en.wikipedia.org
Geraldyn ("Jerrie") M. Cobb (born March 5, 1931)[1] in Norman, Oklahoma is an American aviator. She was also part of the "Mercury 13," a group of women who underwent some of the same physiological screening tests as the original Mercury Seven astronauts as part of a private, non-NASA program.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Jerrie Cobb
My first Awesome Woman of the Day is Jerrie Cobb, along with the Mercury 13. I first heard about her when a story came out about a group of women, the Mercury 13, who took the same tests as the men who went on to become the first Americans on the moon. The women were in serious training to go on that trip, but were pulled for various reasons, or one - sexism - depending on where you're reading. I've been trying to find the original article I read a few years ago, and will post it when I find it. (Ok, this is shorter than many, but it's a start :)
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Janet Evanovich
Today’s WOD is bestselling author Janet Evanovich born (4-22- 1943) and raised in South River, New Jersey. Her dad was a machinist and her mom a homemaker. Janet got married in 1964 and started raising her family, she needed to make some money to contribute to the family finances so she began to write. She began writing novels in her thirties while she was busy being a housewife and mother. To help her learn the art of dialogue, she took improvisational acting lessons. After ten years of trying to write the Great American Novel, she shifted her focus to romance. She found that she enjoyed the genre. Her first book, “Hero at Large” was published under the pseudonym Steffie Hall. In 1987, Janet had just started a temp job when she got the call that her first book was going to be published for a whopping $2,000.00. She thought that was a windfall! After twelve romance novels, she turned her attention to writing romantic adventure novels and wrote “One for the Money”, the first Stephanie Plum mystery novel.
Her writing is not groundbreaking, not awe inspiring and will not win any literary awards but Janet simply has a talent to entertain with her writing. Her books are not literature by any means, however they are some of the funniest laugh out loud books I have ever read. They can help you escape from your everyday life and get lost in the adventures of her main character Stephanie Plum. Stephanie is a girl in her 20’s born and raised in “the Burg” near Trenton, NJ. The first book in the series starts with her losing her job as a lingerie salesgirl and her car got repossessed. In an act of desperation she goes to her cousin Vinnie’s bail bonds business and begs for work. She becomes an unlikely bounty hunter. (interesting fact: She was inspired by Robert DeNiro’s character in “Midnight Run” – one of my all-time favorite flicks!). Janet wanted her books to revolve around a main character that went on adventures and she felt that a female bounty hunter would give her the freedom to create hi-jinx. Also involving Stephanie’s crazy family and friends adds an element of hilarity that will make you laugh out loud as you are reading. [For example, I was sitting in the parking lot of my kid’s theatre camp one summer just waiting for them to be done reading the second book in the series when I started laughing out loud. When the mom next to me heard me laughing she saw that I was reading (she couldn’t see the book in the car) the first thing she said to me was “Janet Evanovitch?” I said “Of Course!”]
Janet’s Stephanie Plum novels have been wildly successful, she had to date written no less than 18 of the numbered books along with some in-between the numbers books. After the 5th book, she has had her fans decide on the names of all the future Stephanie Plum books.
One of the reasons I love reading her books is the fact that she references places and things that I know because I was born and raised in the tri-state area. Since Janet grew up in Jersey she references places at the Jersey Shore, the Philadelphia area and many places in Trenton. She also makes references that are unique to our area such as Tastykakes, which are delicious by the way. I am not sure how her books go over in the rest of the country but she is a rock star in South Jersey. For example; when she came to Cherry Hill for a book signing, my friends and my two oldest children went with me to meet her. There were so many people there for the signing that they had an all day festival in front of Barnes and Noble. We waited for over six hours and had the best time with fellow Janet groupies. Her fan base is predominately middle age women so the fact that my teenage son and daughter were there and were excited to meet her because they had both read all the books in the series was unusual to say the least. But they both made an impression on Janet, so much so she gave them a cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory left over from the street party. Now this in itself does not make her an Awesome Woman however, she has the gift of humor and making people laugh is a noble profession. Laughter has a way of lighting us up from the inside, it can heal and it can help you escape from reality. So she may not be groundbreaking, outstanding or overachieving but in my book she is an Awesome Woman, I do hope you agree!
“Romance novels are birthday cake and life is often peanut butter and jelly. I think everyone should have lots of delicious romance novels lying around for those times when the peanut butter of life gets stuck to the roof of your mouth.”
― Janet Evanovich
Janet’s Books, please check them out:
Single Romance Novels
(originally written under the name Steffie Hall)
Hero at Large (1987)
Foul Play (1989)
The Grand Finale (1988)
Thanksgiving (1988)
Manhunt (1988)
Ivan Takes a Wife (1988)
Naughty Neighbor (1992)
Love Overboard (2005)
Elsie Hawkins Series
Back to the Bedroom (1989)
Smitten (1990)
Wife for Hire (1990)
Rocky Road to Romance (1991)
Stephanie Plum Series
One for the Money (1994)
Two for the Dough (1996)
Three to Get Deadly (1997)
The Last Peep (A Stephanie Plum Short story included in Mary Higgins Clark presents The Plot Thickens) (1997)
Four to Score (1998)
High Five (1999)
Hot Six (2000)
Seven Up (2001)
Hard Eight (2002)
Visions of Sugar Plums (2002), Holiday novella
To the Nines (2003)
Ten Big Ones (2004)
Eleven on Top (2005)
Twelve Sharp (2006)
Plum Lovin' (2007), Holiday novella
Lean Mean Thirteen (2007)
Plum Lucky (2008), Holiday novella
Fearless Fourteen (2008)
Plum Spooky (January 6, 2009), Holiday novel
Finger Lickin' Fifteen (June 23, 2009)
Sizzling Sixteen (June 22, 2010)
Smokin' Seventeen (June 21, 2011)
Explosive Eighteen (November 22, 2011)
Diesel Series
(Spin-off from the Stephanie Plum Series)
Wicked Appetite (September 14, 2010)
The Barnaby Series
Metro Girl (November 2004)
Motor Mouth (October 2006)
Trouble Maker (2010-Graphic novel, published by Dark Horse Comics)
Full (Max Holt) Series with Charlotte Hughes
Full House (1989) (Originally as Steffie Hall, Re-released in expanded form in 2002)
Full Tilt (2003)
Full Speed (2003)
Full Blast (2004)
Full Bloom (2005)
Full Scoop (2006)
Hot (Cate Madigan) Series with Leanne Banks
Hot Stuff (2007)
Non-fiction
How I Write (2006)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wi
http://www.evanovich.com/
Monday, September 26, 2011
Cynthia Heimel
I was googling Cynthia Heimel for Awesome Woman of the Day and was shocked to see her pitiful Wikipedia entry and it’s three meager paragraphs.
To me, Heimel is HUGE, a groundbreaking, sexy, funny, feminist, smart writer. While women’s magazines were giving me advice in 1986 like, “Wear red shoes because men like them,” Heimel came out with the satirical--but kind of not--book Sex Tips For Girls. In it, she recommended I FIRST figure out what the hell I actually liked, then proceed from there. For my 1986 self (embarrassingly enough) this was big news.
I like what Amanda Krauss’ wrote in her blog, Worst Professor Ever about Heimel:
...I write because of Cynthia Heimel. In addition to writing several books, Cynthia Heimel was a columnist for The Village Voice, then Playboy. Why Playboy? Because they let her say what she wanted, which isn’t as easy as it sounds. She was too sexy for Ms., too funny to be a “serious” intellectual, and too angry to appear in “women’s” magazines. I’ve always thought she would have been even more successful had she written in the internet age. (She’s not dead or anything, she’s just not writing regularly as far as I can tell.)Cynthia Heimel thought that women could read Proust and discuss fashion, that they could like men and still be feminists, and that, while they were laughing, they still had a right to get angry about inequality. Also, men like her writing. I can’t tell you the number of times a guy’s been helping me move and I’ve found him reading my copy of Sex Tips for Girls. Cynthia Heimel is funny and angry and fashionable and sexy and smart, and I still don’t see “women’s” magazines (or blogs) doing what she did.
en.wikipedia.org
Cynthia Heimel is a playwright, television writer, and the author of several satirical books which are aimed primarily at a female readership. To those who have heard of her but have not read her books, her works are probably best known for their unusual titles.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Marlo Thomas
Born (Julia “Marlo” Thomas) in Detroit Michigan November 21, 1937 to actor Danny Thomas & Rose Cassaniti. Since her dad was an actor Marlo grew up in Beverly Hills California, she attended University of Southern California with a degree in teaching because she wanted to say that she was qualified to do “something”. She did eventually go into the acting business. Marlo began her career performing in regional theaters around the country, when Mike Nichols cast her as the lead in the London production of Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park. Thomas was a regular on The Joey Bishop Show from 1961 to 1962; she followed the series with several guest appearances on other television shows.
