Messiness

Today is October 30. Today was the day that the ballpoint pen was patented in 1888. The innovation of the ballpoint was that the ink was contained inside the pen, so you didn’t have to carry around a bottle of the stuff.

The significance of the invention was that life was a little less messy. Anytime I am prompted to think about life was at some point in history, I mostly dwell on the messiness of pre-20th century life. And I’m not a particularly neat person by today’s standards. But think about it – before ballpoint pens, anytime you wanted to write, there was a little bottle of the most awfully staining material known to humans sitting by your side, ready for a stray cat, arm, or wayward book on your desk to knock it over. And even if you weren’t writing, if there was any chance that you would ever write, then you possessed a little bottle of ink, and in the days before plastic, the bottle was prone to breakage if you carried it around without the proper cushioning and packing (and again, this was pre-plastic, so no bubble wrap).

But ink was the least of the messy possibilities in the olden days. Ink was only an issue for people who were writing. Other messiness attached to EVERYONE, no matter what. For instance, I believe that probably the single greatest comfort invention in the history of humankind was nose tissue. I can’t even imagine having a bad cold without it – or worse yet, living in close proximity to someone with a bad cold who had no tissues.

And along that same line, for most of history there was no toilet paper, (no toilets, for that matter), no tampons or sanitary pads, no daily clothing change, no paper towels, no toothbrushes, no diaper wipes, no huge supply of diapers, and - you get the picture.

Back to the ballpoint pen. Before that, I don’t know how any parent had the courage to teach their kid to write. I guess that was why school kids carried the little personal chalkboards (the forerunner of the personal computer, I guess). But even then, at some point you had to go ahead and grit your teeth and hand over the bottle of ink.

So today, we celebrate the invention of the ballpoint pen. The day parenting became a little less stressful.

Microwaves make you fat

Microwave ovens started out weighing 670 pounds. Really. Read about it here.
I don't know if they were commercially sold at that time, but maybe, because that's not much more than a refrigerator weighs.

And did you know a microwave can make you fat?

The article linked above talks about the connection between widespread microwave use and the rise in obesity in the US. But I had already made that connection. When I got my juicer and started making really really good grapefruit, orange, carrot, apple, and other juices, I noticed just how less likely I was to go back for a second glass, even though it tastes so much better than juice in a carton. The main thing juice in a carton has going for it is that you can pour a second glass without thinking about it.

And think about making a yummy grilled cheese. I make souped up grilled cheeses, using grilled onions, bell peppers, and tomatoes in addition to my Velveeta cheese. But at the end of the sandwhich, at the point you're saying "boy, I could eat another one of those!" I never actually go make another one. But let me crap out and microwave a frozen Hot Pocket, if I want another one (I can't imagine why I would want another one of those, but you know how it goes), it's nothing to rip the plastic off and pop another one in the microwave.

So, yes, microwaves make you fat. But they also save you time for more exercise, so it should even out, right?
Right?

Do You Go Farther with Too Much or Too Little?

Judith Warner appears today in the New York Times, opining on the siginificance of the relatively ordinary politician that is Sara Palin.

As I've said before, I don't think the choice of Palin was significant for the fact that she didn't have to be stellar and over the top with qualifications in order to be considered (although I agree with Warner's general point that it's a good thing when women with mid-level, work-a-day qualifications can be considered). Rather, I think McCain's choice highlights the very subtle sexism that still exists - women are in helper roles, and should never actually challenge the male for the power.

So the question is: Does Palin's nomination prove women are accepted in the workplace and in leadeship roles sufficiently that it is no longer necessary for them to be "better" than their male counterparts to succeed, or does it prove that being "better" than their counterpart is still too much of a threat to choose highly qualified women for the top roles?

Tampons

Tampax brand tampons really were the first commercial tampons. But did you know they were sold in the 1930's? I didn't know that. I thought they were an invention of the 70's. I guess I confused the first time I heard about them with the first time they existed. A mistake not uncommon among teenagers.

But no, really. I don't remember my mother ever telling me about them and that they were an option. No, she told me about HUGE pads and these complicated belt things - the equivalent of a garter belt for your sanitary pad - and said "this is what you do every month." If she said anything else, I totally don't remember it.

I think the self-stick pads really did get invented after my one and only product talk with my mother, but tampons clearly exsited both before and after that time. I just didn't know it. Probably part of my confusion has to do with the fact that television commercials for tampons actually DID begin in the 70's. Remember everyone politely and not at all discreetly suddenly having reasons to turn away from the TV and studiouly not notice the tampon commercial when the family was sitting around the TV in the evening (for that matter, remember the family all sitting around one TV in the evening? Now that's a flashback to a time that no longer exists, at least, not without a laptop computer on every lap in the room).

