Inspector Gamache, Je T’aime
J’adore Armand Gamache. That would be Chief Inspector Gamache, head of homicide in the Sûreté du Québec, the provincial police force of Québec, Canada. My fictitious love is the leading character in Louise Penny’s murder mystery series, set mostly in the lovely Eastern Townships of Québec. The Canadian author has just released A Better Man,…
Men and Guns
And so, the killings continue apace. In the month of August alone, 53 people died in mass shootings in the United States. The final carnage last month took place in Texas, when, after a traffic stop, a gunman began shooting randomly at cars, killing seven innocent people and injuring 22. Once again, it was a…
Needed: more leaders who look like me
If I lived in Colorado, nearly half my state legislators would look like me. But because I live in South Carolina (and despite our state being 51.5 percent female) only about 16 percent of the lawmakers in the S.C. General Assembly are women. This ranks us a dismal 44th in the country in terms of…
Where are all the female college presidents?
In the next few months, a new president will be appointed to lead the University of South Carolina. Considering the school’s 218-year history, odds are another white man will succeed President Harris Pastides in the top job. Neither a woman nor a person of color has ever held that position at the University. Why is…
Well Done, Ms. Athill
The last volume of Diana Athill’s multi-part memoir was published in 2016 when she was 99 years old. She died last month in London at age 101. You are forgiven if you’ve never heard of Athill, although she had been a legendary book editor and publisher in England since the 1940s. But she became internationally…
Hear Us Roar
Women of “a certain age,” as the French say, will remember the powerful song by Helen Reddy called “I Am Woman (Hear Me Roar)”—a 1971 hymn to gutsy, strong members of the female sex. Reddy is 77 years old now, but I imagine she still roars. So do an increasing number of older women who…
Journalism in the “Year of the Woman”
I read an article the other day entitled “25 Dying Professions to Avoid”. Journalism was one of them. For people in my profession, that disturbing headline was accurate in more ways than one. Reader circulation has dropped for 17 straight years, and Sunday circulation of U.S. newspapers is at its lowest level since 1945. The…
Reprise: Anita Hill (and Christine Blasey Ford)
I still believe Anita Hill. I believe Christine Blasey Ford. Each and every one of my female friends also believe these brave women. Truly, as a colleague of mine said the other day, these are times that try women’s souls. And so, later this month, for the 27th year in a row, several hundred women…
Captain Marvel and the “Year of the Woman”
The promotions have already started for Captain Marvel, a live-action film featuring the fictional female superhero from Marvel Comics that will be released in March. Apparently, the smashing popularity of the Wonder Woman blockbuster last year convinced movie moguls a female superhero can, indeed, carry a movie by herself. The producers have even cast Brie…
Lifelong Learning for “Seasoned Adults”
I am a “seasoned adult,” which, in lifelong learning parlance, means I am over 50. And, I want to “thrive in life’s second half,” as the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at the University of North Carolina-Asheville so aptly puts it. But it looks like I am on my own. Columbia has no large, comprehensive,…