominated by female workers. When I was working for the City of Detroit, we were unionized so that everyone was paid the same salary based on longevity.
During that time, I spent a year working at what was known as 'Women's Hospital'. Workers were not unionized. It was mainly an OB/GYN facility. The two main labs of Hematology and Chemistry (where I worked) were headed by two techs who had graduated together. One man. One woman. It turns out that the male worker made considerably more than the female. The reason? Well, as explained to the female worker, her male counterpart was married with children while she was single and engaged to a doctor. I think it was this type of discrimination in pay that led me to become president of my union back at the City.
I felt the sting of discrimination again when, in my position as Treasurer here in West Bloomfield, a trustee asked if I didn't think I should take a pay cut because I was married and my predecessor was a single woman with the responsibility of taking care of her mother. Now, I highly doubt that, if my pay had been decreased, once I was divorced and raising my three sons on my own anyone would have offered to generously increase my salary.
I have always considered myself to be very independent. And, thus, I often travel alone. Which brings me to the idea for this post as a result of a woman I met in Germany. She was also traveling alone. While she mentioned having a grown son, she implied that she had never married the young man's father. She explained that she had no interest in being tied down to someone who did not want to participate in activities she enjoyed. Specifically, traveling around the world. She was very vocal and sometimes went on much too much, but I knew where she was coming from.
She knew what she wanted to do and did it. How many times have I heard a woman say that they were vacationing where her husband wanted to go, never where she wanted to go. Or went to the movie her husband wanted to see or, worse, no movie at all because her husband doesn't like to go.
I once asked a co-worker if she had seen a certain TV show. She said she had never seen it because her husband watched something else at that time. I asked, stupidly I guess, if she had another TV. She said 'yes, but he likes me to sit next to him on the couch while he watches TV.' Eye roll. Really? A man in his 50's can't watch TV alone? Or he doesn't trust you to be out of his sight in the same house?
Another friend would go shopping on her lunch hour and hide items in her trunk until she could sneak then into the house when her husband wasn't home. Enough said.
I keep thinking, naively it seems, that things will change and women will be as free as they wish to be. I doubt that it will ever happen unless all the men are wiped out by some 'Y' specific virus. The attitudes of women being subservient spans all generations and classes. And I have often heard women making extremely disparaging remarks against other women who are high achievers, as though somehow their very existence was challenged by them.
I guess that is why we have an annual International Women's Day. At least in the UK.
But the other day, just out of curiosity, I decided to Google 'women's liberation day' and, lo and behold, I came up with March 8, 2014, International Women's Day. Yes, celebrations in the UK. Where are the celebrations here in the USA?
As a college student and worker in the 1960's, I never considered myself a feminist or a 'women's libber'. I just assumed, wrongly it seems, that women would be treated equally in the workplace if they had equal abilities. At the time, the profession of laboratory medicine was dominated by female workers. When I was working for the City of Detroit, we were unionized so that everyone was paid the same salary based on longevity.
During that time, I spent a year working at what was known as 'Women's Hospital'. Workers were not unionized. It was mainly an OB/GYN facility. The two main labs of Hematology and Chemistry (where I worked) were headed by two techs who had graduated together. One man. One woman. It turns out that the male worker made considerably more than the female. The reason? Well, as explained to the female worker, her male counterpart was married with children while she was single and engaged to a doctor. I think it was this type of discrimination in pay that led me to become president of my union back at the City.
I felt the sting of discrimination again when, in my position as Treasurer here in West Bloomfield, a trustee asked if I didn't think I should take a pay cut because I was married and my predecessor was a single woman with the responsibility of taking care of her mother. Now, I highly doubt that, if my pay had been decreased, once I was divorced and raising my three sons on my own anyone would have offered to generously increase my salary.
I have always considered myself to be very independent. And, thus, I often travel alone. Which brings me to the idea for this post as a result of a woman I met in Germany. She was also traveling alone. While she mentioned having a grown son, she implied that she had never married the young man's father. She explained that she had no interest in being tied down to someone who did not want to participate in activities she enjoyed. Specifically, traveling around the world. She was very vocal and sometimes went on much too much, but I knew where she was coming from.
She knew what she wanted to do and did it. How many times have I heard a woman say that they were vacationing where her husband wanted to go, never where she wanted to go. Or went to the movie her husband wanted to see or, worse, no movie at all because her husband doesn't like to go.
I once asked a co-worker if she had seen a certain TV show. She said she had never seen it because her husband watched something else at that time. I asked, stupidly I guess, if she had another TV. She said 'yes, but he likes me to sit next to him on the couch while he watches TV.' Eye roll. Really? A man in his 50's can't watch TV alone? Or he doesn't trust you to be out of his sight in the same house?
Another friend would go shopping on her lunch hour and hide items in her trunk until she could sneak then into the house when her husband wasn't home. Enough said.
I keep thinking, naively it seems, that things will change and women will be as free as they wish to be. I doubt that it will ever happen unless all the men are wiped out by some 'Y' specific virus. The attitudes of women being subservient spans all generations and classes. And I have often heard women making extremely disparaging remarks against other women who are high achievers, as though somehow their very existence was challenged by them.
