Women's Voices for Change

Poetry Friday: Christine Gelineau

Teacher, horse farmer, mentor, poet, Christine Gelineau understands dwelling on this earth.  Here we see how poetry breathes as she greets spring's first full month with a meditation on the hard and the soft of being fully alive.



                   "Bliss"
                                         

April loves a challenge, choosing to split
the slab of winter-hardened earth with the
silk tongue of a crocus.  She casts the stiffened
brooks as her fandango dancers.  At first

they crack and groan, call her the cruelest of
taskmasters but April persists, persuades:
the streams ripple, sequined and agile.  For
April even forgotten roadsides can

ruffle out in a froth of forsythia,
waving brash wands of membranous stars
that glitter like eternity,  then float to
the ground, a wasted galaxy melting

into the land while this uterine
muscle of a month bears down,  rousting
the fetuses each from their dark havens,
thrusting them naked and mewling into

the hungry light.  The least of April’s exploits
is lulling us: we are so eager to
ignore the hollow echo of the daffodils’
blare and the lithe red tulips’ throats of snow.

Ten Questions for Jean Hanff Korelitz

1.  What are you working on now?

I’m promoting my new novel, ADMISSION, which is set in the Princeton admissions office, and trying not to freak out as my 17 year old daughter gets ready to apply to college.

2.  What was your biggest challenge completing your current project?

Doing justice to the cultural hot spots that Ivy League admissions offices have become. Where else, in our society, are so many of our national preoccupations (like race, class, parenthood, tradition, diversity, even the very idea of “fairness”) converging?

3.  What are you doing for fun or relaxation?

 Serving as Groupie-in-Chief for my husband’s band, Rackett, and dancing at their monthly gig downtown.

4.  Last movie or play you saw?

My 9 year old son and I just saw GUYS AND DOLLS on Broadway. He’s been singing “Sit down you’re rocking the boat” ever since.

5.  Best part about being your age?

Letting go of the ambition I had to be successful at a young age.

6.  Have you ever wanted to revinvent yourself?

I’m still inventing myself the first time around. I like how I’m turning out.

7.  You went from being a violinist/tree surgeon to a tight rope walker/astronaut/, how did you do it?

Uh oh…don’t understand this question…

8.  What do you know now that you didn't know when you were 35?

At 35 I still hadn’t accepted the fact that I need to exercise every day. Now I have, and I’m not wasting my energy resenting it or my time whining about it.  I’m just getting on with it.

9.  What's next for you?

I’m writing a novel about a woman who thinks she has the perfect husband, the perfect marriage, the perfect life. Hah!

10. What do you value most in life?

Everything. I value everything.

Dr. Holly Andersen on Cholesterol

WVFC is happy to welcome Dr. Holly Andersen, a member of our Medical Advisory Board. Dr. Andersen, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Weill Cornell Medical Center, has additionally served as the Chief Medical Resident for the Department of Medicine and Director of Education and Outreach for the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute at The New York Presbyterian Hospital. She has also been an expert panelist on internet webcasts and an on air medical consultant to ABC World News Tonight, MTV, the CBS Evening News, NBC Evening News, The Early Show, The Fox Television Network, The Fox News Channel, and The British Broadcasting Company. Dr. Andersen speaks extensively on preventive cardiology, cardiovascular disease in athletes and in women.

Dear Dr. Andersen,

I am 50 years old and am in really good health and if I may say so, in really good shape. I am 5'5" and weigh 115 pounds. I eat very carefully, avoiding most fats, and eat multiple small meals a day, all with lots of vegetables, fish and organic poultry that is skinless.  I eat low fat cottage cheese with fruit twice a day. I take a fish oil supplement for Omega 3 and calcium and Vit D.  I exercise every day, aerobic exercise 30 minutes and then 30 minutes of weight training and stretching alternating with Yoga and meditation. I never smoke and I have two glasses of red wine a week to improve my heart health.  My blood pressure is perfect, my pulse is low normal, and I have no illnesses. I take no medicines. I have a great life and very little stress.

But, I have a problem that seems to be genetic.  My mother and her family all had very high cholesterol, but lived to be in their late 80's without strokes or heart attacks.  I don't think that they used any of the lipid lowering cholesterol drugs that are being pushed these days.  My general internist feels that it is very important that I take one of these drugs. I tried lipitor but felt lousy on it.  I had muscle pain, nausea and just not well in general.  I gave it a month then I gave it up.  My total cholesterol is 270 and my LDL is 170.  My trigylcerides are normal.

Since my family did well with this same genetic cholesterol problem and I am otherwise healthy, how do I find out if it is essential for me to use these drugs?  Honestly, there is nothing else that I can change to lower my bad lipids.

I know you can only give general advice but lots of my friends are being pushed to take these drugs as well.  How do we know if we have to do this?

