There are few more frightening political issues than the erroneously named “partial birth abortion.” On the surface, this sounds like a barbaric and inhumane procedure preformed for only the basest and most evil of reasons. Described by the Republican Congress as a procedure where a baby is delivered part of the way, then killed and extracted, sometimes in pieces, there’s no wonder that any decent human being would oppose such a thing.
The only problem is that this gruesome picture, like most stories designed to shock and scare, only retains a tiny fragment of the truth.
This procedure is properly called a D&E or dilation and extraction or a D&X, an “intact” D&E. It is this latter procedure that causes nightmares. It is extremely rare and seldom performed when a D&E is possible. In all cases, the procedure is performed in the second trimester of pregnancy before the baby is viable and only when the mother’s health is severely threatened or the fetus is severely deformed.
Although a D&E accounts for only 10 percent of abortions, the women we know who needed one had no other choice. In two cases, the fetus died in utero. You can only imagine how emotionally devastating this sort of thing can be. In both cases the mother went to the obstetrician’s office for a routine check-up and was told that there was no heart beat. The heartbreak of loosing a potential child was compounded by the fact that somehow the lost fetus needed to be extracted. When it came time to choose between hours of labor and its potential risks with no baby to hold at the end and a medical procedure they could sleep through, they chose the latter so as not to prolong the nightmare.
In another case, the mother learned that the child she carried was severely deformed and without most of its brain. Even if she carried this fetus to term, it would only survive a matter of hours and the deformities would cause an exceptionally difficult delivery. The woman and her husband chose a D&E instead, even though they found this choice so emotionally devastating it eventually ended their marriage.
This is the picture that is obscured when well-meaning but ignorant lawmakers climb upon their soapboxes to assure their constituency that they are indeed champions of the weak and defenseless. Sadly, suffering women are seldom included in those numbers.
Jewish teachings hold the life of the mother as paramount in these situations. Since this is the origin of our nation's Judeo-Christian tradition, can we at least hope that the Supreme Courst will consider this when deciding the case? Although we are missing Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and her moderate and experienced views on the subject, perhaps this time the court will listen to unbiased and expert testimony that will shine a clearer light on this dark and frightening necessity.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Doing What Donkeys Do Best
"You’re the ones who made this bed. Now you’re the ones who are going to have to move over so a gay couple can sleep in it. Tomorrow you’re all going to wake up in a brave new world. A world where the constitution gets trampled by an army of terrorist clones created in a stem-cell research lab run by homosexual doctors who sterilize their instruments over burning flags. Where tax & spend Democrats take all your hard-earned money and use it to buy electric cars for National Public Radio and teach evolution to illegal immigrants. Oh – and everybody’s high!"
-- Stephen Colbert
Okay, we admit it. We’re a teeny bit high today. Not on drugs, but on the idea that the orderly transition of a government by the people, of the people, and for the people has not perished from this earth.
Oh, yeah, and we like the fact that the Democratic donkey did what donkeys do best: kicking.
We have to admit that as Democrats, we are not given to premature pronouncements or even the kind of self-empowered optimism found among members of other political parties. It wasn’t until the crawl along the bottom of our television screens started mounting up Democratic victories that we allowed ourselves to believe that what the pundits predicted would actually happen.
And even now, we fret a bit. Will Congress become even further to the right with the exit of moderate Republicans and the entrance of centrist Democrats? Can a Democrat capture the White House if there’s a Democratic majority in Congress? Will the Democrats really focus on doing what's good for the country, and not indulge in revenge politics?
One thing is certain – the brutality of the war in Iraq and the flagrant misbehavior by GOP office holders has worn the people down. And the Democrats have kicked the bums out.
Only time will tell if this is a good thing. But right now, riding on the wave of optimism that comes with the balance of powers in action, we look forward with the expectation that President Bush will finally live up to his 2000 campaign promise, that he is a uniter, not a divider.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Beyond Fight or Flight: Why Women's Friendships Work
We at The Thinking Woman are, first and foremost, proud to be women. We are proud of what women can accomplish, and, while we firmly believe women can do whatever they choose, we are proud of the differences between men and women.
That is why we want to share with you something that has recently come to our attention. A UCLA study of women's responses under stress suggest that women use friendships with other women and tending to others to deal with life's stressors, beyond the traditionally accepted "fight or flight."
