Daughter of No Comment -- March 2000

[ DONC HOME ]

When asked which female comics he admires, Jerry Lewis, 73, said "I don't like any female comedians. A woman doing comedy doesn't offend me but sets me back a bit. I, as a viewer, have trouble with it. I think of her as a producing machine that brings babies into the world." He is living proof of the old formula that HA is greater than H* Johnson and Johnson is producing the Personal Pak, a carrying case that looks like a cosmetic compact which helps women like flight attendant Kim Dontje discreetly conceal her birth control pills. She is always going through security and "they don't need to see all that jazz." They are being marketed as a tool to help compliance since women who travel or who have odd work schedules tend not the carry their pills with them and missed birth control pills can mean an unplanned pregnancy. Dr. Eva Arkin, who thinks the fancy carrying cases are just cosmetic feels the best thing that could happen is if the companies cut the cost of the pills, which runs $30 for a pack of 28. Anti-abortion activist, Terry Randall, 41, founder of Operation Rescue, (now Operation Save America) has been censured by the pastor of his church (Landmark Church, Binghamton, NY) for leaving his wife Cindy and their two children and engaging in a "pattern of repeated and sinful relationships with both single and married women." He is now the founder of Loyal Opposition, a group dedicated to preserving the sanctity of traditional marriage where he has set up shop in Vermont to lobby the legislature not to allow gay marriage. In his 1995 book The Judgement of God he wrote about how we have become a sex crazed society. -- Who better to write about it than an insider who sounds crazed himself? Secretary Of State Madeleine Albright will also miss the late Charles Schultz's Peanuts comic strip. Especially Lucy, who she says "acts the way little girls do, until they are told that is not the way little girls are supposed to act." As a cost cutting measure, Patti Tomins, a Cleveland area accountant was asked by her boss to help clean out the bathrooms on the same day she was to meet with bankers to discuss her company's credit lines. "How do you dress for that?" she asked just before she quit. The latest Black Heritage 33-cent stamp honors Patricia Roberts Harris who was the first African- American woman in a presidential cabinet (Jimmy Carter, HUD, 1977,) and also the first black woman ambassador, going to Luxembourg in 1965. We need to lobby the Postal Service for more long over due stamps honoring women. Another stamp note... American Agri-Women notes that 40% of farmland is owned by women and 8.6% of U.S. farms are women operated and they want a stamp honoring farm women. The U.S. Postal Service turned down their 1993 request. They have a 7,200 signature petition and they are not happy. Maybe SNAIL mail will disappear since "service" is a misnomer. 58 year old AIDS patient and activist Sue Saunders says that about 12% of new cases are diagnosed in people 50 or older. Almost half are black. She doesn't blame anyone for her illness and says it was caused by ignorance, so today she is fighting for funds to help educate people about the risk. "Of all the dumb things to get, she says. "It's so simple to prevent if you know you are at risk." Another AIDS note. In a new study about 8% of a government study group got the disease through oral sex which was much higher than previously thought. This is important because many teenagers and young adults of both sexes who are becoming sexually active may assume that oral sex poses no threat of AIDS since it had not been implicated before. Monica take note. In an appeal to Greeks to have more children, the leader of the Greek Orthodox Church said that married couples should not feel guilty about having sex and may do so without specific intent to conceive. Who asked him? St Paul Elementary School in Toledo fired second grade teacher Leigh Cline, who became visibly pregnant too soon after her wedding, because she did not "reflect church values in word and example." In the suit that followed she lost in federal court without trial but the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals permitted the case to proceed saying that religious organizations may prohibit premarital sex but only so long as the policy applies equally to men and women. A ban enforced only by observing which female teachers get pregnant, the opinion said, would violate federal sex- discrimination law. The Roman Catholic Church's attorney says the school "is evaluating its options." Stay tuned. Freelance journalist Terri Casey who has studied women who chose not to have children says she sees a "good deal of bewilderment about women who make this choice. People want to look for the a pathology and find out what went wrong." Child-free women have been chastised as cold, selfish, child-hating and workaholic. Sometimes complete strangers will question their sexual orientation, their normalcy, even their fertility. The women themselves often feel it is a "wonderful option." In Sacramento CA the United Methodist Church decided not to bring charges against 68 ministers who blessed a lesbian wedding. And on the other hand... in Los Angeles where a federal judge said meetings of a gay tolerance club must be allowed, the Orange County Unified School District voted to restrict elementary and middle school clubs to those related to studies in an effort to block similar clubs at lower grade levels. Joan Kaner, a Neiman Marcus exec says "Shoes are reflecting what is happening in clothing, there are so many retro looks, (spike heels, skinny ankle straps and pumps)." She says she advocates comfort first but admits to favoring a pointy toe. "It looks more feminine that a square toe." She must wear pointy hats too. Another footware note. HBN Shoe of Manchester, N.H. has patented the Insolia Invisible Comfort System which they say can prevent high heels from hurting, by transferring weight to the back of a woman's foot from her toes. Daughter can think of an easier way out of this problem, but podiatrists might not like it. Therapist Dr. Hugh Leavell says that in ballroom dancing "The woman must read the man's body, moving with harmony, graceful acquiescence and sympathetic attention. A woman dances better when the man has a strong lead. This frees her to express her natural femininity and to flow with the music." Boston, MA Haverhill Country Club lost a $2 million suit filed by 9 women who said they were given terrible tee times and denied equal treatment in other areas. Asst. Atty General, Anthony Rodriguez said that it should put "clubs and other institutions on notice that women have a right to the same opportunities as men." The jury was half men and half women. Well done. A procedure not yet approved in this country, called vertebroplasty, involves injecting a liquid cement into a recently fractured vertebra, a common problem of women with osteoporosis. Standard treatment is bed rest and pain killers. The minimally invasive procedure which uses imaging technology and has been done in Europe for several years, "is something you can do and see immediate results." says Huy Do, an interventional neuroradiologist at Stanford University Medical Center in CA. The same cement is currently in use in hip replacements and clinical trials are key to getting it approved for what is a potentially large market. Osteoporosis prevention needs to be a top priority for all of us. While looking at an Inca mummy called "Juanita", President Clinton said "You know, if I were a single man, I might ask that mummy out. That's a good-looking mummy." On the other hand Lady Bird Johnson said, "Every politician should have been born an orphan and remain a bachelor." Was she speaking from personal experience? Girl Scouts can begin selling cookies when they are five and the young ones find it easier going then the older scouts. Patti Davis, 17, says "the older you are, the harder it is to sell. People are quicker to reach for their wallets for pixieish-cute little girls than for young women." Her solution is to "put somebody cute at the table. Someone with stamina because they have to keep saying ‘Would you like to buy Girl Scout cookies?' and they have to smile - a lot." Patti puts a 7 year old shill she baby sits for at the table. As she says "It's a lot easier to sell when you are younger and cuter." Is there a devious badge? Or is this preparation for the real world? Toy stores are again segregating toys by stereotypical "gender roles." Toys "R" Us now has a Girls World and a Boys World with totally different offerings. Guess where the cars, action figures and sports stuff is and where the Barbies, play kitchens and collectable horses are. They start gender target marketing as young as two. It used to be that male and female play pattern differences were marketed to at five and up. "Gender marketing is very out of step with what adult men and women are doing," says Pamela Haag (AAUW, Educational Foundation.) It really is anachronistic. The store says it made a mistake but they and all the other retailers need to be very carefully watched because the stores are taking surveys and are expected to say, "They are only reflecting what consumers want." If it seems we fought this fight years ago-we did. And we need to keep vigilant because of all the people and corporations that still don't get it. *The number of horses asses is greater than the number of horses.