But most of us were introduced to her from the role she received in 1966, the role for which she is still known today: New York actress Ann Marie on the ABC sitcom "That Girl". Marlo Thomas has been a role model for women and children since she blazed the trail as television’s first single woman living alone in that hit series. She received a Golden Globe Award and four Emmy nominations for "That Girl".
She may have begun as an actress but she went on to be a producer and a social activist. In 1973, Marlo Thomas joined Gloria Steinem, Patricia Carbine, and Letty Cottin Pogrebin as the founders of the country’s first women’s fund, the Ms. Foundation for Women. The organization was created to deliver funding and other resources to organizations that were presenting women’s voices in communities nationwide.
Her involvement with St. Jude:
When Marlo’s mother was pregnant with her, her father was a struggling actor. Her father Danny was torn between his dedication to his work and his responsibility to his wife and their new baby.
Desperate, Danny sought relief in prayer. He knelt before the statue of St. Jude, the patron saint of the hopeless causes, and begged for a sign: should he or should he not remain in show business? Impulsively, Danny promised to erect a shrine to St. Jude if the saint would show Danny his way in life.
His career took off and he enjoyed much success and financial security Throughout his successes, Danny never forgot his promise to St. Jude. The shrine would be a hospital for needy children, a place where they would be cared for regardless of race, religion or ability to pay—a hospital where no suffering child would be turned away. Danny gave of himself wholeheartedly in the effort to realize his dream, contributing his talents, time and money.
From Danny's pledge that hospital care would be accessible to all children, regardless of their ability to pay, grew ALSAC, one of the most successful fund-raising organizations in American history.
When late entertainer Danny Thomas opened the doors to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in 1962, he was not just changing the lives of those children who would walk through its doors. He was changing lives across the world.
Since his death, his eldest child, Marlo proudly serves as National Outreach Director for St. Jude Hospital. The mission of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is to advance cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. Consistent with the vision of our founder Danny Thomas, no child is denied treatment based on race, religion or a family's ability to pay.
Today, Marlo attends events around the country to promote St. Jude with corporations, individual donors and other celebrities. She has been actively involved in solidifying support for St. Jude from various corporations.
In 2004, Marlo, Terre and Tony created Thanks and Giving®, a national campaign that encourages holiday shoppers to “Give thanks for the healthy kids in your life, and give to those who are not.” During the months of November and December, consumers are asked to help raise funds at participating retailers by adding a donation at check out or by purchasing specialty items to benefit St. Jude. Thanks to Marlo’s efforts, Thanks and Giving has been featured on NBC’s Today show in multiple segments spotlighting patients, doctors, scientists and the ground-breaking research and treatment at St. Jude.
“My father said there were two kinds of people in the world: givers and takers. The takers may eat better, but the givers sleep better.” – Marlo Thomas
Friday, September 23, 2011
Myrtle Johnson Baird
My awesome woman of the day is my grandmother Baird and women of the 20th century.
I had two awesome grandmothers and will do my maternal grandmother another time.
Myrtle Johnson Baird was born in 1878, and died in 1964. She was born
before women had the vote, and traveled to her first home as a married
woman in covered wagon; before she died, she had gone across the country
several times by air.
Myrtle bore 11 children, and raised 8. Two died in infancy, one as a young girl. She lost another son at age 20, and her husband at 52.
She could catch and wring a chicken’s neck and have it plucked, dressed and in the pot, in the time some people take in the grocery store deciding on what could be microwaved for dinner.
Her first homes did not have electricity and several were rural without running water. Grandma kept a strict schedule all her life and I remember her telling us how on Monday (wash day) she would first fill the stove with wood, get it lighted, then have to pump the water from the well or cistern, heat it on the stove, fill the wash tub, and wash the clothes (with hand made soap). Tuesday was Ironing, and this meant heating the flat iron on the stove, and ironing in the kitchen, which in summer must have been unbearably hot. She baked on Wednesday, meaning she baked the family’s bread and any other baked goods for the week. There were other specific chores for the days of the week, and she always kept a clean house but Saturday was a general house cleaning day, scrubbing mopping, dusting and polishing.
All of this was accomplished while bearing and taking care of her children. There were very few years of her marriage she was not pregnant or nursing a baby. She never wore pants and always looked clean and well kept. She was strict, and all of us, her children and grandchildren, jumped when she said ‘jump’. Raising as many children as she did, meant she ran a tight ship!
Many of her homes were on farms and she helped with the farm chores in addition to everything else.
Most of her married life was during the dust bowl and the depression that hit rural areas before the cities. Times could be difficult at best. My grandfather was a building contractor as well as a farmer at various times in their lives, and when he had those kinds of jobs, they did better. The contracting jobs meant they moved around the south and Midwest quite a bit, and some places were more up to date than others. She had moving down to a science, and all her life could pack up and move with very little notice.
Grandma was tough and big hearted. She was widowed when she still had 4 children at home, the youngest 5. She had never done work outside the home and had to figure a way to support herself and the children. To her shame, she went on ‘relief’ for the help it offered and the older children pitched in with what they could, but my grandfather died in 1929, jobs were hard to come by and became harder. By 1933 when FDR put the New Deal in place there were better jobs available. My uncle Kenneth got a job with the CCC and he was able to send home enough money to make things much easier. By World War II all her children were out of high school, in the military and/or married.
I knew her as a woman living with one of my uncles, and later on her own, who cooked amazing big meals, great angel food cake, was as sharp and witty as anyone I knew. She could tell and take a joke, she always knew what was going on in the world, was a political liberal, but could tolerate Republicans, could argue any subject forcefully and then change sides! She loved babies and after raising a family would go and help out any of her children when a new baby was born. I occasionally brought dates over to visit, and they thought she was great. One of the things that I found interesting, is that her children always said what a remarkable woman she was, how strong, and determined. But all of her sons in law and her adult grandchildren just said, “She was a Hell of a lot of fun!”
I had two awesome grandmothers and will do my maternal grandmother another time.
Myrtle bore 11 children, and raised 8. Two died in infancy, one as a young girl. She lost another son at age 20, and her husband at 52.
She could catch and wring a chicken’s neck and have it plucked, dressed and in the pot, in the time some people take in the grocery store deciding on what could be microwaved for dinner.
Her first homes did not have electricity and several were rural without running water. Grandma kept a strict schedule all her life and I remember her telling us how on Monday (wash day) she would first fill the stove with wood, get it lighted, then have to pump the water from the well or cistern, heat it on the stove, fill the wash tub, and wash the clothes (with hand made soap). Tuesday was Ironing, and this meant heating the flat iron on the stove, and ironing in the kitchen, which in summer must have been unbearably hot. She baked on Wednesday, meaning she baked the family’s bread and any other baked goods for the week. There were other specific chores for the days of the week, and she always kept a clean house but Saturday was a general house cleaning day, scrubbing mopping, dusting and polishing.
All of this was accomplished while bearing and taking care of her children. There were very few years of her marriage she was not pregnant or nursing a baby. She never wore pants and always looked clean and well kept. She was strict, and all of us, her children and grandchildren, jumped when she said ‘jump’. Raising as many children as she did, meant she ran a tight ship!