Thank you,

Margaret

Dear Margaret,

Congratulations: you certainly seem to be taking your health and particularly your heart health seriously.  It matters.  We have many good treatments and technologies today, but nothing replaces or is more important than a healthy lifestyle.  A healthy diet, regular exercise, and abstaining from smoking are crucial to good health.

Before counseling you, I would ask a few more questions.

• How “perfect” is your blood pressure?  Blood pressures of less than 120/80 are most desirable, but basically the lower, the better. 
• What's your waist-to-hip ratio?   Your body mass index (BMI) -- a measurement of your weight indexed by your height -- is 19.1. This is normal, but another important measurement to consider is your waistline. The fat stored in your abdomen stimulates the process of atherosclerosis (plaque formation in the arteries). The safest waistline for heart health in a woman is < 29 inches, although some reports say that waistlines under 33 inches are okay.  What’s yours?
• I am a big fan of yoga and meditation -- although the benefits of these are more difficult to measure, I believe they significantly positively impact your health.  

I would say the same for laughter, sleep, good companionship and optimism.

It is a good sign that your mother and her family lived into their eighties without heart disease or stroke, despite their high LDL’s and total cholesterols.  Perhaps you have a genetically potent HDL – the good or “scavenger” cholesterol -- which helps rid your arteries from cholesterol and fatty plaque.  We have investigational assays to measure the effectiveness of HDL’s, but these are not clinically available.  How high is your HDL?  The higher, the better.  What are your triglycerides (another contributor to atherosclerosis)?  Fasting levels should be less than 150.

Margaret, depending on your answers, you may be feeling more or less at risk right now. You should be happy that you have so many good things going for you, but you are still more likely to die from cardiovascular disease than all cancers combined.  So what do you do? Should you add a medication that may help you further prevent this disease? 

It is certainly not wrong to do so. I like my low to moderate risk patients to have LDL’s below 130, and like it better when their LDL is below 100. I discuss the risks and benefits of adding cholesterol-lowering medications with my patients quite frequently. I don’t tell my patients to take a heart medication that makes them feel bad, but today there are many medications to choose from, if one is not easily tolerated. Furthermore, I know that if a patient is reluctant to take a medication, they probably won’t - even if I prescribe it for them. You need to feel you are making the right choice for you.

You may wish to consider having a further test to better evaluate your risk. Although no test is perfect, you might talk to your doctor about one of the following:

• Measuring your C-reactive protein, or CRP.  This protein, easily measured in your blood, has recently been established as an independent prognosticator of your cardiovascular risk. A recent study found that people with elevated CRP’s, even with acceptable cholesterol levels, can benefit from taking a statin medication.
• A carotid doppler, which is an ultrasound image of your neck arteries. It can help determine if the process of atherosclerosis has begun.
• Lastly, (although I rarely order this test) a scan of your heart called an EBCT, which does expose you to some radiation, will give you a “calcium score” that roughly estimates the plaque build up in your heart.

Good luck, Margaret.  Continue your healthy ways.

The one that got away - or did I?

by Malaika Adero

The flight between New York City and Los Angeles is one I look forward to as an opportunity to get a lot done:  edit manuscripts, read, stare into space uninterrupted.  If I’m really lucky, I might also get to  watch an in-flight movie that actually matches my taste.

A good thing got better recently as I found a nonstop cheap fare on Virgin American. Never having flown with them before, I didn’t realize that the planes—with their beautifully designed interiors—also  have computer screens on the back of each seat and a handset encased in the right arm. This allows you to do all sorts of great things, including  purchase snacks,  play games, listen to a favorite musical artist or radio station, monitor the progress of the flight and pay to view new-release films of your choice. Perfect. I could finally see Slumdog Millionaire, the Oscar winner that I’d been trying to get after weeks of failed attempts.

I was comfy in my seat and half-way through the film when I got another surprise. A message window appears in the middle of my screen: 5B asking if I “want to talk?” I sit up in my seat asking myself, “who the hell is in 5B?” and “what do I do now?”

 In a matter of seconds I consider that: I’m clueless about how I use the handset to reply, I don’t want to lose track of the movie nor the 8 bucks I paid for it, and if this is a hoax pulled by a wise-guy fellow passenger, I’ll feel like a chump. So, of the two touch-screen options, I chose ignore. As Slumdog ended and I pondered the matters of love and fate, it occurred to me that sitting a dozen seats ahead,  might just be the one—the love or a million dollars—that got away. Who knew? I raised my head just a bit, but unable to sort anyone out in the dark, smiled to myself and sighed.