Clicking the header will bring you directly to the study, but we think Gale Berkowitz did such a nifty job of summing it all up, that what follows is her analysis, found in the Utne Reader and at anapsis.org, among other places. We think you will agree that, more than just food for thought, this is affirming and enobling for women:
UCLA Study On Friendship Among Women
An alternative to fight or flight
©2002 Gale Berkowitz
A landmark UCLA study suggests friendships between women are special. They shape who we are and who we are yet to be. They soothe our tumultuous inner world, fill the emotional gaps in our marriage, and help us remember
who we really are. By the way, they may do even more.
Scientists now suspect that hanging out with our friends can actually counteract the kind of stomach-quivering stress most of us experience on a daily basis. A landmark UCLA study suggests that women respond to stress with a cascade of brain chemicals that cause us to make and maintain friendships with other women. It's a stunning find that has turned five decades of stress research---most of it on men---upside down. Until this study was published, scientists generally believed that when people experience stress, they trigger a hormonal cascade that
revs the body to either stand and fight or flee as fast as possible, explains Laura Cousin Klein, Ph.D., now an Assistant Professor of Biobehavioral Health at Penn State University and one of the study's authors. It's an ancient survival mechanism left over from the time we were chased across the planet by saber-toothed tigers.
Now the researchers suspect that women have a larger behavioral repertoire than just fight or flight; In fact, says Dr. Klein, it seems that when the hormone oxytocin is release as part of the stress responses in a woman, it buffers the fight or flight response and encourages her to tend children and gather with other women instead. When she actually engages in this tending or befriending, studies suggest that more oxytocin is released, which further counters stress and produces a calming effect. This calming response does not occur in men, says Dr. Klein, because testosterone---which men produce in high levels when they're under stress---seems to reduce the effects of oxytocin. Estrogen, she adds, seems to enhance it.
The discovery that women respond to stress differently than men was made in a classic "aha" moment shared by two women scientists who were talking one day in a lab at UCLA. Th
ere was this joke that when the women who worked in the lab were stressed, they came in, cleaned the lab, had coffee, and bonded, says Dr. Klein. When the men were stressed, they holed up somewhere on their own. I commented one day to fellow researcher Shelley Taylor that nearly 90% of the stress research is on males. I showed her the data from my lab, and the two of us knew instantly that we were onto something.
The women cleared their schedules and started meeting with one scientist after another from various research specialties. Very quickly, Drs. Klein and Taylor discovered that by not including women in stress research, scientists had made a huge mistake: The fact that women respond to stress differently than men has significant implications for our health.
It may take some time for new studies to reveal all the ways that oxytocin encourages us to care for children and hang out with other women, but the "tend and befriend" notion developed by Drs. Klein and Taylor may explain why women consistently outlive men. Study after study has found that social ties reduce our risk of disease by lowering blood pressure, heart rate, and cholesterol. There's no doubt, says Dr. Klein, that friends are helping us live longer.
In one study, for example, researchers found that people who had no friends increased their risk of death over a 6-month period. In another study, those who had the most friends over a 9-year period cut their risk of death by more than 60%.
Friends are also helping us live better. The famed Nurses' Health Study from Harvard Medical School found that the more friends women had, the less likely they were to develop physical impairments as they aged, and the more likely they were to be leading a joyful life. In fact, the results were so significant, the researchers concluded, that not having close friends or confidants was as detrimental to your health as smoking or carrying extra weight.
And that's not all. When the researchers looked at how well the women functioned after the death of
their spouse, they found that even in the face of this biggest stressor of all, those women who had a close friend and confidante were more likely to survive the experience without any new physical impairments or permanent loss of vitality. Those without friends were not always so fortunate. Yet if friends counter the stress that seems to swallow up so much of our life these days, if they keep us healthy and even add years to our life, why is it so hard to find time to be with them? That's a question that also troubles researcher Ruthellen Josselson, Ph.D., co-author of Best Friends: The Pleasures and Perils of Girls' and Women's Friendships (Three Rivers Press, 1998). The following paragraph is, in my opinion, very, very true and something all women should be aware of and NOT put our female friends on the back burners.
Every time we get overly busy with work and family, the first thing we do is let go of friendships with other women, explains Dr. Josselson. We push the m right to the back burner. That's really a mistake because women are such a source of strength to each other. We nurture one another. And we need to have unpressured space in which we can do the special kind of talk that women do when they're with other women. It's a very healing experience.