Many of her homes were on farms and she helped with the farm chores in addition to everything else.
Most of her married life was during the dust bowl and the depression that hit rural areas before the cities. Times could be difficult at best. My grandfather was a building contractor as well as a farmer at various times in their lives, and when he had those kinds of jobs, they did better. The contracting jobs meant they moved around the south and Midwest quite a bit, and some places were more up to date than others. She had moving down to a science, and all her life could pack up and move with very little notice.
Grandma was tough and big hearted. She was widowed when she still had 4 children at home, the youngest 5. She had never done work outside the home and had to figure a way to support herself and the children. To her shame, she went on ‘relief’ for the help it offered and the older children pitched in with what they could, but my grandfather died in 1929, jobs were hard to come by and became harder. By 1933 when FDR put the New Deal in place there were better jobs available. My uncle Kenneth got a job with the CCC and he was able to send home enough money to make things much easier. By World War II all her children were out of high school, in the military and/or married.
I knew her as a woman living with one of my uncles, and later on her own, who cooked amazing big meals, great angel food cake, was as sharp and witty as anyone I knew. She could tell and take a joke, she always knew what was going on in the world, was a political liberal, but could tolerate Republicans, could argue any subject forcefully and then change sides! She loved babies and after raising a family would go and help out any of her children when a new baby was born. I occasionally brought dates over to visit, and they thought she was great. One of the things that I found interesting, is that her children always said what a remarkable woman she was, how strong, and determined. But all of her sons in law and her adult grandchildren just said, “She was a Hell of a lot of fun!”
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Deborah Tabart
♥ ♥ ♥ Today's Awesome Woman is Deborah Tabart (1953 - ) She is the Chief Executive Officer of Australian Koala Foundation, also known as the Koala Woman :) For 20 years, the foundation’s mantra has been: No tree. No me.
The AKF works to provide maps and management tools to help people look after the koalas in their back yards and help governments and planners create forward thinking strategies to protect koala habitats.
She has spent the last 22 years fighting for Australia’s endangered koala population, contending with governments, developers, multi-national corporations, communities, media, conservationists, other NGOs and scientists.
Deborah’s campaigning in the USA saw the United States Government Fish and Wildlife Service Department list the koala as a vulnerable species in 2000, a significant win in her journey to date.
In 2008, Deborah was honoured for her lifelong commitment to the koala when awarded an Order of Australia Medal, but her most notable achievement to date has been funding and leading the AKF’s $8 million worth of koala research. The research has produced the most extensive wildlife and habitat maps in the world and are so highly regarded that Deborah was awarded the Computerworld Smithsonian Medal for them in 1998.
Deborah is also the recipient of the 2011 ABC EXCEL Award. She is the first Australian, first CEO of a Not-for-Profit organisation and first woman to win this prestigious communication award.
Deborah hopes to see all koala habitats mapped, the enactment of The National Koala Act and the establishment of koala conservation zones where people live with respect and understanding for koalas and other wildlife.
“The koala to me represents all that is beautiful about my country Australia. In my time as the koala woman I have watched the cruelty that has been perpetrated on this beautiful creature and this stirs in me a great sense of injustice and that is what drives me. As I go out into the world to fight for the koala, I am always humbled by everything it represents. You see, as champion of the koala, I am not only seeking to protect it, but also my home, my country, and its wonderful people. Because, No Tree. No Me. We need to protect what we have or there will be dire consequences.”
The AKF works to provide maps and management tools to help people look after the koalas in their back yards and help governments and planners create forward thinking strategies to protect koala habitats.
She has spent the last 22 years fighting for Australia’s endangered koala population, contending with governments, developers, multi-national corporations, communities, media, conservationists, other NGOs and scientists.
Deborah’s campaigning in the USA saw the United States Government Fish and Wildlife Service Department list the koala as a vulnerable species in 2000, a significant win in her journey to date.
In 2008, Deborah was honoured for her lifelong commitment to the koala when awarded an Order of Australia Medal, but her most notable achievement to date has been funding and leading the AKF’s $8 million worth of koala research. The research has produced the most extensive wildlife and habitat maps in the world and are so highly regarded that Deborah was awarded the Computerworld Smithsonian Medal for them in 1998.
Deborah is also the recipient of the 2011 ABC EXCEL Award. She is the first Australian, first CEO of a Not-for-Profit organisation and first woman to win this prestigious communication award.
Deborah hopes to see all koala habitats mapped, the enactment of The National Koala Act and the establishment of koala conservation zones where people live with respect and understanding for koalas and other wildlife.
“The koala to me represents all that is beautiful about my country Australia. In my time as the koala woman I have watched the cruelty that has been perpetrated on this beautiful creature and this stirs in me a great sense of injustice and that is what drives me. As I go out into the world to fight for the koala, I am always humbled by everything it represents. You see, as champion of the koala, I am not only seeking to protect it, but also my home, my country, and its wonderful people. Because, No Tree. No Me. We need to protect what we have or there will be dire consequences.”
www.savethekoala.com
Koala Australian Koala Foundation, Koalas. Latest koala information, gift koala shop, koala blog, everything you want to know about koalas. The koala is not a koala bear...
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Karen Aqua
Today's awesome woman is Karen Aqua (1954 - 2011), US artist/animator, and there is absolutely no way I can do her justice. Her work comprised elements of ritual, tribal culture, myth, questing, and rebirth, all with a very distinctive look that came partly from her own unique spirit and partly from the fact that she drew all of her films by hand. She was an artist in the finest sense of the word. She was born in Wilkes-Barre, PA and grew up in a small town nearby. She studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, which is where she began animating.
Her films included TAXONOMY (2011) TWIST OF FATE (2009), ROSWELL: NOT JUST ALIENS (2008), SENSORIUM (2007), ANDALUZ (2004), GROUND ZERO/SACRED GROUND (1997), PERPETUAL MOTION (1992), KAKANIA (1989), NINE LIVES (1988) and VIS-À-VIS (1982). She collaborated on the film CANDYJAM (1988).
From the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art website (referencing a retrospective of her work that will happen this coming Sunday), QUOTE: Created from exceptionally refined and colorful drawings, Aqua’s style is also characterized by compelling subject matter, exploring the human condition through themes of culture and transformation. Aqua stated, “I strive to create films which are more poetry then (sic) prose, making visible the invisible.”
http://www.icaboston.org/programs/film/Karen_Aqua/
Those of us who have brought up children in the last 20 years have probably seen some of her work on Sesame Street.
http://youtu.be/klTx8lku4Ws
Starting in 1990, she produced, directed and animated a total of 22 segments which included music by her husband and frequent collaborator, Ken Field, and percussionist Ken Winokur), but she also had several decades of award-winning work dealing with sometimes very dark and complicated themes. S See, e.g., Ground Zero/Sacred Ground (1997 • 9 minutes)
http://mysite.verizon.net/karen.aqua/ground_zero.html (link also includes a list of her awards and festival screenings). She died on May 30, 2011, ten years after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
For more detailed information, please see the following:
http://mysite.verizon.net/karen.aqua/index.html
http://www.cctvcambridge.org/gallery
http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/features/x1534034504/Karen-Aqua-Cambridge-resident-and-celebrated-animator-dies-at-57#axzz1YaWeqXEY
http://www.awn.com/news/people/indie-animator-karen-aqua-dies
Her films included TAXONOMY (2011) TWIST OF FATE (2009), ROSWELL: NOT JUST ALIENS (2008), SENSORIUM (2007), ANDALUZ (2004), GROUND ZERO/SACRED GROUND (1997), PERPETUAL MOTION (1992), KAKANIA (1989), NINE LIVES (1988) and VIS-À-VIS (1982). She collaborated on the film CANDYJAM (1988).