A senior editor at Altria Books (Simon and Schuster), Malaika  Adero has worked in the book publishing industry for more than 20 years. She worked in an independent bookstore, at a scholarly press and then an educational book publisher before taking a position of editorial assistant at New American Library in 1985. She grew as an editor at Simon & Schuster, and then Fireside, from 1985 to 1991, returning to S&S for the launch of Atria in 2002. She was the founding executive editor for Amistad Press (from 1992 – 1996) and director of her own editorial and publishing consulting firm, Blue Media Editorial Services. She received a Tony Godwin Award in 1988 and was an editorial fellow at the Jerusalem Bookfair in 1995.

                             

                                

It Happens on the Courthouse Steps

by Alexsandra Stewart

 If you had asked me I would have said that the auction would have been in an office, in a building, maybe in a courtroom. It wasn't.  The residential property auction was held in Oregon City, on the Clackamas County Courthouse steps.

I figured that auctions on the courthouse steps were obsolete, a story from another time.  Yes, it had been common during the depression, maybe lasting into the fifties or sixties.  But now, in the internet age - wouldn't there be a 21st century way of holding a property auction?

I went with a client. She was curious about a house she and her husband had made an offer on. 

Dr. Melanie Katzman: On Eating Disorders and Midlife

As a specialist in women’s mental health, I am often asked, “does one ever recover from an eating disorder?” 

To this the answer is a resounding yes, provided one learns  to set realistic expectations,  discovers alternative ways to nourish themselves physically and emotionally and devel ops alternative ways of coping with stress . Easier said than done but, it is doable.

No Cougars In The Shoe Salon

When I go shoe shopping I really have no interest in flirting.  I much prefer the glory of Manolos to the men who are employed in the shoe salon.  I have my favorite places to shop, where I know I will be treated with kindness and attention. And respect.

Last week, I was shopping with my daughter in law at Bloomingdales, not my usual haunt,  where she was in search of black patent high heels.  Frankly, the selections were a bit weird, with platforms and bondage stuff and ugly round toes with thick soles.  The kinds of shoes that make everyone’s ankles look really thick. 

We found only one elegant pair of high heels in the entire department.

Then the the unexpected: a young man, not our salesman, crossed the room. He began  to give me special  attention.  Perhaps less unexpected: the  attention was unwanted.  The woman who will flirt with lampposts finally found his gambit uninteresting.

“He has been watching too many episodes of Desperate Housewives,” I thought. 

Cougar, indeed.

---Patricia Yarberry Allen

Duplicity Breaks The Age Barrier

The reviews have been stunning.   The lead roles are played by actors who are stunning.  The twists and turns of the plot are, well, stunning.  But all of that is nothing compared to the phenomenal moment when we go into the dark and duplicitous techno-cryptic, cutting edge and gritty intelligence/ counterintelligence den manned by men and one…wait a minute, can it be?  Mature Woman.

Weekend Web Watch, Part Two: Serious to Joyful

Stepping up for hard truths: At WVFC, we've long noticed some power women calling the alarm about sexual assault in the military, including California Rep. Susan Davis, Col. Ann Wright, and Helen Benedict, author of The Lonely Soldier.  Today we add another, with a bigger microphone: CBS' Katie Couric, who came through today with a searing report on the latest report showing  Military Rape Reports Rise, Prosecution Still Low.  “The betrayal issues to this day are still pretty deep,” one soldier tells Couric. “You know, I was like, ‘I’m willing to give my life for this guy next to me but how do I know that he’s not going to hurt me?’” Couric also talks to Army experts and psychologists. We hope she stays on the story once the "newsy" part is over.

A new technique for Oprah:  We found it for you first, with Rachel Dent's "After 30 Years, A New Technique for Living." But pick up the current issue of Oprah...

Weekend Web Watch, #1: Making the Shot

 Better late than... what was THAT? For 25 years, only hardcore women's basketball fans remembered that the first dunk in all of college basketball was sunk by a woman: "With 11 minutes, 18 seconds remaining in the game, West Virginia's 6-foot-7 junior center, Georgeann Wells, took a long pass at half court, and with a clear path to the basket, rose up and slammed the ball. With the first official dunk in a college game, women's sports reached a milestone,"  exults the Wall Street Journal, which not only tracked down the never-shown video above  but showed it to Wells, now coach of her old team.

Survey Sez: "Cougars" have smarter children. "Science comes down on the side of the cougar," said  New York Magazine and Salon this week about this Australian study. Salon's Amy Benfer notes that to some, the results sounded an alarm, with headlines like "Older Fathers Linked to Lower I.Q. Scores, leaving out the very silver lining.

The simultaneous finding that older women have smarter kids, according to the same measures, was often buried in the second to last paragraph. Crunching the numbers, [New York's] Nussbaum concludes: "The most intelligent children must be the outcome of 45-year-old career women inseminated by their 21-year-old personal trainers."