That is why we want to share with you something that has recently come to our attention. A UCLA study of women's responses under stress suggest that women use friendships with other women and tending to others to deal with life's stressors, beyond the traditionally accepted "fight or flight."
Clicking the header will bring you directly to the study, but we think Gale Berkowitz did such a nifty job of summing it all up, that what follows is her analysis, found in the Utne Reader and at anapsis.org, among other places. We think you will agree that, more than just food for thought, this is affirming and enobling for women:
UCLA Study On Friendship Among Women
An alternative to fight or flight
©2002 Gale Berkowitz
A landmark UCLA study suggests friendships between women are special. They shape who we are and who we are yet to be. They soothe our tumultuous inner world, fill the emotional gaps in our marriage, and help us remember
who we really are. By the way, they may do even more.Scientists now suspect that hanging out with our friends can actually counteract the kind of stomach-quivering stress most of us experience on a daily basis. A landmark UCLA study suggests that women respond to stress with a cascade of brain chemicals that cause us to make and maintain friendships with other women. It's a stunning find that has turned five decades of stress research---most of it on men---upside down. Until this study was published, scientists generally believed that when people experience stress, they trigger a hormonal cascade that
revs the body to either stand and fight or flee as fast as possible, explains Laura Cousin Klein, Ph.D., now an Assistant Professor of Biobehavioral Health at Penn State University and one of the study's authors. It's an ancient survival mechanism left over from the time we were chased across the planet by saber-toothed tigers.Now the researchers suspect that women have a larger behavioral repertoire than just fight or flight; In fact, says Dr. Klein, it seems that when the hormone oxytocin is release as part of the stress responses in a woman, it buffers the fight or flight response and encourages her to tend children and gather with other women instead. When she actually engages in this tending or befriending, studies suggest that more oxytocin is released, which further counters stress and produces a calming effect. This calming response does not occur in men, says Dr. Klein, because testosterone---which men produce in high levels when they're under stress---seems to reduce the effects of oxytocin. Estrogen, she adds, seems to enhance it.
The discovery that women respond to stress differently than men was made in a classic "aha" moment shared by two women scientists who were talking one day in a lab at UCLA. Th
ere was this joke that when the women who worked in the lab were stressed, they came in, cleaned the lab, had coffee, and bonded, says Dr. Klein. When the men were stressed, they holed up somewhere on their own. I commented one day to fellow researcher Shelley Taylor that nearly 90% of the stress research is on males. I showed her the data from my lab, and the two of us knew instantly that we were onto something.The women cleared their schedules and started meeting with one scientist after another from various research specialties. Very quickly, Drs. Klein and Taylor discovered that by not including women in stress research, scientists had made a huge mistake: The fact that women respond to stress differently than men has significant implications for our health.
It may take some time for new studies to reveal all the ways that oxytocin encourages us to care for children and hang out with other women, but the "tend and befriend" notion developed by Drs. Klein and Taylor may explain why women consistently outlive men. Study after study has found that social ties reduce our risk of disease by lowering blood pressure, heart rate, and cholesterol. There's no doubt, says Dr. Klein, that friends are helping us live longer.In one study, for example, researchers found that people who had no friends increased their risk of death over a 6-month period. In another study, those who had the most friends over a 9-year period cut their risk of death by more than 60%.
Friends are also helping us live better. The famed Nurses' Health Study from Harvard Medical School found that the more friends women had, the less likely they were to develop physical impairments as they aged, and the more likely they were to be leading a joyful life. In fact, the results were so significant, the researchers concluded, that not having close friends or confidants was as detrimental to your health as smoking or carrying extra weight.
And that's not all. When the researchers looked at how well the women functioned after the death of
their spouse, they found that even in the face of this biggest stressor of all, those women who had a close friend and confidante were more likely to survive the experience without any new physical impairments or permanent loss of vitality. Those without friends were not always so fortunate. Yet if friends counter the stress that seems to swallow up so much of our life these days, if they keep us healthy and even add years to our life, why is it so hard to find time to be with them? That's a question that also troubles researcher Ruthellen Josselson, Ph.D., co-author of Best Friends: The Pleasures and Perils of Girls' and Women's Friendships (Three Rivers Press, 1998). The following paragraph is, in my opinion, very, very true and something all women should be aware of and NOT put our female friends on the back burners.Every time we get overly busy with work and family, the first thing we do is let go of friendships with other women, explains Dr. Josselson. We push the m right to the back burner. That's really a mistake because women are such a source of strength to each other. We nurture one another. And we need to have unpressured space in which we can do the special kind of talk that women do when they're with other women. It's a very healing experience.