I guess that is why we have an annual International Women's Day. At least in the UK.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
It's Oscar Night
Oscar Night. I have not watched the Oscar telecast (or any award show for that matter) for the last several years. When I was growing up, and even into young adulthood, I was glued to the set. I loved the movies.
As a youngster, my parents would take us to the Bel-Air drive-in. I still remember seeing the movie 'Them'. Maybe that is why I hate seeing ants.
As I got older, parents in the neighborhood would take turns driving us kids to a theater on the east side called the Eastwood. Sometimes we went on both Saturday and Sunday afternoons to see a double feature, previews, and a cartoon for a quarter. Those were the good-old days for sure.
Later on, when I was in college, they built a theater within walking distance, but for some reason I have no idea what it was called. I do remember there was an Arlan's Department store in the same plaza. All of it was built on the site of the old Motor-City Speedway. (The author of this article is right about hearing the noise. You could watch midget racing on TV and listen to the sound in stereo if you kept your windows open.)
My love for the movies never ended. Before I dropped my Netflix subscription I had reviewed over 1500 titles.
Several years ago they started having Oscar parties in downtown Detroit. They are quite gala affairs with a dinner preceding the show and then a viewing of the Oscars on big screen TVs.
The one held at the Roostertail on the Detroit River (2000?) was my favorite, with a red carpet for the arriving guests. I still remember walking up in this red velvet dress.
I still have that dress, along with another one I wore to one of the other parties in another year. It is a Carmen Marc Valvo with a slit all the way up the leg and gorgeous trapunto stitching. I know I could not fit in it today, but I just cannot part with it.
I wore it to my 1994 class reunion. With any luck, I can get into it later this year for my 50th reunion. Though I'm not sure about wearing something with that slit up to you know where. Definitely not a dress for sitting down.
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So, this evening, I will be watching Gravity. Last night I watched Captain Phillips. Even knowing the outcome, I was biting my nails and grinding my teeth.
I made one attempt to get to the local theater and see American Hustle, but the projector was broken and after waiting for half an hour I got a free pass and decided to come home.
I find that my tastes do not always coincide with the tastes of Academy members. I've seen a lot of movies that won awards that I am sorry I wasted my money on.
Perhaps I should dress up and have a great meal while I watch the movie in the comfort of my home. But then, when it comes to comfort, you can't beat your jammies.
It's just what my parents had us wear when we went to the drive-in.
As a youngster, my parents would take us to the Bel-Air drive-in. I still remember seeing the movie 'Them'. Maybe that is why I hate seeing ants.
As I got older, parents in the neighborhood would take turns driving us kids to a theater on the east side called the Eastwood. Sometimes we went on both Saturday and Sunday afternoons to see a double feature, previews, and a cartoon for a quarter. Those were the good-old days for sure.
Later on, when I was in college, they built a theater within walking distance, but for some reason I have no idea what it was called. I do remember there was an Arlan's Department store in the same plaza. All of it was built on the site of the old Motor-City Speedway. (The author of this article is right about hearing the noise. You could watch midget racing on TV and listen to the sound in stereo if you kept your windows open.)
My love for the movies never ended. Before I dropped my Netflix subscription I had reviewed over 1500 titles.
Several years ago they started having Oscar parties in downtown Detroit. They are quite gala affairs with a dinner preceding the show and then a viewing of the Oscars on big screen TVs. The one held at the Roostertail on the Detroit River (2000?) was my favorite, with a red carpet for the arriving guests. I still remember walking up in this red velvet dress.
I still have that dress, along with another one I wore to one of the other parties in another year. It is a Carmen Marc Valvo with a slit all the way up the leg and gorgeous trapunto stitching. I know I could not fit in it today, but I just cannot part with it.
I wore it to my 1994 class reunion. With any luck, I can get into it later this year for my 50th reunion. Though I'm not sure about wearing something with that slit up to you know where. Definitely not a dress for sitting down.
So, this evening, I will be watching Gravity. Last night I watched Captain Phillips. Even knowing the outcome, I was biting my nails and grinding my teeth.
I made one attempt to get to the local theater and see American Hustle, but the projector was broken and after waiting for half an hour I got a free pass and decided to come home.
I find that my tastes do not always coincide with the tastes of Academy members. I've seen a lot of movies that won awards that I am sorry I wasted my money on.
Perhaps I should dress up and have a great meal while I watch the movie in the comfort of my home. But then, when it comes to comfort, you can't beat your jammies.
It's just what my parents had us wear when we went to the drive-in.
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Black History Month
Black History Month was in February. I had intended to write a post about it and just never got around to doing it.
One of my reasons for writing about it was to recommend a book that I read last month which is on the NY times Best Sellers list. It is The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd. Perhaps you have read her previous book The Secret Life of Bees or perhaps seen the movie. It is one of my favorite books.