To celebrate the news, why not watch the current  most famous member of the species, as she and her younger partner do their bit for the nation?

Poetry Friday: William Wordsworth

Lines Written in Early Spring

I  heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.

 Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,
The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;
And ’tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.

The birds around me hopped and played,
Their thoughts I cannot measure:--
But the least motion which they made
It seemed a thrill of pleasure.

The budding twigs spread out their fan,
To catch the breezy air;
And I must think, do all I can,
That there was pleasure there.                            

 If this belief from heaven be sent,
 If such be Nature's holy plan,
 Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man?

Elegy for Natasha Richardson

She was far more beautiful in person than one can imagine.  Far more delicate with a presence more regal than most of her film and stage roles.  She was quiet and alert, seemingly familiar with the world’s duplicities and exaggerations and on guard for their appearance—in others or herself.  One had no trouble seeing her as a movie star, but less trouble understanding her as a wife and mother—roles she embraced as callings and maintained with privacy, dignity and relish.

She was reared to be someone who could take on identities:  that of actor, or Brit, or woman of impeccable manners.  And she grew to be more:  a three- dimensional human being with indisputable ability to love and connect, a woman with more to her life than the celluloid pseudo-living that could have been hers.

In the video below, we see a touch of her terrific work, as she contemplated mortality a little early.  Who among us hasn’t had the thought that she deserved more life and her family deserved much more of her?  Who can turn away from the lesson here? To be alive is to be running through raindrops we can’t understand.  Be fully alive, be awake to the gift of being here.  Be here now.

For all you achieved, Natasha Richardson, Brava.  For now, a brokenhearted thank you and good-bye.

Dr. Pat: Spring Training Begins

by Patricia Yarberry Allen

I don’t get out much.  It is easier to control how much you eat if you don’t go out to breakfast, lunch and dinner as part of your professional and social life.  It does amuse me (or it may in two weeks when I recover from this debauched period of my life) that I stress mindfulness as a key to obtaining and keeping optimal weight and fitness, then I, the teacher, mentor, doctor,  fall right off the cliff.

I usually exercise for an hour three times a week, in a focused and serious way;  then two or three other times on the treadmill, or take long walks in the park with the husband and Asta the Airedale.  Since January however, despite my New Years' promise, I have just been working and not working out.  I have controlled my diet but have not seen a trainer more than once a week.

I was a guest at a marvelous dinner party last night.  The apartment and the art collection were breathtaking.  Our hosts were charming and provided a wonderful atmosphere for relaxed conversation...  The mix of people and personalities were just right for a memorable evening.

 I managed the cocktail hour nicely.  Sparkling water, one canapé. Dinner, however, was a different story.  There were four courses and I ate everything and all of it.  I did not leave anything on my plate.

At one point, my host said to me, I swear this is true, “You eat a lot for a little person, don’t you?”  I pointed out that I generally eat for energy, for fuel. But on some special nights, when the food and the wine are wonderful, then I go off the reservation. 

I knew  that I was in trouble— I was at least capable of knowing that sloth and mindlessness were taking their toll on my body, my energy and my spirit —  so I'd arranged to work out with PJ at seven a.m. the next morning. At six,  after that late night, I dragged my unhappy self out of bed, struggled into exercise clothes and headed off to the gym.

It always amazes me how quickly the body loses its strength, balance and tone and how quickly my stamina disappears. It took about 45 minutes for the endorphins to kick in and then I felt great. 

I had those tired twitchy muscles from workout exhaustion, but I felt full of energy.  My head cleared, my focus became sharper and I was right back to mindful living. 

We all take a holiday from controlled eating and drinking and living a very healthy life.  It is human nature.  But the trick is to know that all holidays end and that not every meal is meant to be special.

It is time to get in shape for spring.  The season changes on March 21st.

• Move those heavy dark winter clothes away from the front of your closet. 
• Rotate the clothes that are left. Find the brighter colors, lighter fabrics.
• Focus on what you can do to have a healthier and more meaningful life.

You do have choices.  You can focus on the negative and increase your despair with feelings of hopelessness and misery.  You can focus only on what you have lost and not what you have.  You can become isolated and forget that you still have something to give to those who have less.

 Or in the midst of global upheaval you can focus on self care.

You can give in to the vices of sloth and gluttony. Or you can take charge, day by day, and move on.

 I am making the choice to come out of the winter and the frozen ground of this period of despair.  I am choosing to come alive just like the daffodils will do in days, forcing myself into the optimism of spring.

Spring training is not just for athletes.  It is for all of us as we work to become mindful again.

It's St. Pat's Day, Meredith Vieira. Give us a break!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

by Laura Baudo Sillerman

Meredith Vieira—give us a break!