Crazy World

I'm tired of living with crazy people. I don't mean eccentric, weird in a funny way kind of crazy, I mean the seeing-several-doctors-taking-meds-and-going-in-the-hospital kind of crazy. I know it is tiring for the crazy people, but it is incredibly tiring for the family, too. Their crisis always becomes my crisis as well, and when I fail to agree that there is a real "reason" for the crisis - meaning, something other than the fact that you're crazy - I become the enemy and part of your problem.

I'm just tired. Supportive, but tired. Can't I just support you without participating? My lack of emotion and concern at the third time this week you have had a breakdown and required a large amount of my time and energy does not mean I don't care about yoru problem. If anything, I care more than you, because I desperately want you to get well. If you think it's hard to live in a world of your own making, it's even harder for me to have to live in the world of your making, because I can't even see the world.

Gosh.

When did feminists become women?

Want to see some feel good over the top cheerleading for yourself? The California Women's Conference in Longbeach is going on right now, and they are live webcasting the whole thing. Click here for the website.

I'm not sure where these got started - I'll have to check into it - but Texas has been having a similar event for a few years, and I wonder if there are other states doing these also. I'll have to look into that sometime when I'm mindlessly surfing the net.

Anyway, the California event does have some great presentations that will get you thinking. And the webcast is very easy to watch. It's not just a video tape of the event, but an an actual production, which I guess has a lot to do with it being in Los Angeles (okay, I know it's Long Beach, but let's face it, that's the same as LA, even though people in both LA and Long Beach will object to my saying that - but for very different reasons). The point is, there's good stuff and it's entertaining to watch.

But what struck me the most was the tone. Lot's of extreme adjectives, and all as positive as you can get. It's the "professional" version of the cheery positive saccharine of the "Up With People" group from the 70's. Maria Schriver says "extraordinary" in front of everything she mentions, Debra Norville got stuck on the word "amazing," and I think the audience was exhorted to appluad themselves quite a few times over the course of the day.

I am not a scrooge. I don't mean to say I think the tone was bad. I do mean to say it was SOOOOOO much it seemed a bit forced at times, and mostly I mean to say that wow! this is different than the women's conferences of yesterday, which largely worked to fan anger and indignation so that the women, who were then called feminists, would be fired up to go and work for change in governement and business. This conference seems to be all about patting ourselves on the back and "celebrating" the work that's been done - or rather, kind of ignoring that we had to do the work and just quietly accepting that it's there without acknowledging that people who you used to be able to call "feminist" without provoking protest were the ones who had to work very hard to get to this point.

They do still like the word "empowerment," though. That's good. I like that word, too.

I celebrate the place women are now. I do not wish to pretend that it was easy, or that the work is done.

Why McCain Only Broke a Pebble instead of Ground

Election day is less than two weeks away. Woo-hoo. This is the most exciting election we've had in this country in a very long time, maybe the most exciting since the very first time we got to vote for president. Whatever happens, the perception of the office will have been wrenched into a new vision of possibility for many millions of young, aspiring leaders. The stereotype will have been broken, and in a very "in-your-face" way that no one will miss. We've had firsts before - the first Catholic, etc, but until now all the firsts were wrapped in the same kind of paper - white male.

So this election will create new possibilities in a big way - but the possibility of women as president is still pretty shallow, and here's why: McCain put a woman on the ticket in a race that he actually had a good possibility of winning (unlike Dukakis, who took the "chance" when he really didn't have to worry about it costing him the race since he was clearly going to lose no matter what he did). But McCain chose a woman to fill a very sterotypical role - that of protege and mentee, rather than a fully formed and equal candidate. It is a big step, and I give him credit for that. But he was unable to bring himself to choose a woman who was his political equal. Men are much more comfortable with women in support roles than true co-equal roles, and much as businessmen of old relied on their secretaries for important, substantive work (think Perry Mason and Della Street) but never allowed them in a truly equal partnership, McCain has chosen a woman with definite political gifts, but not in anywhere near a position to "threaten" his own dominance in the team.

There are many well-qualified Republican women he could have chosen. But what if they challenged his authority?

I think McCain is mostly a good man, and I do not in any way mean to imply that he consciously considered this when choosing Palin. But I do absolutely believe that he found her more palatable than other female republicans because of it.


Here's some other interesting, sort of related blog posts:
Remarkably Unremarkable - Political Women in the Limelight
Clinton on Palin

Palin, Clinton, Michelle Obama: Double standards for women in politics?