Taylor, S. E., Klein, L.C., Lewis, B. P., Gruenewald, T. L., Gurung, R. A. R., & Updegraff, J. A. Female Responses to Stress: Tend and Befriend, Not Fight or Flight" Psychol Rev, 107(3):41-429.
Geary DC, Flinn MV. Sex differences in behavioral and hormonal response to social threat: commentary on Taylor et al. Psychol Rev 2002 Oct;109(4):745-50; discussion 751-3
Cousino Klein L, Corwin EJ. Seeing the unexpected: how sex differences in stress responses may provide a new perspective on the manifestation of psychiatric disorders. Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2002 Dec;4(6):441-8.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Happy Feet
We have a confession to make. Those of us who have grown up to be thinking women started out as thinking girls who loved to put Broadway albums on the hi-fi (yes, kids, this was in the days before CDs, cassettes, and even stereos), dress up in mom’s old evening dresses and dance. It didn’t even matter whether we had seen the musicals, all that mattered was the dancing.
Later, we got to know the real thing through high school drama clubs, regional performances and late-night babysitting viewings of those dashing hoofers who leaped and twirled in old MGM musicals. Let's face it: it was impossible not to have a crush on Gene Kelly.
It gives us real pleasure when the things we loved as kids and thought were gone forever, return. So we are tickled pink to see the renewed interest in dance, thanks, in large part, to the Brits. First came ABC's smash success last summer, "Dancing With The Stars," which pairs celebrities with professional ballroom dancers, and shows us the process of training a non-dancer to compete with the pros.
Then, the brilliant Nigel Lythgoe took the formula he developed back home in England, and brought it to America, first as "American Idol," and then this summer's hit, "So You Think You Can Dance."
In a blockbuster finale, the winner of "So You Think You Can Dance" was a young man from California named Benji
Schwimmer. His lively personality, lovable goofiness and awesome dancing talent won him the hearts of America and gave Fox the highest rated program this summer.But it wasn’t just young Benji – who reminds us of another Benji we know – who dazzled America. He was accompanied by nine other young dancers who reminded the nation of the athleticism, poetry and excitement of the art form. As they tackled everything from hip-hop to Viennese waltz to Broadway with stops in between for salsa, contemporary and swing, the young dancers reawakened interest in moving to the beat.
The outcome has been phenomenal. Programs that feature dancing are proliferating. "Dancing With The Stars" starts its third season in a couple of weeks, and hopes to repeat last year’s ratings. A new movie about a street dancer and a ballerina opened big at the box office last weekend. And the recently announced national tour of the top ten contestants on "So You Think You Can Dance" sold out in 11 minutes in New York.
Can a renewed appreciation of such classics as "Top Hat" and "An American in Paris" be far behind? We can only hope that a new generation will appreciate Gene Kelly tap dancing on roller skates, Fred Astaire dancing on the ceiling, or the legendary Bill Robinson showing Shirley Temple how it’s done.All of this does more than give us pleasure. It makes us feel like putting on our dancing shoes.
Dancing, anyone?
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Stop the Insanity
There are days when it feels like the entire world has gone insane.
September 11, 2001 was one of these days. We weren’t around then, but we have every confidence that Dec. 7, 1941 – the bombing of Pearl Harbor – was one of those days as well.
Madness, psychology experts tell us, is a state induced by unpredictable negative stimuli. Predictable negative stimuli may make us neurotic but we’re equipped to handle it. The unpredictable type can bring on schizophrenia, psychosis, borderline personality disorder and politicians.
So is it any wonder that recent events have made things feel nuts? One day all is calm, the next some state-sponsored terrorists provoke a violent response from the Middle East’s only democracy. We have innocents being bombed in Lebanon to go with those under attack in Iraq and Afghanistan. A Jewish community center becomes the focus of rage. And conservative TV pundits decide to add to the mayhem by declaring that we are in World War III.
Are they Chicken Littles or just big chickens?