 Okay, it may come down to there are two kinds of women in the world:  those who are into St. Patrick’s Day and those who aren’t.  But some of us are pretty firmly on the fence—not exactly outfitted in emerald today, but not loathe to wear a touch of lime either.

Frankly, I don’t think it’s about puce or pints of Guinness.  It’s about those Red Hat ladies.

 When Meredith Vieira hosted the Today Show from Dublin this morning, she appeared in progressively more ridiculous get-ups in each segment.  She wore, among other things, a shamrock emblem on her cheek, an Irish flag as a cape, green antennae, a big fuzzy green top hat and enough goo-gahs around her neck to sink the Blarney Stone into the Irish Sea.  There may have been more.  I couldn’t go on watching.

It made me think of the women who believe in wearing red hats and making certain everyone within six miles knows you are still interested in martinis, or newly converted to margaritas or dedicated to sporting stilettos and a boa to the supermarket or whatever their code of  conspicuousness dictates.

What ever happened to dignity?  Whatever happened to having fun without being foolish?

When did maturity come to mean mugging?  Clownishness?  Buffoonista? 

Sorry.  Maybe the wind has been more to my dorsal side than my back lately. Perhaps I’m having a little trouble getting into the playful Erin Go Bragh (oh, please spare me from the go bra-less comment) spirit, but you notice Matt  Lauer was nowhere near the festivities.  Because it’s unseemly for a news host to be outfitted like the I Love Lucy costumer returned for the occasion. 

Like it or not, Meredith Vieira represents the most powerful economic segment of American society—the mature woman.  The sparkle-in-the-eye,  spark-with-subtlety, sense-of-proportion-person-who-is-confident-enough-in-her-sense-of humor-not-to-need an-arrow-through-her-head mature woman.  Like it or not, Meredith, you are one of our faces to the world.  Wild Irish holiday or not, the role calls for a little maturity.

Actuary Barbie Goes Shopping

by Patricia Yarberry Allen

I have a daughter-in-law who is just perfect. She is 5’7 and looks great in clothes.  She is witty and a shameless mimic. And she will be an actuary, when she takes her last exam in May.  She already has some initials after her name, but she gets more after this exam.  She has been studying and taking exams for five years: killer exams that deal with risk evaluation, economic theory, statistics, spread sheets, finance, and dissecting out the hidden from the big ideas that have almost ruined our economy. 

These are exams that almost everyone fails periodically.  I do not know how she has survived.

So before she goes to the mat this one last time, I proposed a girl’s-only afternoon shopping adventure in the city.  My son is in law school and they have less than no money with all that debt, so a new spring suit seemed like a great gift to prepare her for the next round of 24/7 studying and working full time.   She suggested that we go to Bloomingdales, since she had read that they were ready to make it possible for shoppers to afford new spring clothes and we both wanted to see the Barbie exhibit.  We started at 2:00 and finished at 7:00!

 We began on the fourth floor and found a mature, classic, charming and useful suit. It was navy. You see, actuaries must dress so as not to be noticed.  No pink.  No orange.  No apple green.  I would be a naked actuary.  (Buff is a nice actuary color after all. ) She waxed enthusiastic about how she could wear this suit to a lunch and she could wear it to actuary events.  Because it was navy.

Once we knew we had a safe choice, then we really began to shop.  Two hours on the third floor and I talked her into trying on a great pale pink and beige tweed, that looked Chanel but was “Chanel-not” as some of my catty friends would say. She looked great.  But, then she began the risk-benefit thing.  “I will only wear this to a special lunch or a bridal shower and for Easter.  I could NEVER wear this to work or to an actuary event.”  Not enough value for the money.  

I had been thinking that Nanette Lepore would be a good choice for her. I love her clothes and buy her moderately priced, amusing and appropriate suits.  Lepore is certainly herself in mid-life, but she has that sense of fun combined with elegance that allows her to design with a bit of whimsy, often using muted colors but countering with a small flourish in unexpected places.  If she designs for your body shape, you look pounds lighter and years younger without the cougar ick factor.  But — I was having a moment where I could not remember her name.  I described her clothes to various sales associates on the 4th and 3rd floors but no one made the connection.  I had Ines de la Fressange stuck in my forebrain and I could not extract Nanette Lepore.  I knew that Bloomy’s had a big collection of her clothes; I just could not find them. 

So we moved down to the second floor where there are lots of interesting clothes, but too many were odd.  We were losing steam at this point having no calories for hours but we were on a mission.  We corrected each other’s choices in the nicest way.  “Too much blue in that green for you, Pat”.  “Do try this one on, sweetie.  Often clothes don’t look good on the hanger but I can really see you in this.”  No crabby behavior from either of us.  And I would normally have been taken to Bellevue after four hours at Bloomies.