From the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art website (referencing a retrospective of her work that will happen this coming Sunday), QUOTE: Created from exceptionally refined and colorful drawings, Aqua’s style is also characterized by compelling subject matter, exploring the human condition through themes of culture and transformation. Aqua stated, “I strive to create films which are more poetry then (sic) prose, making visible the invisible.”
http://www.icaboston.org/programs/film/Karen_Aqua/
Those of us who have brought up children in the last 20 years have probably seen some of her work on Sesame Street.
http://youtu.be/klTx8lku4Ws
Starting in 1990, she produced, directed and animated a total of 22 segments which included music by her husband and frequent collaborator, Ken Field, and percussionist Ken Winokur), but she also had several decades of award-winning work dealing with sometimes very dark and complicated themes. S See, e.g., Ground Zero/Sacred Ground (1997 • 9 minutes)
http://mysite.verizon.net/karen.aqua/ground_zero.html (link also includes a list of her awards and festival screenings). She died on May 30, 2011, ten years after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
For more detailed information, please see the following:
http://mysite.verizon.net/karen.aqua/index.html
http://www.cctvcambridge.org/gallery
http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/features/x1534034504/Karen-Aqua-Cambridge-resident-and-celebrated-animator-dies-at-57#axzz1YaWeqXEY
http://www.awn.com/news/people/indie-animator-karen-aqua-dies
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Donna Reed
Donna Reed was born in the Midwestern town of Denison, Iowa, on January 27, 1921, as Donna Belle Mullenger. She wanted to become a teacher but since she could not afford to go to college she moved to LA at 16 to go to secretarial school. She was noticed for her striking beauty and was bombarded with offers from agents and studio executives. After receiving several offers to screen test for studios, Reed signed with the prestigious Feldman-Blum agency, after which she gave an impressive screen test for MGM, Reed eventually signed with MGM, but insisted on finishing her education first. She played many small roles for years with MGM but was lent out to Frank Capra's Liberty Films for the independent picture, It's a Wonderful Life (1946). The film, which featured Reed as Jimmy Stewart's wife (Mary Hatch Bailey), barely got off the ground at the box office, but went on to become a perennial holiday favorite. Although it was a great role for her, it caused her to be typecast to squeaky clean roles. She endured many uninteresting one dimensional roles that were not fulfilling to her as an artist. However in 1956, she staged a remarkable comeback when she was cast in the prized role of Alma, the dancehall prostitute in From Here to Eternity (1953). Featuring the stellar cast of Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr and Frank Sinatra, the film swept the 1954 Oscars securing a total of eight wins, including a Best Supporting Actress Award for Reed.
Despite the accolades she received for her role of Alma, her film career came to a screeching halt. So she took matters into her own hands and along with her husband created their own production company. Todon Productions launched The Donna Reed Show (1958-66), which provided the perfect vehicle to display the actress as the picture of sophisticated charm. In 1958, the family sitcom premiered and Reed came to personify the quintessential mother of suburban America. The series enjoyed an eight-year run, during which she received four Emmy nominations.
So besides being a pioneer in the television industry by becoming one of the first female producers, in her personal live she was a pretty kick ass woman as well. During the Vietnam War in the 1970s, she was a fervent anti-nuclear weapon and anti-war activist, co-chairing the protest organization "Another Mother for Peace. Another Mother for Peace was founded to educate women to take an active role in eliminating war as a means of solving disputes between nations, people and ideologies. AMP is a non-profit, non-partisan association. AMP encourages its members to do Peace Homework by writing to elected government officials to express their desire for peace.
In 1986, the resilient actress lost her two-year bout with pancreatic cancer. She was 64 years old. In 1987, Grover Asmus (Reed's widower), actresses Shelley Fabares and Norma Connolly, and numerous friends, associates, and family members created the Donna Reed Foundation for the Performing Arts. A non-profit organization to memorialize Donna Reed's accomplishments and perpetuate her deep commitment to youth, education, and the performing arts. Based in Reed's hometown of Denison, the organization grants scholarships for performing arts students, runs an annual festival of performing arts workshops, and operates "The Donna Reed Center for the Performing Arts".
http://www.anothermother.o
http://www.donnareed.org/
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Diane Wilson
Today's Awesome Woman is Diane Wilson, a Texas shrimper who has been a long-time, hard-fightin' radical activist against industrial polluters, the war machine, and just about any other Goliath she puts in the sights of her stinging slingshot.
In a July interview on Truthout by Joni Praded, soon after the release of her latest book, "Diary of an Eco-Outlaw: An Unreasonable Woman Breaks the Law for Mother Earth," Wilson explains how her first motivation to action -- which to date has resulted in more than 50 civil-disobedience arrests -- became her nonstop pursuit ever since:
I read an Associated Press story about my county being number one toxic polluter in the nation in l989. That information was too horrendous for me to ignore, so I simply called a meeting, and it snowballed for the next 20 years.That snowball is made up of some admirably outrageous actions such as sinking her own boat to cover a Formosa Plastics drainpipe in order to block its discharge into her bay. This motivated what she terms "the apathetic fishermen" and the outcome was winning zero-discharge agreements from two industrial giants, Formosa and Alcoa. (In 2002, though, Formosa was still listed in the 90th percentile of the worst environmental polluters by Scorecard, a pollution information site.)
In another incident, Wilson attempted to make a citizen's arrest of Warren Anderson, CEO of Union Carbide which had caused 20,000 deaths in the Bhopal disaster.
Diane Wilson's mission broadened from fighting major polluters and industrial criminality to human rights and peace activisism. In the interview when asked to name her "most surprising" action, she cites her visit to Iraq in 2003 with "an early version of CodePink," where "we were really getting tired of a particular American TV station broadcasting cheerful words for invasion. So, we decided to take over the TV station. And we did. I was amazed that we did the action, and even more amazed that we succeeded." She has also stood outside nude in front of the Houston office of BP after the Deepwater Horizon spill occurred.
Each encounter with unjust and evil systems seems to only strengthen Wilson's resolve and broaden her platform:
... being jailed all those times and for such lengths of time in some of the worst jails in the country, didn't depress me - it gave me ideas on how to fight it and change the way things are done. That's how Texas Jail Project got started. It wouldn't have happened unless I had been jailed. For instance, now, instead of just listening to horrendous stories of women in jail going into labor while shackled and tied to their beds, we try to do something about it. During the last Texas legislative session, Texas Jail Project helped make shackling of all pregnant women inmates, whether in prison or county jail, illegal. So, I believe things happen for a reason.
(Photo by ACMEBoston / Flickr )
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Abigail Adams
She was born in 1744 and died in 1818, after living through one of the most tumultuous times in history.
Her marriage to John Adams was one of love and affection, and fortunately we have their many letters, written over more than a half century detailing their love as well as personal grief, and loneliness.
Abigail was the daughter of a prominent Congregational minister and from an old family. She received no formal education, and was taught at home by her mother. She was a prodigious reader and learned in philosophy, religion and politics.
She and John Adams were third cousins and had known each other as children, and though her mother thought him a bit of a country bumpkin, her parents were approving of the marriage, and her father performed the ceremony.
Abigail and John were both caught up in the fight for independence and she was his most trusted advisor. Their letters show that John consulted her in his thorniest problems and she gave wise advice.
The posts John Adams had during and after the revolution meant that they spent many years apart. Mostly on her own, she raised four children, managed their farm and dealt with sickness and death. During his many absences she was on her own for all the day to day decisions and the mail and transportation of the day meant that it could be months between letters. During his absences she dealt with the death of her mother, and another time the birth of a stillborn child. There were all the trials of the times in illness taking friends and family members, not to mention the hard work of running a farm. She poured out her frustrations, sorrows, and feelings in her writing. She felt that at times her writing was all that kept her grounded. She clearly loved him and missed him sorely when they were apart. He was her, “Dearest Friend” and she his Portia.
She was interested in women’s rights and believed women should not have to obey laws that were not in their favor. She lobbied her husband when the constitution was being drawn up, not “to forget the ladies.”
John Adams was a prickly person and could be pompous and testy. Abigail seems to have smoothed out those characteristics and he was much more mellow when she was near. In their letters you can also see his tender and affectionate side. She always brought out the best in him. Most of the mistakes or hasty decisions he made were when they were separated. He and Thomas Jefferson after ealy friendship became bitter enemies, and it was Abigail in their later years who brought about a reconciliation between them.