Anyway, The Invention of Wings is a historical novel about the Grimke sisters of South Carolina. The women were two of the earliest feminists and abolitionists in America. If you saw the PBS series The Abolitionists, then you saw Angeline Grimke featured in that. The author imagines a story of their early life and writes the history of the time to make for an interesting and entertaining read. It is a book I would recommend.
I personally found the attitudes of Southern churches as written in the book rather appalling. It hardly seems imaginable that any so-called Christian would have such unfounded ideas about another race of humans. Which brings me to the other reason I was going to write about Black History Month.
The Detroit Free Press ran an article titled The Impossible Test. My head was spinning. The test was given before the Voting Rights Act to anyone who could not prove a fifth-grade education. There were 30 questions and you had ten minutes to complete the test. And one wrong answer was failure.
I honestly don't think I would have passed. For example:
Question 29. Write every word in the first line and print every third word in the same line but capitalize the fifth word that you write.
WTF? What 'first line'? The first line on the test? Or is it the first line of this question? I would have spent five minutes just trying to understand.
That is if I had gotten past the first question: 1. Draw a line around the number or letter of this sentence.
OK. I always thought that instructions told you to draw a circle around something or to underline. Not sure I ever was told to 'draw a line around' something. So, there is the number '1'. But what letter are they talking about? Is this a trick? (probably)
20. Spell backwards, forwards. Which word? Backwards? Which is 'backwards'. Or forwards backwards? Which is sdrawrof.
Or 24. Print a word that looks the same whether it is printed forwards or backwards. The first one that comes to mind is 'ewe'. But perhaps they mean to print the individual letters 'backwards'? In which case I would write 'OHO'. I mean everything is so poorly written, including using the word 'some' instead of 'same' in Q. 19 who knows what they mean.
Anyway, the days of literacy tests are long gone, but I think that just for fun, they should administer this to all current members of the Louisiana Legislature and see how they do. I am guessing they would not be voting on anything! Click on 'the test' link above to try it for yourself.
One of my reasons for writing about it was to recommend a book that I read last month which is on the NY times Best Sellers list. It is The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd. Perhaps you have read her previous book The Secret Life of Bees or perhaps seen the movie. It is one of my favorite books.
Anyway, The Invention of Wings is a historical novel about the Grimke sisters of South Carolina. The women were two of the earliest feminists and abolitionists in America. If you saw the PBS series The Abolitionists, then you saw Angeline Grimke featured in that. The author imagines a story of their early life and writes the history of the time to make for an interesting and entertaining read. It is a book I would recommend.
I personally found the attitudes of Southern churches as written in the book rather appalling. It hardly seems imaginable that any so-called Christian would have such unfounded ideas about another race of humans. Which brings me to the other reason I was going to write about Black History Month.
The Detroit Free Press ran an article titled The Impossible Test. My head was spinning. The test was given before the Voting Rights Act to anyone who could not prove a fifth-grade education. There were 30 questions and you had ten minutes to complete the test. And one wrong answer was failure.
I honestly don't think I would have passed. For example:
Question 29. Write every word in the first line and print every third word in the same line but capitalize the fifth word that you write.
WTF? What 'first line'? The first line on the test? Or is it the first line of this question? I would have spent five minutes just trying to understand.
That is if I had gotten past the first question: 1. Draw a line around the number or letter of this sentence.
OK. I always thought that instructions told you to draw a circle around something or to underline. Not sure I ever was told to 'draw a line around' something. So, there is the number '1'. But what letter are they talking about? Is this a trick? (probably)
20. Spell backwards, forwards. Which word? Backwards? Which is 'backwards'. Or forwards backwards? Which is sdrawrof.
Or 24. Print a word that looks the same whether it is printed forwards or backwards. The first one that comes to mind is 'ewe'. But perhaps they mean to print the individual letters 'backwards'? In which case I would write 'OHO'. I mean everything is so poorly written, including using the word 'some' instead of 'same' in Q. 19 who knows what they mean.
Anyway, the days of literacy tests are long gone, but I think that just for fun, they should administer this to all current members of the Louisiana Legislature and see how they do. I am guessing they would not be voting on anything! Click on 'the test' link above to try it for yourself.
Friday, February 28, 2014
Carnival Time
It is carnival time. Wonderful pictures were posted online from the carnival in Brazil. That event is somewhere way down on my bucket list of places to see.
I have enjoyed a Mardi Gras party in New Orleans and Junkanoo in Nassau. I hadn't thought about either of these events in many years. But recently I was cleaning my closet and found my Mardi Gras masks and a whole lot of beads.
No, I did not get my beads by baring my top. I just am surprised that I kept them all these years. If I decide to go to a costume party, I have the start of an interesting costume.
I have enjoyed a Mardi Gras party in New Orleans and Junkanoo in Nassau. I hadn't thought about either of these events in many years. But recently I was cleaning my closet and found my Mardi Gras masks and a whole lot of beads.
No, I did not get my beads by baring my top. I just am surprised that I kept them all these years. If I decide to go to a costume party, I have the start of an interesting costume.
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