 Then we stumbled onto the unlabeled Nanette Lepore section of the second floor.  “I found her!” I screamed.  People moved away.  Even in Bloomingdale’s there is some standard of behavior from crazed shoppers that I had just exceeded. But, I had been looking for Nanette for four hours.  I was overjoyed.  And I was right.  Everything looked great on my daughter-in-law. 

We found two perfect suits.  One was black tweed with totally awesome details on both the skirt and the jacket.  The skirt was a pencil skirt with black trimming placed just so, inviting the eye to the right places.  The jacket was short, stopping almost above the waist, with the same black trimming vertically down the center.  The other had a trumpet skirt and a jacket that pretended to pass as a normal ladies suit jacket with lapels, until the eye was drawn to the nipped-in waist and amusing back.  But it was beige and that was an acceptable actuary color.  We bought them both but nothing else after our long afternoon of looking for a bargain that would look great.
 
I knew that I was having an important experience with my daughter-in-law this long afternoon that was both fun and exhausting.  I knew that this shopping expedition was just a metaphor.     I was using shopping to teach my daughter in law how to succeed in a man’s world. 

I was passing along secrets about how to subvert toxic work environments by wearing a clever suit that was still in the right actuary color chart, but would allow her to express her wit and to consciously use clothes as a small secret piece of performance art. I was teaching her how to have power.

Throughout our archeological dig at Bloomies we encountered lots of Barbie dolls who were on display to celebrate Barbie’s 50th birthday.  Many were collector's items safely behind bullet proof glass cases.  There were Barbies dressed by designers whose clothes are carried by Bloomingdales (see here for more like Christian Dior Barbie, left).  Full-sized mannequins were dressed to look like Barbie in some of her signature clothes.  They looked so real I almost spoke to one. 

We loved the Barbie dolls. But the best part of the day was that I had an afternoon with my own Barbie.  Actuary Barbie, who knew?

Gloria Steinem is 75?! Outrageous!

By Laura Sillerman

Naturally one would weep at a birthday party for a icon who calls upon everyone there to be outrageous.

Weep people did last night, at one of many celebrations of Gloria Steinem’s 75th birthday at the home of her dear friend Marlo Thomas.  Steinem was as funny as inspiring as when she told students at Smith College's commencement:

In my generation, we were asked by the Smith vocational office how many words we could type a minute, a question that was never asked of then all-male students at Harvard or Princeton. Female-only typing was rationalized by supposedly greater female verbal skills, attention to detail, smaller fingers, goodness knows what, but the public imagination just didn’t include male typists, certainly not Ivy League-educated ones. Now computers have come along, and ‘typing’ is ‘keyboarding’. Suddenly, voila!—men can type! Gives you faith in men’s ability to change, doesn’t it?

 

This post is an invitation to be a fly on the wall of last night's party. But first, it is also to alert you that you are also probably about to throw a party of your own.

The site Ms. Foundation has created in honor of Gloria turning 75 has all the instructions. It calls upon all women to have an outrageous party, and it includes a party kit.

But wait, there’s more.  Here’s what Gloria wants from us:

“Because I have reached the outrageous age of 75, I feel I can call upon people to do an outrageous act every day for 75 days.”  One very demure woman asked, “would a subtle upheaval do?”  The answer came back: “No!  Outrageous is what is called for.”

• Another woman who has a regular gig on CNN (and who is married to a minister) decided she would wear her Wonder Woman T-shirt under her proper business attire and then unbutton her blouse to display it on the air. 
• A conventionally dressed older woman said she’d be showing her tattoo regularly. 
• A stunning singer stood and led everyone in chanting the name Gloria over and over in different keys at different tempos.  She then sang over the chant about the glory of Gloria. 

There was weeping.

During the toasts a young woman stood and said that she didn’t know where she would be without Gloria’s example.  She said that knowing about the battles carried out by Gloria and the other leaders of the women’s movement was the only way she could have possibly believed — in herself, in the possibility of a career, in the respect she now realizes all people are owed. People wept.

Another woman stood and said that though she knew Gloria hates to be called an icon, she had to tell her she had been an icon around her house when she was growing up--- the bad kind!  Her father (famous—but names are being omitted to protect the guilty here) would say things like, “you’re going to grow up to be like that Gloria Steinem!” as if it was the worst damnation he could imagine.*

People laughed till they wept.

Someone told this story: In the first building where Ms. had their offices someone went to the elevator operator and asked “Is it true that this is the building where Gertrude Stein works?”

Marlo Thomas spoke about the time Gloria asked her to go to Detroit to speak to welfare mothers.  Marlo protested that they would hate her, she was not on welfare, she was not a mother.  She represented everything those women would resent.  Gloria said, “trust me.  They’ll love you.”  Marlo Thomas went and what happened was they loved each other.  She wasn’t a welfare mother, but they were all women and she said it was a transformative moment for her and her commitment to women’s rights.