However, she was so much more than the calming influence and helpmate of her husband. When he became president, she was diplomat, as well as first lady, and much more politically active than Martha Washington. People were known to call her "Mrs. President." They were the first couple to live in the new White House in Washington, though built and ‘habitable’, it was isolated and she had trouble finding help.
After the presidency, they returned to their farm in Quincy.
She took an active interest in son John Quincy’s career and wrote advice to him though his postings as ambassador and as president and in congress. Also she kept correspondence with friends made through John’s long career, while keeping up with the farm and John’s law practice. There is a story of the two of them working in one of the fields together then returning to the house where she prepared dinner while he read to her from Descartes.
She died at age 73 after an illness, saying, “Do not grieve my friend, my dearest friend, I am ready. And John it will not be long”
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Alice Stebbin Wells
♥ ♥ ♥ Today's Awesome Woman is Alice Stebbin Wells (1873 - 1957) the first woman police officer that had the power to make arrests in the United States.
"She was also the first woman police officer in Los Angeles. Wanting to change her career as a minister in Kansas, she worked hard to join the Los Angeles Police Department after sending a petition to the mayor, police commissioner, and the Los Angeles city council.
Alice Wells was passionate about becoming a police officer, not so she could make the history books, but because she felt that the children and the women in the country needed a public voice. She desperately wanted to help these people who had fallen victim to different crimes. Wells went on to become the first president of the International Association of Police Women and to encourage the hiring of more female officers she spent a lot of time travelling throughout the United States and Canada.
She officially became a member of the Los Angeles Police Department on September 12, 1910 and she retired in 1940. She died on August 17, 1957."
(http://thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com/first419.html)
"She was also the first woman police officer in Los Angeles. Wanting to change her career as a minister in Kansas, she worked hard to join the Los Angeles Police Department after sending a petition to the mayor, police commissioner, and the Los Angeles city council.
Alice Wells was passionate about becoming a police officer, not so she could make the history books, but because she felt that the children and the women in the country needed a public voice. She desperately wanted to help these people who had fallen victim to different crimes. Wells went on to become the first president of the International Association of Police Women and to encourage the hiring of more female officers she spent a lot of time travelling throughout the United States and Canada.
She officially became a member of the Los Angeles Police Department on September 12, 1910 and she retired in 1940. She died on August 17, 1957."
(http://thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com/first419.html)
thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlongl ast.com Alice Stebbin Wells. Who was the first Woman Police Officer ever in the world?
Monday, September 12, 2011
Tammy Faye Messner (aka Tammy Faye Bakker)
Today’s Awesome Woman of the Day is Tammy Faye Messner (aka Tammy Faye Bakker) (1942-2007). I know, I know Tammy Faye--what the hell? But hear me out. I discovered Tammy Faye’s Awesomeness after seeing the documentary “The Eyes of Tammy Faye.” I had an epiphany on the subject of her (to me) grotesque make-up: by mocking Tammy Faye’s ultra-heavy-handed make-up like everyone else did, I was buying in to some cultural insistence that women should look a certain way. Tammy Faye wasn’t obeying the rules, and for this she was ridiculed. When I re-looked at the idea of Tammy Faye’s make-up, I thought, “Good for her!” How ballsy was it that she faced the derision of pretty much the entire world, but did what the hell she wanted to anyway? In a way, Tammy Faye’s make-up was akin to woman sporting unusual piercings or tattoos or butch clothing--a way that any of us might challenge the status quo of what a woman should look like. Tammy Faye’s (perhaps unwitting) protest was maybe the most radical of all.
I also admire Tammy Faye for her embrace of the gay community. According to the CNN: Tammy Faye Messner has also been known as one of the few evangelical Christians who had the support of the gay community. She was one of the first televangelists to reach out to those with AIDS when it was a little-known and much-feared disease. In return, she told [Larry] King in July, "When I went -- when we lost everything, it was the gay people that came to my rescue, and I will always love them for that." (In fairness, it should be noted that, unfortunately, she stuck with her outmoded, church-instilled marriage-only-between-and-man-and-a-woman b.s.)
“I refuse to label people,” Ms. Messner said in “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” when asked about her attitudes toward gay rights. “We’re all just people made out of the same old dirt, and God didn’t make any junk.”
As she was dying of cancer, she continued her public work and even appeared on Larry King the day before she died. According to Wikipedia: “She had frequently spoken about her medical problems, saying she hoped to be an inspiration to others. ‘Don't let fear rule your life,’ she said. ‘Live one day at a time, and never be afraid.’”
Like all of us, Tammy Faye was a mixed bag. Maybe she wasn’t an entirely Awesome Woman, but I think she was at least an Awesomeish Woman.
en.wikipedia.orgTamara Faye LaValley Bakker Messner (March 7, 1942 – July 20, 2007) was an American Christian singer, evangelist, entrepreneur, author, talk show host, and television personality. She was married to televangelist, and later convicted felon, Jim Bakker (1961–92). She co-hosted with him on The PTL Clu...
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Libertas, Goddess of Freedom
The Awesome Woman of the Day for Sunday, September 11, 2011 is Libertas (Latin for ‘Liberty’), Goddess of Freedom. Libertas signifies the embodiment of freedom of action, freedom from restraint, independence, human rights, and related forms of personal and social liberty. In ancient Rome, Libertas was revered as one of the most important Virtues, along with Hope, Justice, Piety, and Courage. Associated with the granting of freedom to slaves, She was honored as the Goddess of freedwomen and freedmen. Depicted as a matron in long, flowing classical dress, this ancient image has survived on coins and other artifacts, and She often is shown holding both the Liberty Pole (vindicta) and Liberty Cap (pilleus). In some depictions Libertas wears a crown of Laurel leaves, sometimes She carries a spear, other times She is shown with a Cat at Her feet. For centuries and across cultural boundaries Libertas continues to signify Freedom; to this day She appears on currency and in paintings, sculptures, songs, stories, poems, and other literature around the globe.
Nowadays She is known as Lady Liberty.
Libertas began emerging in America as Lady Liberty during the colonial era as part of the American quest for political independence from Britain. The American patriot Paul Revere depicted Her image on the obelisk he created in celebration of the repeal of the Stamp Act. Thomas Paine, revolutionary author and American Founding Father, included Her in his poem, the "Liberty Tree," referring to Her as "The Goddess of Liberty." As America became a nation, Lady Liberty became part of the official symbology.
Her most famous representation, the Statue of Liberty, was a gift from France to the United States in honor of America's centennial. Originally called "Liberty Enlightening the World," the Statue of Liberty was designed by French Freemason and sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi with the assistance of engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel. Her flowing gown is similar in design to depictions of Libertas in ancient Rome, and the head of Lady Liberty's statue wears a crown with solar rays, representing the seven continents and seven seas. The torch She holds in Her right hand, with arm extended toward the heavens, is the Flame of Freedom, and underneath Her feet are broken chains symbolizing the defeat of tyranny and enslavement. In Her left hand Liberty holds a tablet inscribed with July 4, 1776, the date of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of America as a nation.
The Statue of Liberty continues to be one of the most beloved of America's civic shrines. In 1984 the United Nations designated it as a World Heritage site, and each year She receives over 5 million visitors.
“"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries sheWith silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
(Excerpt from “The New Colossus, by Emma Lazarus, 1883)
Selena Fox, Founder and Priestess of Circle Network, offers the following meditation to invoke the aid of Lady Liberty:
Call to mind a habit you wish to break or a restrictive situation you seek release from. Imagine it taking the form of a chain binding you. For a few moments, experience its restrictions and the problems it causes. Then, invoking Lady Liberty’s aid, imagine Her presence and feel your chains falling away as She touches them with the Liberty Pole. Imagine Her placing Her Liberty Cap on your head, and as you experience yourself wearing Her Cap, allow guidance to come to you about specific things you can do in your daily life to break the habit or change the situation and take on healthier behaviors. Give thanks to Her and name and give thanks for each of the freedoms that you experience in your own life.