One of the favorite betting events in the Judeo-Christian tradition is trying to predict when Armageddon will arrive – even though we’re told quite explicitly that this is a no-no. Recent events have sparked landmark business in this proud tradition. Everyone from evangelical fundamentalists to the Lubavitcher Hasidim have added their “evidence” to the party. All of this adds to what used to be free-floating anxiety but now resembles a strafing run on sanity.
We at the Thinking Woman think we need to have a mother (or The Mother/Father) put a foot down and send someone to his room without dinner. It’s time to realize that we have a choice: We can take the path of love by serving the poor and distressed, truly living every day in expectation of the coming of the Messiah. Or we can take the path of fear and produce a bloody apocalypse as it is written, not in the Bible but in the national best-selling Armageddon novels.
All this focus on when it will happen and how effectively diverts people from our primary responsibility -- stewardship and service. Perhaps the world will end next week, perhaps next month, perhaps not for centuries. The signs have been interpreted as such in past centuries. But we cannot stop loving and caring for the world we were given. God, when he gave stewardship of the earth to man, didn't say that we could stop when we thought the end was near. Civilizations have been destroyed before, and the end did not come.
We must, like our forebearers, live our lives in the expectation of the coming of the Messiah, but not use it as an excuse to be irresponsible and selfish.
Like any family, we can choose to work together, heal ourselves and our world and end this madness. Then we can let everyone out of their rooms so we may all finally sit together at the same table as family. Or we can go forward with violence, horror and madness.
The choice is ours.
September 11, 2001 was one of these days. We weren’t around then, but we have every confidence that Dec. 7, 1941 – the bombing of Pearl Harbor – was one of those days as well.
Madness, psychology experts tell us, is a state induced by unpredictable negative stimuli. Predictable negative stimuli may make us neurotic but we’re equipped to handle it. The unpredictable type can bring on schizophrenia, psychosis, borderline personality disorder and politicians.
So is it any wonder that recent events have made things feel nuts? One day all is calm, the next some state-sponsored terrorists provoke a violent response from the Middle East’s only democracy. We have innocents being bombed in Lebanon to go with those under attack in Iraq and Afghanistan. A Jewish community center becomes the focus of rage. And conservative TV pundits decide to add to the mayhem by declaring that we are in World War III.
Are they Chicken Littles or just big chickens?
One of the favorite betting events in the Judeo-Christian tradition is trying to predict when Armageddon will arrive – even though we’re told quite explicitly that this is a no-no. Recent events have sparked landmark business in this proud tradition. Everyone from evangelical fundamentalists to the Lubavitcher Hasidim have added their “evidence” to the party. All of this adds to what used to be free-floating anxiety but now resembles a strafing run on sanity.
We at the Thinking Woman think we need to have a mother (or The Mother/Father) put a foot down and send someone to his room without dinner. It’s time to realize that we have a choice: We can take the path of love by serving the poor and distressed, truly living every day in expectation of the coming of the Messiah. Or we can take the path of fear and produce a bloody apocalypse as it is written, not in the Bible but in the national best-selling Armageddon novels.
All this focus on when it will happen and how effectively diverts people from our primary responsibility -- stewardship and service. Perhaps the world will end next week, perhaps next month, perhaps not for centuries. The signs have been interpreted as such in past centuries. But we cannot stop loving and caring for the world we were given. God, when he gave stewardship of the earth to man, didn't say that we could stop when we thought the end was near. Civilizations have been destroyed before, and the end did not come.
We must, like our forebearers, live our lives in the expectation of the coming of the Messiah, but not use it as an excuse to be irresponsible and selfish.
Like any family, we can choose to work together, heal ourselves and our world and end this madness. Then we can let everyone out of their rooms so we may all finally sit together at the same table as family. Or we can go forward with violence, horror and madness.
The choice is ours.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Farewell Too Soon
The bus left for heaven again on Monday, and for two of its occupants, it seems too soon.
Dana Reeve, 44, succumbed Monday to lung cancer. (Note: she was a non-smoker; lung cancer is more prevelant in non-smoking women than men.)
A talented singer, actor, motivational speaker and devoted mother, Ms. Reeve made her biggest impact after her husband, actor Christopher Reeve, was paralyzed by a spinal cord injury. She cared for him and fought by his side to put the possibility and hope into finding treatments for spinal cord injuries. Together they founded the Christopher Reeve Foundation, an organization she chaired after her husband's death. We like to think that she was the Superwoman behind Superman.