The weeping went on.

A ten-minute video shown at the event outlined the trajectory of a woman’s life and the arc of Steinem's. It told the story of what was once an improbable belief, in a movement that would insist on worldwide equality for all people and what would become part of the standard for human rights.  It showed women who are no longer here.   It showed marching and laughter and cajoling and, most of all, deep connection. 

There was a palpable connection among the women who were present at the creation of the outrageous notion that there should be equal opportunity, equal protection and equal pay for women and therefore for all quadrants in society. It connects us all.  The video also showed Gloria looking exquisite when she was young — as she sat there still looking exquisite, in a long black dress and cowgirl boots, when she no longer is.

It showed us ourselves.  For we are nothing if not the repositories of the history that has taken place in our lifetimes. It was enough to make you weep.

The occasion of this birthday should make us all want to go out and do something outrageous.  I hope everyone reading this does just that.  In celebration of the life of one very purposeful woman and the sense of purpose and possibility she’s added to each of ours.

*(He likely meant both Steinem as undercover Playboy Bunny in the photo on the right, and as the 1972 radical feminist, left -- Ed.)

Poetry Friday: Rumi on Welcoming Spring

 What does a 13th Century Persian/Afghanistani poet/philosopher mystic have to say to women who weren’t born yesterday?  One has only to come to the end of a mid-March week after the clocks were sprung an hour ahead and the light was struggling to imitate spring to understand.

We all get stagnant at times.  We are all in danger of believing what’s in the jug is the only water around.  Perhaps today’s Poetry Friday offering from the great old man himself might remind us otherwise.

-- Laura Sillerman

Come!  Take a pickaxe
And break apart
Your stony self.
The heart’s matrix
is glutted with rubies.
Springs of laughter
are buried in your breast.
Unstop the wine jar
Batter down the door
to the treasury
of nonexistence.
The water in your jug
is brakish and low.
Smash the jug
and come to the river!

Thursday Newsmix: Will Gordon-Reed and Honor Moore Take Book Critics Circle?; Hamburg to FDA; Jarrett, Tchen to Chair New White House Women's Council

At the center of the Circle: The National Book Critics Circle, that is. Tonight, the Circle chooses among the finalists for one of the nation's most prestigious literary awards. Will they tap Annette Gordon-Reed, whom WVFC interviewed last fall even before she won the National Book Award? And in the Autobiography category, watch to see if Honor Moore (seen above) snags the title for her deeply moving memoir, The Bishop's Daughter.

(Update: Results here; to our dismay, neither author took the nod. The Book Critics had their reasons, though we're disappointed. Without reading either, we think we sense why the Autobiography nod went to Ariel Sabar's book about his search for his Jewish roots in Kurdish Iraq. But we wonder if any biography of V.S. Naipul -- even one that the New Yorker's George Packer calls "a magnificent tribute to the painful and unlikely struggle by which the grandson of indentured Indian workers, born in the small island colony of Trinidad, made himself into the greatest English novelist of the past half century" -- can hold a candle to Gordon-Reed's towering, yet sneaky saga of the hugely influential Hemingses of Monticello.)

Power Women Update #27: Some new names for midlife women to brag about: Margaret Hamburg, Tina Tchen, Valerie Jarrett (again). Jarrett, who WVFC has known was rising since she arrived in Washington with the president, will co-chair the new White House Councll on Women and Girls. As Salon points out, this is both unsurprising and heartening:

In December, 50 women's groups lobbied the president to create a bureau that was itself Cabinet-level, which this is not, but that doesn't mean anyone's complaining.... As Susan Scanlan of the National Council of Women’s Organizations told Politico's Josh Gerstein: "It's certainly more than we have had in the last eight years. We're pretty happy with this administration." And so are we. If you are watching the news, or if you're a sentient being who can digest solid food, then you know there's not exactly an excess of reasons to celebrate. So let's enjoy this one, shall we?

Tina Tchen, Jarrett's co-chair, has an equally deep record of service, ever since as a 1980s law student, when she was state vice president of the National Organization for Women and was one of the leaders in writing and ensuring passage of the Illinois Criminal Sexual Assault Act.

Tchen, who has been with her law firm since 1985, has broad litigation experience in state and federal courts. She has worked on cases involving shareholders, intellectual property, constitutional matters, insurance, real estates and breach of contract. Some of the companies she has represented, according to her law firm bio, include Sprint Corporation, Abbott Laboratories, McDonald's, Aon Corporation and Motorola.

Tchen has also represented public agencies, including the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, the Illinois Department of Public Aid and the Chicago Housing Authority. She successfully argued a case before the United States Supreme Court in 1992 on behalf of the State of Illinois. [She] has also done extensive pro bono work and has served on numerous Chicago boards, including for the Chicago Public Library, University of Chicago Hospitals, Field Foundation and the Chinese American Service League.