Long live Liberty, here and abroad.
Blessed Be!
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Liberty#Inscriptions.2C_plaques.2C_and_dedications
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertas
http://www.circlesanctuary.org/circle/articles/pantheon/GoddessFreedom.html
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Grace Slick
“Growing up, Grace had what she called Leave It to Beaver-type parents. Grace considered her family a WASP (white, Anglo-Saxon, protestant) caricature of family life in America, that is, they had two of everything - two children, a two-car garage, a two-story house, etc.” [1] Growing up, Grace was very creative & studied art & music. “ She attended Finch College, a prestigious finishing school for girls, in New York (1957-58), before transferring to the University of Miami (1958-59), where she majored in art. Although she modeled for I. Magnin’s department store from 1960-63, Grace later said she had no ambitions beyond being a housewife. On August 26, 1961, she married Gerald “Jerry” Slick, a film student and later a successful cinematographer in a traditional wedding ceremony.” [2] But under the appearance that her life would take the path women of that era were supposed to follow, a rebel was incubating. At school she was know for her sarcastic sense of humor & partying and soon decided to drop out & return home to San Francisco after a friend sent her an article about the burgeoning hippie scene there.
After seeing Jefferson Airplane perform at a club in San Francisco, Grace & her husband were inspired to start a band. “Grace stated the main reason for going into music was that after seeing Airplane perform, she realized they were making more money than she was as a model and were having more fun performing.” [3] Thier band, The Great Society, was became one of the best-known bands in San Francisco. Grace became the lead vocalist for Jefferson Airplane in 1966 after The Great Society had disbanded & Jefferson Airplane’s singer had left. Jefferson Airplane’s next album Surrealistic Pillow featured two song’s that Grace cowrote, “White Rabbit” and “Somebody to Love”, which became two of Airplane’s greatest hits. Slick lived in the spirit of the era, partied like a rock star & became the quintessential rock ‘n' roll chick, living, traveling and partying with her family, that is, the boys in the band, who, one after the other, became her lovers. “Grace quickly emerged as an icon of the psychedelic scene that followed. She would literally say and do anything. In her autobiography, Grace said she learned “how to let it out and damn the censorship” from Mick Jagger. Unfortunately, much of her behavior was also attributed to her increasing addiction to alcohol.” [2] Her behavior became more extreme & she also became known for her run-ins with the law. Grace’s daughter China, fathered by Jefferson Airplane guitarist & singer Paul Kantner, was born in 1971. “During her stay in the hospital after the baby's birth, Slick sarcastically told one of the attending nurses (whom Grace found to be annoyingly sanctimonious) that she intended to name the child "god", with a lowercase "g", as she "wished for the child to be humble". The nurse took Slick seriously, and her reports of the incident caused quite a stir” [3] Jefferson Airplane fell apart, Grace released a solo album, which was not well received. She and Kantner formed Jefferson Starship which had some success in the 1970s. She left the group & went through treatment for her alcoholism & drug addiction. She rejoined the group which then had some of its biggest hits "We Built This City" and "Nothing's Going to Stop Us Now."
By the 1990s, Grace had quit performing. She went to rehab again, this time with her daughter, China. “Soon thereafter, she was approached about writing her memoir, which ultimately became Somebody to Love? A Rock-and-Roll Memoir. Her agent saw her artwork and asked her to do some portraits of some of her various contemporaries from the rock-and-roll genre to be included in the autobiography. Hesitant at first (because she thought “it was way too cute. Rock-n-Roll draws Rock-n-Roll”), she eventually agreed because she found she enjoyed it; and color renditions of Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Jerry Garcia appeared in the completed autobiography. An “Alice in Wonderland”-themed painting and various other sketches are scattered throughout the book.” [3] In 2006, Slick suffered from diverticulitis. After initial surgery, she had a relapse requiring further surgery and a tracheotomy. She was placed in an induced coma for two months and then had to learn to walk again. Today she lives happily in Malibu & continues to do her artwork.
[1] http://kosmo.hubpages.com/
[2] http://www.jeffersonairpla
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wi
http://www.biography.com/a
http://www.limelightagency
http://kosmo.hubpages.com/
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Li Tim-Oi
♥ ♥ ♥ Today's Awesome Woman of the Day is Li Tim-Oi (1907-1992) Although there were ancient Sumerian and Akkadian priestesses who held equal status to high priests, the first female priest of the Christian religion wasn't ordained until 1944 with Li Tim-Oi, thirty years before any Anglican church regularised the ordination of women.
When she was baptized as a student, Tim-Oi chose the name Florence after Florence Nightingale, the famous 19th century English nurse. In 1931 at the ordination of a deaconess in Hong Kong Cathedral, she heard and responded to the call to ministry. She took a four-year course at theological college in Canton. She was made Deacon on Ascension Day 1941, and was given charge of the Anglican congregation in the Portuguese colony of Macao, thronged with refugees from war-torn China.
Three years later, she was ordained priest on 25 January 1944, by Ronald Hall, Bishop of Victoria, in response to the crisis among Anglican Christians in China caused by the Japanese invasion. A storm of protest after the war forced her to refrain from exercising her role as a priest. To defuse controversy, in 1946 Tim-Oi surrendered her priest's licence, but not her Holy Orders, the knowledge of which carried her through Maoist persecution.
Towards the end of her life, she emigrated to Canada where she was able to resume her priestly duties. She was awarded Doctorates of Divinity by General Theological Seminary, New York, and Trinity College, Toronto. She died in 1992.
When she was baptized as a student, Tim-Oi chose the name Florence after Florence Nightingale, the famous 19th century English nurse. In 1931 at the ordination of a deaconess in Hong Kong Cathedral, she heard and responded to the call to ministry. She took a four-year course at theological college in Canton. She was made Deacon on Ascension Day 1941, and was given charge of the Anglican congregation in the Portuguese colony of Macao, thronged with refugees from war-torn China.
Three years later, she was ordained priest on 25 January 1944, by Ronald Hall, Bishop of Victoria, in response to the crisis among Anglican Christians in China caused by the Japanese invasion. A storm of protest after the war forced her to refrain from exercising her role as a priest. To defuse controversy, in 1946 Tim-Oi surrendered her priest's licence, but not her Holy Orders, the knowledge of which carried her through Maoist persecution.
Towards the end of her life, she emigrated to Canada where she was able to resume her priestly duties. She was awarded Doctorates of Divinity by General Theological Seminary, New York, and Trinity College, Toronto. She died in 1992.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Brooksley Born
Today's Awesome Woman is Brooksley Born, lawyer and former Chair of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) during the Clinton Administration. She is primarily known for having strongly warned the administration, including Alan Greenspan himself, about the dangers of leaving the derivatives market unregulated. The administration brushed off her concerns, which, by 2008 were thoroughly vindicated when the United States economy effectively collapsed upon itself under the weight of bad derivatives that had been sold at AAA rated investments. See, e.g., Frontline, The Warning: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/view/
After graduating from high school at the age of 16, Born majored in English at Stanford University and graduated in 1961. She initially thought to study medicines, but chose law school instead after a Stanford guidance counselor opined that a woman who wanted to be a doctor instead of a nurse could have "no sincere interest in healing." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooksley_Born
Law school turned out to be an excellent fit: Born became the first female student ever to be named the president of the Stanford Law Review, received the Outstanding Senior Award, and graduated at the top of her class in 1964. After clerking for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and working as a research assistant for Professor Alan Dershowitz, she began practicing international financial law as an associate at Arnold & Porter, where she represented clients in arbitration and court cases involving complex multinational financial transactions. She made partner at Arnold & Porter despite having mommy-tracked to part time while raising her children. She also managed to do extensive work to open the legal profession to other women and to address and reform aspects of American law's inequitable treatment of women. (quote from wikipedia: "Born was among the first female attorneys to systematically address inequities regarding how the laws treated women. Born and another female lawyer, Marna Tucker, taught what is considered to have been the first “Women and the Law” course at Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law. The class exclusively concerned prejudicial treatment of women under the laws of the United States, past and present.[7] Born and Tucker were surprised to discover that there was no textbook on the issue at the time. Born is also one of the co-founders of the National Women's Law Center"). She co-founded the ABA's Women's Caucus, became the first female member of the ABA's committee on the federal judiciary, and testified before Congress concerning the ABA's determination of the fitness of judicial nominees. Id.