In an official statement from the foundation, spokeswoman Maggie Goldberg noted, "Ms. Reeve established the Foundation's Quality of Life initiatives: the Quality of Life grants program and the Christopher & Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center. Since its inception in 1999, the Quality of Life grants program has awarded more than $8 million to support programs and projects that improve the daily lives of people living with paralysis."
Dana Reeve's grace and passion inspired us and never stopped moving us. And, like Elizabeth Glazer in her battle against AIDS, Dana Reeve never stopped hoping, believing, and fighting, throughout her battle with cancer. She set the bar high for women, and we have to wonder. Are we up to the challenge?
With her on that bus is the most beloved player in baseball, Kirby Puckett, 45, who suffered a stroke on Sunday and passed away on Monday. Although the past ten years since his forced retirement from sudden onset glaucoma have reminded us that our heroes are mere mortals, Kirby Puckett gave us a reason again to love baseball.
And America loved him for it. How much? Consider this: In 1982, the year the Minnesota Twins picked Kirby Puckett in the amateur draft, the name "Kirby" dropped off the chart of male baby names (a list compiled by the Social Security Administration). The year after the Twins won the 1987 World Series, "Kirby" jumped almost 200 places on the list of male baby names from No. 867 to No. 684. In 1996, when Puckett left baseball, the name "Kirby" dropped to No. 970 on the list of top 1,000 male baby names. The next year it disappeared. (To read more, check out Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist Nick Coleman's commentary on Kirby.)
Kirby Puckett modeled everything that is good in baseball. He not only played with excellence, he
worked the hardest and the longest. He was the first one at practice, and gave it his all, even in a meaningless exhibition game. In the clubhouse, he was the first one to welcome the new guy. He always had time for the fans, especially kids. And his puckish smile and joy for the game infected everyone around him. His unique batting stance was copied on playgrounds across the country. He was the guy the other ballplayers, teammate or opponent, always wanted to be near. He, too, set the bar high -- for excellence in sports.
Our world shines a little dimmer today with their absence from our midst. But, oh, how brightly that bus must be shining. And the others on the bus are crowding around Kirby and Dana, wanting to bask in their light.
Dana Reeve, 44, succumbed Monday to lung cancer. (Note: she was a non-smoker; lung cancer is more prevelant in non-smoking women than men.)
A talented singer, actor, motivational speaker and devoted mother, Ms. Reeve made her biggest impact after her husband, actor Christopher Reeve, was paralyzed by a spinal cord injury. She cared for him and fought by his side to put the possibility and hope into finding treatments for spinal cord injuries. Together they founded the Christopher Reeve Foundation, an organization she chaired after her husband's death. We like to think that she was the Superwoman behind Superman.In an official statement from the foundation, spokeswoman Maggie Goldberg noted, "Ms. Reeve established the Foundation's Quality of Life initiatives: the Quality of Life grants program and the Christopher & Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center. Since its inception in 1999, the Quality of Life grants program has awarded more than $8 million to support programs and projects that improve the daily lives of people living with paralysis."
Dana Reeve's grace and passion inspired us and never stopped moving us. And, like Elizabeth Glazer in her battle against AIDS, Dana Reeve never stopped hoping, believing, and fighting, throughout her battle with cancer. She set the bar high for women, and we have to wonder. Are we up to the challenge?
With her on that bus is the most beloved player in baseball, Kirby Puckett, 45, who suffered a stroke on Sunday and passed away on Monday. Although the past ten years since his forced retirement from sudden onset glaucoma have reminded us that our heroes are mere mortals, Kirby Puckett gave us a reason again to love baseball.
And America loved him for it. How much? Consider this: In 1982, the year the Minnesota Twins picked Kirby Puckett in the amateur draft, the name "Kirby" dropped off the chart of male baby names (a list compiled by the Social Security Administration). The year after the Twins won the 1987 World Series, "Kirby" jumped almost 200 places on the list of male baby names from No. 867 to No. 684. In 1996, when Puckett left baseball, the name "Kirby" dropped to No. 970 on the list of top 1,000 male baby names. The next year it disappeared. (To read more, check out Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist Nick Coleman's commentary on Kirby.)