Meanwhile, as part of what at least one journalist calls a "scrub, rinse, repeat" process, President Obama has tapped Dr. Margaret Hamburg to clean things up at the FDA. An unusual but compelling choice, the New York Times notes:

Dr. Hamburg, who was appointed by Mayor David N. Dinkins as acting commissioner in 1991 and became commissioner the following year, was one of the few top officials asked to remain when Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani took office in 1994. She was best known for developing a tuberculosis control program that produced sharp declines in the incidences of the disease in New York. Under her tenure, child immunization rates rose in the city.

She left New York in 1997 to become assistant secretary for planning and evaluation at the federal Department of Health and Human Services, where she created a bioterrorism initiative and led planning for pandemic flu response...

Jeffrey Levi, executive director of Trust for America’s Health, a nonprofit public health organization, said Dr. Hamburg had revived a demoralized and cash-starved agency in New York and could do the same at the F.D.A., which faces similar problems. “Right now,” Mr. Levi said, “the F.D.A. needs a strong leader with a clear sense of mission who can fight for the resources that the agency needs and do it in a bipartisan manner.”

-- Chris L.

Book Review: The Woman's Guide to Exceptional Living

Everything about Corrie Woods'  The Woman’s Field Guide to Exceptional Living: Practical Steps for Living a Big, Bold, Beautiful Life! invite you to slip it in a pocket and carry it around for a while: the title, the volume's slim size, and its message of courageously embracing your truest, most creative self.

Woods urges her readers to nurture their spirits and embrace their creative energy by becoming Bold:  A “Brilliant, Outrageous, Luminary Diva.”  Each chapter outlines a way to be more mindful and brave in embracing and nourishing the creative self.  At the end of each chapter, a few blank pages present space to write answers to prompts like: “I am so very grateful for…” “The most powerful Possibility Question I can craft about my past is…”

This book is certainly useful and thought provoking.  If you’re reading it while battling the post-winter blahs or a grouchy funk, you might be moved to sneer or scoff at her upbeat tone.  Take a deep breath, stay patient with the frequent appearance of the overused word “Diva,” and read on.  Even in the grouchiest, least creative mood, a reminder to breathe more deeply, and take time to for reflection and for caring for yourself is a good idea, and might help you feel better.

 Unlike many self-help books, Woods’ guide also urges focus on the body, not just the spirit.  Devoting a chapter to nurturing care of stretching, breathing, diet and exercise, grounds the guide and balances its perspective.  Also, the exercises and questions Woods poses are mostly concrete, but general enough to inspire creative thinking about the ways they relate to a reader’s particular life experience.  Throughout the guide, Woods tempers soul searching with playfulness, inviting celebration as well as reconciling with the past, and  describing the healing nature of gathering friends for a fun and tasty dinner.  A chapter on “Making Mud Pies” is more clearly tied to finding ways to be playful and whimsical with creative, almost childlike activities.

Among the more powerful reminders to nurture your spirit and self are Woods’ chapters about going on retreat, and her recurrent theme of being brave enough to move to the spotlight in your own life.  It can be hard for busy women to set aside even a day or two for quiet reflection, which Woods acknowledges.  Her guide to setting up time and space for a retreat is straightforward, and includes a writing prompt that addresses “what might get in the way of me taking my very own personal retreat.”  Woods also acknowledges the difficulty many women have inviting change into their lives, especially changes that push them into the spotlight.  Acknowledging how difficult that can be helps her guide be grounded, yet inspiring, and definitely useful to women at any stage of their creative life and process.

-- Elizabeth Willse, Contributing Editor

Newsflash: Couric Wins Cronkite Award

The award was named for "Uncle Walter," but last night belonged to the most influential woman in the nightly news.

At the Annenberg Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California, CBS News managing editor Katie Couric won a Special Achievement for National Impact on the 2008 Campaign. The awards jury honored Couric for her  "extraordinary, persistent and detailed multi-part interviews with Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin" which judges called a "defining moment in the 2008 presidential campaign."

"These Cronkite Award winners prove that thoughtful, informative political coverage can also make for gripping television," said USC Annenberg professor Martin Kaplan, director of the Lear Center, which has administered the biennial awards honoring the distinguished broadcast journalist and longtime CBS anchor Walter Cronkite since 2000.

As the Huffington Post points out, those October Couric-Palin interviews would be repeated, parodied and argued till Election Day, from dinner tables to Saturday Night Live and back again. This now-legendary contest between two high-powered women is below:  watch as Palin, as she explained later to NBC's Matt Lauer, seeks only to deliver her planned message, while journalist Couric gently insists on answers to her questions.

- Chris L.