U.S. President Bill Clinton initially considered Born for the office of Attorney General but ended up appointing her to chair the CFTC. In that capacity, she became increasingly concerned about the lack of transparency regarding so-called derivative swaps traded between banks and insurance companies with little to no regulation. The CFTC sought to regulate these transactions but were vehemently opposed by Alan Greenspan, Larry Summers, and Robert Rubin. Id.
Born did not succeed in persuading the administration to regulate the derivatives market, leaving it to the laissez-faire policies of Greenspan and Summers with disastrous results. See, e.g. The Warning and also Inside Job (2010) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inside_Job_(film).
In 2009, U.S. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi appointed Born to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC). You can see her questioning Lloyd Blankfein (Goldman Sachs) here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5qzJ5Bvcfk. That same year, she also received the Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award.
For more information:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/themes/born.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooksley_Born
http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2009/marapr/features/born.html
http://www.dcbar.org/for_lawyers/resources/legends_in_the_law/born.cfm
After graduating from high school at the age of 16, Born majored in English at Stanford University and graduated in 1961. She initially thought to study medicines, but chose law school instead after a Stanford guidance counselor opined that a woman who wanted to be a doctor instead of a nurse could have "no sincere interest in healing." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooksley_Born
Law school turned out to be an excellent fit: Born became the first female student ever to be named the president of the Stanford Law Review, received the Outstanding Senior Award, and graduated at the top of her class in 1964. After clerking for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and working as a research assistant for Professor Alan Dershowitz, she began practicing international financial law as an associate at Arnold & Porter, where she represented clients in arbitration and court cases involving complex multinational financial transactions. She made partner at Arnold & Porter despite having mommy-tracked to part time while raising her children. She also managed to do extensive work to open the legal profession to other women and to address and reform aspects of American law's inequitable treatment of women. (quote from wikipedia: "Born was among the first female attorneys to systematically address inequities regarding how the laws treated women. Born and another female lawyer, Marna Tucker, taught what is considered to have been the first “Women and the Law” course at Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law. The class exclusively concerned prejudicial treatment of women under the laws of the United States, past and present.[7] Born and Tucker were surprised to discover that there was no textbook on the issue at the time. Born is also one of the co-founders of the National Women's Law Center"). She co-founded the ABA's Women's Caucus, became the first female member of the ABA's committee on the federal judiciary, and testified before Congress concerning the ABA's determination of the fitness of judicial nominees. Id.
U.S. President Bill Clinton initially considered Born for the office of Attorney General but ended up appointing her to chair the CFTC. In that capacity, she became increasingly concerned about the lack of transparency regarding so-called derivative swaps traded between banks and insurance companies with little to no regulation. The CFTC sought to regulate these transactions but were vehemently opposed by Alan Greenspan, Larry Summers, and Robert Rubin. Id.
Born did not succeed in persuading the administration to regulate the derivatives market, leaving it to the laissez-faire policies of Greenspan and Summers with disastrous results. See, e.g. The Warning and also Inside Job (2010) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inside_Job_(film).
In 2009, U.S. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi appointed Born to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC). You can see her questioning Lloyd Blankfein (Goldman Sachs) here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5qzJ5Bvcfk. That same year, she also received the Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award.
For more information:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/themes/born.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooksley_Born
http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2009/marapr/features/born.html
http://www.dcbar.org/for_lawyers/resources/legends_in_the_law/born.cfm
www.pbs.org"We didn't truly know the dangers of the market, because it was a dark market," says Brooksley Born, the head of an obscure federal regulatory agency -- the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC] -- who not only warned of the potential for economic meltdown in the late 1990s, but also tried to ...
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Crystal Lee Sutton
For decades, JP Stevens called the shots in Roanoke Rapid, North Carolina, paying poverty wages and offering deplorably unsafe working conditions. Workers routinely lost fingers, inhaled cotton dust, and lost hearing due to the deafening drone of machinery. JP Stevens was so vehemently anti-union that it systematically purchased small unionized textile mills in the south only to close them down. But as determined as JP Stevens was to keep its workers down, Crystal Lee Sutton was even more determined to lift them up and bring them a union.
Sutton was only 17 when she began working at the J.P. Stevens plant in northeastern North Carolina, where conditions were poor and the pay was low. A Massachusetts-based company that for many years was listed on the Fortune 500, J.P. Stevens is now part of the WestPoint Home conglomerate. Sutton knew that she and her co-workers deserved more out of their employer and in 1973, she found a way to bring that change when she agreed to help organize the plant with the assistance of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU) and its lead organizer, Eli Zivkovich.
In 1973, Sutton, by then a mother of three, was earning only $2.65 an hour. Sutton knew that she and her co-workers deserved more out of their employer. That same year, Eli Zivkovich, a former coal miner from West Virginia, came to Roanoke Rapids to organize the plant and began working with Sutton, who was fired after she copied a flyer posted by management warning that blacks would run the union. It was that incident which led Sutton to Her last action at the plant -- writing the word "UNION" on a piece of cardboard and standing on her work table, leading her co-workers to turn off their machines in solidarity -- was memorialized in the 1979 film by actress Sally Field.
Sutton was physically removed from the plant by police, but the result of her actions was staggering.. The Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU) won the right to represent the workers at the plant on Aug. 28, 1974 and Sutton became an organizer for the union. In 1977, Sutton was awarded back wages and her job was reinstated by court order, although she chose to return to work for just two days. She subsequently became a speaker on behalf of the ACTWU and was profiled in interviews on Good Morning America, in The New York Times Magazine, and countless other national and international publications during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Not only was Sutton the face and symbol of fighting for Labor Unions, at the end of her life she was the symbol of what can happen to people when the Corporate Greed of Insurance Companies run ramped. Several years ago, Sutton was diagnosed with meningioma, a type of cancer of the nervous system. While such cancers are typically slow-growing, Sutton's was not -- and she went two months without potentially life-saving medication because her insurance wouldn't cover it initially. Sutton told the Burlington (N.C.) Times-News last year that the insurer's behavior was an example of abuse of the working poor:
"How in the world can it take so long to find out [whether they would cover the medicine or not] when it could be a matter of life or death," she said. "It is almost like, in a way, committing murder."- Crystal Lee Sutton
Though Sutton eventually received the medication, the cancer had already taken hold. She passed away on Friday, Sept. 11 in a Burlington, N.C. hospice.
"Crystal Lee Sutton was a remarkable woman whose brave struggles have left a lasting impact on this country and without doubt, on me personally," Field said in a statement released Friday. "Portraying Crystal Lee in 'Norma Rae,' however loosely based, not only elevated me as an actress, but as a human being."
Our nation has lost a great hero and champion of working people. Crystal Lee Sutton was a courageous woman who stood up for herself and her coworkers under the most difficult circumstances. She was an inspiration to organizers in her union and beyond, particularly Southern women who went on to lead their own campaigns after learning from her example.
http://www.seiu.org/2009/09/crystal-lee-sutton-the-real-norma-rae-was-a-fighter-to-the-end.php
http://www.crystalleesutton.com/about.html
Monday, September 5, 2011
Lauri Grimshaw-Cox
Today's Awesome Woman is Lauri Grimshaw-Cox, a fabulous artist I met several years ago at an art festival. We traded some of her work for some of mine. Yesterday the box I got from her jumped out at me & I knew I needed to look her up. As I checked out her website I was struck by how many of the things I aspire to create in my store, she is actively doing. So I called & we had the most amazing conversation and both of us could feel the spirit of the Universe connecting us!