Kirby Puckett modeled everything that is good in baseball. He not only played with excellence, he
worked the hardest and the longest. He was the first one at practice, and gave it his all, even in a meaningless exhibition game. In the clubhouse, he was the first one to welcome the new guy. He always had time for the fans, especially kids. And his puckish smile and joy for the game infected everyone around him. His unique batting stance was copied on playgrounds across the country. He was the guy the other ballplayers, teammate or opponent, always wanted to be near. He, too, set the bar high -- for excellence in sports.Our world shines a little dimmer today with their absence from our midst. But, oh, how brightly that bus must be shining. And the others on the bus are crowding around Kirby and Dana, wanting to bask in their light.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
A Double Deputy Farewell
We often suspect that the bus to heaven waits until it has enough people to make a run before it makes its stop on earth. The passenger list for the Big Ride often reflects what seems like
an interesting sense of humor. Remember when Mother Teresa died the same weekend as Princess Diana? What could they possibly have had to talk about? Do you think they discussed charity work or do you think Diana asked the nun how she stayed so thin?
This weekend the pairing was ironic once again: Dennis Weaver and Don Knotts. Both actors became famous on television for portraying deputies, although in different eras and locations. Don Knotts, as anyone who didn’t spend the 20th century in cave knows, played the bulbous-eyed and perpetually anxious Deputy Barney Fife on "The Andy Griffith Show." Dennis Weaver got his start on "Gunsmoke," playing the slow-talking and slow-moving sidekick Chester to James Arness’s towering sheriff.
Both actors appeared in dozens of other successful projects. Knotts was beloved for his grace and generosity with his fellow actors and his fearless embrace of the most distasteful of characters. He was a master comic always happy to play the foil to a more handsome and appealing leading
man.
Don Knotts, it's also good to note, was a big screen star. Among his popular films were "The Incred
ible Mr. Limpet" (where he turns into a fish), "The Reluctant Astronaut" and "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken." His friendship with Andy Griffith extended back to when they were in “No Time for Sergeants” on Broadway. Andy also convinced producers to cast him in the film version.
Dennis Weaver, blessed with far better looks than Knotts, was promoted to sheriff on the series "McCloud." A lifelong environmentalist, Weaver often chose projects that reflected his love of nature and the outdoors. He was also one of those rare actors who remained married to the same woman for 61 years.
It’s hard to realize that these actors, who were fixtures of our childhoods, are unknown to our own children. With their passing goes another piece of our youth and an indelible reminder that each generation gives way to the next. We just hope that with the appalling lack of quality fare on television these days, someone new will step up to fill in their boots. There doesn’t seem to be many actors today who, like Knotts and Weaver, are as admirable off screen as they are on.
We’re glad that they both have someone great to talk to on that bus ride.
an interesting sense of humor. Remember when Mother Teresa died the same weekend as Princess Diana? What could they possibly have had to talk about? Do you think they discussed charity work or do you think Diana asked the nun how she stayed so thin?This weekend the pairing was ironic once again: Dennis Weaver and Don Knotts. Both actors became famous on television for portraying deputies, although in different eras and locations. Don Knotts, as anyone who didn’t spend the 20th century in cave knows, played the bulbous-eyed and perpetually anxious Deputy Barney Fife on "The Andy Griffith Show." Dennis Weaver got his start on "Gunsmoke," playing the slow-talking and slow-moving sidekick Chester to James Arness’s towering sheriff.
Both actors appeared in dozens of other successful projects. Knotts was beloved for his grace and generosity with his fellow actors and his fearless embrace of the most distasteful of characters. He was a master comic always happy to play the foil to a more handsome and appealing leading
man.Don Knotts, it's also good to note, was a big screen star. Among his popular films were "The Incred
ible Mr. Limpet" (where he turns into a fish), "The Reluctant Astronaut" and "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken." His friendship with Andy Griffith extended back to when they were in “No Time for Sergeants” on Broadway. Andy also convinced producers to cast him in the film version.Dennis Weaver, blessed with far better looks than Knotts, was promoted to sheriff on the series "McCloud." A lifelong environmentalist, Weaver often chose projects that reflected his love of nature and the outdoors. He was also one of those rare actors who remained married to the same woman for 61 years.
It’s hard to realize that these actors, who were fixtures of our childhoods, are unknown to our own children. With their passing goes another piece of our youth and an indelible reminder that each generation gives way to the next. We just hope that with the appalling lack of quality fare on television these days, someone new will step up to fill in their boots. There doesn’t seem to be many actors today who, like Knotts and Weaver, are as admirable off screen as they are on.
We’re glad that they both have someone great to talk to on that bus ride.
***
Rabbi Marc Gellman of God Squad fame takes a look at some of the television icons we lost recently – Scotty, Gilligan and Barney Fife -- in this column from Newsweek.
Rabbi Marc Gellman of God Squad fame takes a look at some of the television icons we lost recently – Scotty, Gilligan and Barney Fife -- in this column from Newsweek.
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Top 10 Men We Loved in 2005
The wax has been scraped off the menorah. The ornaments have been carefully taken off the tree and put where the dog can’t eat them. The brownies from Grandma Dee have been reduced to crumbs. The holidays are over and we can hardly remember what all the stress was about.
Well, maybe we remember a little since the thinking women have been thinking guiltily about their absence from leading their sistren through the often arcane and labyrinthine world of the media, politics and current events. But dammit, we’ve got laundry to catch up on, don’t you?
To smooth over our negligence, we offer this, our distaff version of the old Esquire Magazine “Women We Love” annual. For your reading pleasure – and ours until we can get back in the saddle – here are:
Top Ten Men We Loved in 2005 and Why.
1. Jon Stewart. He can make you laugh while eviscerating a politician with such intelligence and skill that you never see it coming. His “fake” news program proves that the smartest guy in the kingdom is still the jester. And now he’s hosting the Oscars. Hooray!2. Steve Martin. He was finally honored with the Mark Twain Prize for Comedy by the
Kennedy Center. What took them so long? He has been making us laugh with his gentle, silly and sarcastic form of comedy since before even his hair was gray. He’s fast becoming a favorite novelist as well, shedding a gentle, humorous light on difficult lives. Besides, he gives us happy feet. 
3. Ted Koppel. A consummate man of class, Koppel left Nightline with the same dignity and unflinching candor as when he began. We’re just glad he was there to see us through the hard times.
4. Stephe
n Colbert. Can those eyebrows go any higher? He may have started out slowly, but the Colbert Report has been gaining steam as Colbert becomes the flip side of Jon Stewart’s befuddled everyman. Besides, he coined the 2005 Word of The Year, "truthiness."5. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, (D-NY). Call him arrogant, call him self-serving, call him
liberal – Chuck doesn’t care. He’s still there on the front lines making sure that the best interests of the people are served. Let other politicians compromise their progressive values, we know that Schumer will stand firm.6. Mark Harmon. He's Mark Harmon, isn't that enough? But in case it's not...In a time when youth rules on television, he is the center of one of the coolest shows on television, "NCIS." He has the looks of a leading man combined with the versatility, dependability and generosity found in the great character actors. And he doesn't appear to know it. Who can resist that?
7. Al Franken. The Left was fair game for the Right’s media darlings until Big Al stepped i
nto the fray. His hilarious, scathing and well researched books gave opposing pundits such as Bill O’Reilly fits. Then he gave birth to an always entertaining and informative radio show, as well as an entire radio station devoted to progressive viewpoints. And he’s no paper tiger. He supports the troops not only in words, but by taking regular USO trips to entertain them.
8. Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane. Broadway’s cutest couple. By themselves they are accomplished and acclaimed performers. But, together, their chemistry is so potent that they are the new acting dynasty. (Thank you, Mel Brooks!) In 2005, with a sold-out run of "The Odd Couple" on Broadway and the release of the film version of their smash stage musical, "The Producers," it is hard to remember a time when they acted alone. (Sorry, Sarah Jessica!)
9. Jimmy Carter. Whatever you may have thought of him as president, 
there’s no doubt in our minds that he is the greatest former president of this, or any, century. Well into his 80s, he continues to make a significant difference in the world while writing books and building homes in his spare time. He is often the voice of sanity in a world gone mad, reminding us that a good Christian loves all his fellow man and works to ease the burden of the oppressed. All this, and he truly loves his wife, an increasingly rare phenomenon in public life.
10. Herb and Glenn. One is a father and another a husband, but the men in our lives who are
there for us certainly qualify. These are the kind of men who would drive through a blizzard to pick you up from an airport, think of you whenever something you both love comes on the television and lose their right hand before they would let you down in the ways that truly matter. (And this doesn't even touch on their personal accomplishments.) They are the men behind the thinking women and it’s time they got a moment in the spotlight. Our only hope, here at The Thinking Woman, is that you have men like these in your life, too.
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