"My company, Epiphanies Of An ArtGirl is committed to inspiring and empowering women and teen girls through creativity. I am a fearless entrepreneur constantly seeking new opportunities to add to my own self growth and to the lives of other women. I call myself a Creative Life Mentor. Having many years of experience in the "show scene", and being represented in shops through wholesale/consignment and gallaries, I have branded myself with a consistent recognizable style. I am asked often for advice and insight from many budding artists and sought after by beings desiring to live a more joyful and creative life. Much of my success has come from a ton of work, a ton of money and a ton of passion. Its not been a quick journey to making my living the "Creative Play Way" but the journey has allowed me to gain much knowledge to mentor others on their's. Never give up on your dreams." ~ Laurie Steele
I am grateful to have found someone a little further along the path to guide me. My goal is to help empower women through creativity & Lauri is my new idol!
"My company, Epiphanies Of An ArtGirl is committed to inspiring and empowering women and teen girls through creativity. I am a fearless entrepreneur constantly seeking new opportunities to add to my own self growth and to the lives of other women. I call myself a Creative Life Mentor. Having many years of experience in the "show scene", and being represented in shops through wholesale/consignment and gallaries, I have branded myself with a consistent recognizable style. I am asked often for advice and insight from many budding artists and sought after by beings desiring to live a more joyful and creative life. Much of my success has come from a ton of work, a ton of money and a ton of passion. Its not been a quick journey to making my living the "Creative Play Way" but the journey has allowed me to gain much knowledge to mentor others on their's. Never give up on your dreams." ~ Laurie Steele
I am grateful to have found someone a little further along the path to guide me. My goal is to help empower women through creativity & Lauri is my new idol!
http://epiphaniesofanartgirl.blogspot.com/epiphaniesofanartgirl.blogspot.com
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Laura Moulton
The Awesome Woman of the Day is Laura Moulton, artist, novelist, mother of two young children, and outdoor librarian for the homeless in an effort she founded called Street Books, "a bicycle-powered mobile library for people living outside".
Since June, twice a week Moulton gets on her bike and pedals a wagon full of books to street corners in her city of Portland, Oregon. She loans the books to homeless persons who cannot get a library card for lack of an address. She stores donated paperbacks in her basement and glues the familiar school library due-date pocket inside each one. However, there are no due dates in the outside library -- her customers simply return the book when they are done reading.
A recent Christian Science Monitor article about Moulton reports that "her patrons show a high-level of accountability in returning books, which contradicts some assumptions about homeless people." Also defying stereotypes, she says, is the range of reading material her patrons are interested in. She holds much respect for the "people living outside" and enjoys discussing books and other topics with them:
Moulton received a grant for her idea from the Regional Arts and Culture Council. Now that the grant period has ended, she plans to continue her effort and to experiment with models of sustainability. For example, recently a patron of Street Books became a guest librarian.
I chose Laura Moulton for today's AWOD not because she is famous. Not because she is a head of state. Not because she has given her life completely over to some cause. I chose her because her project proves that in the microcosm of a community, in the course of a regular workaday life, we can find manageable ways to be agents of cheer, humanity and change. The scope of Moulton's project might be local, but her impact runs deep on the men and women she loans books to, and on the attitudes towards the homeless of the people who hear about her work or follow the Street Books blog.
Do you have books you'd like to unload? Also, any old reading glasses? Put them in your car or bag and open your eyes for someone living on the street who might like them. And maybe stop for a few minutes to say Hello, ask How are you doing today? and maybe even get to hear a bit of the person's story. Don't have books to give? Just give a smile and have a conversation then! It's free and takes 5 minutes!
Here's a really touching video about Street Books, guaranteed to dispel any stereotypes you may be subject to regarding the intelligence and spirit of homeless persons:
Since June, twice a week Moulton gets on her bike and pedals a wagon full of books to street corners in her city of Portland, Oregon. She loans the books to homeless persons who cannot get a library card for lack of an address. She stores donated paperbacks in her basement and glues the familiar school library due-date pocket inside each one. However, there are no due dates in the outside library -- her customers simply return the book when they are done reading.
A recent Christian Science Monitor article about Moulton reports that "her patrons show a high-level of accountability in returning books, which contradicts some assumptions about homeless people." Also defying stereotypes, she says, is the range of reading material her patrons are interested in. She holds much respect for the "people living outside" and enjoys discussing books and other topics with them:
“If someone can just have a conversation … then I think so much of the other stuff goes away,” Moulton suggests. The “other stuff,” she says, includes perceptions, stereotypes, and judgments.Moulton also photographs the people who borrow books and maintains a blog with the images and stories. The blog gives her homeless clientele faces and names, and most often shows them with the books they have selected to read.
Moulton received a grant for her idea from the Regional Arts and Culture Council. Now that the grant period has ended, she plans to continue her effort and to experiment with models of sustainability. For example, recently a patron of Street Books became a guest librarian.
I chose Laura Moulton for today's AWOD not because she is famous. Not because she is a head of state. Not because she has given her life completely over to some cause. I chose her because her project proves that in the microcosm of a community, in the course of a regular workaday life, we can find manageable ways to be agents of cheer, humanity and change. The scope of Moulton's project might be local, but her impact runs deep on the men and women she loans books to, and on the attitudes towards the homeless of the people who hear about her work or follow the Street Books blog.
Do you have books you'd like to unload? Also, any old reading glasses? Put them in your car or bag and open your eyes for someone living on the street who might like them. And maybe stop for a few minutes to say Hello, ask How are you doing today? and maybe even get to hear a bit of the person's story. Don't have books to give? Just give a smile and have a conversation then! It's free and takes 5 minutes!
Here's a really touching video about Street Books, guaranteed to dispel any stereotypes you may be subject to regarding the intelligence and spirit of homeless persons:
Friday, September 2, 2011
Bella Abzug
She was born in the Bronx in 1920, the daughter of Jewish immigrants. Her father ran the Live and Let Live Meat Market in Manhattan. She described him as “This Humanist butcher”. He died when she was 13.
Ms. Abzug said she wanted to be a lawyer from the age of 11, and went to Hunter College, where she was student body President. She applied to Harvard Law school and was rejected because of her gender, then was accepted and graduated from Columbia University.
There were very few female lawyers when she began her career, and frequently when she went to meetings, she would be told to have a seat and wait for the lawyer. She credits this for her wearing big hats. She said to be taken seriously women needed to wear hats. Large hats became her trademark.
Ms. Abzug was an activist for liberal and women’s causes from the beginning and was not afraid to tackle controversial cases. She defended Willie McGee, a black man accused and convicted (after less than two minutes of jury deliberation). The case was appealed, but Mr. McGee was eventually executed.
In the 50s she defended people accused of having Communist activities by the HUAC, led by Joseph McCarthy.
In the 60s she was an antiwar activist and was a founder of Women Strike for Peace, and a leader of the movement against President Johnson. During these years she began her political career. She ran for state assembly and held office there until running for the United States Congress where she served one term.
There were comments about her trademark hats in congress, and she reportedly said, “I watched to see if they wanted me to stop. They did, so I continued wearing them.” While there, she took on the military-industrial complex, the draft, tried to enact national health insurance, and get money for day-care centers. It all would be paid for with money from the Pentagon. Bella was also among the first to advocate for gay rights. ''She was one of the most exciting, enlightened legislators that ever served in the Congress,'' said Representative Charles B. Rangel.
Bella Abzug fought tirelessly and loudly for women’s issues and peace, both in and out of office. Her figure was a familiar one at demonstrations and marches for civil rights, women’s rights and peace.
In 1995 she was a leader of a conference in Beijing with the World Conference for Women. Former President George H.W. Bush commented, ''I feel somewhat sorry for the Chinese, having Bella Abzug running around. Bella Abzug is one who has always represented the extremes of the women's movement.''
When told of his remark, she shot back, ''He was addressing a fertilizer group? That's appropriate."
She died in 1998, after heart surgery. Ironic, since hear was always somethin she had in abundance.
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