After Atalanta

After a little hiatus, Poetry Friday is back--just in time--or rather, half a month late--for National Poetry Month. I like W.G. Sebald and stars so this one seemed appropriate. The Sky at Night A belated excursion to the stone collection of our feelings Little left here worth showing alas Is there from an anthropological perspective a need for love Or merely for yearnings easy to disappoint Which stars go down as white dwarfs What relation does a heavy heart bear to the art of comedy Does the hunter Orion have answers to such questions Or are they too closely guarded by the Dog Star

I only found about this story from a FB friend who posted a link to the petition on Change.org. And despite my searches for more info--I cannot find any. So I wonder if this is actually making news in Beverly--which, coincidentally, is my home town. So a woman was told she cannot take her daughter into the children's locker room before swim lessons at the Beverly YMCA--where I once was a little guppy trying to work her way up to dolphinhood. Why can this mother not take her daughter into the kids' locker room? Because the woman was born a man. And apparently she still has "male eyes" and her gender presentation is confusing to people. First (though in no particular order), pretty condemning of men, no? All men are looking at little girls with leering eyes is the suggestion here. Of course, the message could (most likely?) be that a transwoman is more likely to be some kind of pervert. Second, let's perhaps use this as a teachable moment, people of the Beverly...

Two weekends ago I headed north to Burlington, Vermont for a quick, last-minute getaway that happened to coincide with the IIHF Women's Hockey World Championships. (Timing is everything!) Here is what I observed: Nothing indicated as we drove into Burlington that this event was taking place. I did however learn about when the farmers' market was starting and an upcoming parade. So that was a bummer. The store on the pedestrian mall that sells UVM merchandise did have a window display of USA Hockey gear and a poster of Jenny Potter and Angela Ruggiero (who actually "retired" this year and so wasn't playing--oops!). Also good--the day we arrived was the day of the US versus Canada first-round game. Tickets were sold out--good sign generally. Not so much for us. But thank goodness for iPhones and craigslist and some good bargaining skills. Tickets were scored a few hour before game time. And the game was amazing--if you were an American fan. I actually was more in...

It's Patriots Day here in Massachusetts. Many of us natives grow up thinking we get the day off because of the marathon in Boston. But it's an actual holiday here. Good luck to the all the runners. Sorry about the weather. It was quite temperate last week. And if you're a female runner, sorry you won't be able to set any world records no matter how fast you run. As many might recall, the governing body of international track and field decided last year that no women could record world records in mixed gender events because of the potential to be paced by elite male runners. The critique of thi s rule has lead the IAAF to reconsider --which they will formally do sometime soon. But as of today, the rule stands. So women running today can only set a "world best." UPDATE: The women's elite runners went off earlier. Does that mean they can set a world record? (Not that today's conditions are amenable to that.)

Qatar, like Saudi Arabia, has never sent a female athletes to the Olympics. That will change this summer. Two women had been scheduled to go after receiving wild cards from the IOC. A third has just been added . Bahia al-Hamad, who also received a wild card, will participate in women’s air rifle. She was Qatar's most successful athlete at the 2011 Arab Games.

Maureen Dowd has a column, seemingly in honor of Easter, of the connection between the old boys' network, Jesus Christ (i.e. what would Jesus do about Augusta?), the recent decision by Saudi Arabia to not send women to the Olympics--and what the OBN the IOC will do about it. It's a little stream of consciousness and I was not a fan of her line about the Saudis throwing blankets over their women; but she makes some good points nonetheless.

Loved Christine Brennan's column about current Augusta National presiden t, Billy Payne. Earlier this week, Payne refused to talk about the women issue in a press conference noting--as have others before him--that membership issues are not discussed publicly. (Kind of like Skull and Bones--except they started letting women be members in the early 1990s--much to William F. Buckley's dismay.) As noted earlier, the issue has arisen again (appropriate so close to Easter) with more force because of the appointment of a female CEO at IBM. This position usually garners a membership at Augusta for the holder. But Payne wouldn't comment. Funny--he had a lot to say about it when he was involved in getting golf into the Olympics for the 1996 Atlanta Games. He wanted the competition--for men and women--to be held at Augusta where he thought women's participation would show those stodgy, old men of the club just what women could do. So, what happened? Payne even used the "n...

I have been following this story, but not posting about it. It seems that after some consideration (or not) Saudi Arabian officials, despite some positive encouragement from the IOC, have decided not to send women --or even a woman--to the Olympic Games this summer in London. The king of gender equality himself--Jacques Rogge, IOC president--nicely asked for some more gender equality worldwide, pointing particularly to Qatar, Brunei, and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is still holding out, sending some kind of enigmatic message about women who live outside the country possibly participating. But this would probably not be as part of the official Saudi delegation and only happen if the IOC invited them--as they did when they asked a female equestrian (the woman who many thought would be going to London as part of the team) to a junior Olympics event. I am not saying that if the IOC and Rogge were better role models, things would have been different; or that the history of gender inequit...

Brittney Griner, MVP of the DI Women's Basketball Championships, said Baylor officials advised her not to read blogs--because they are mean. Not hard for me to imagine. She does read Twitter though and so she's aware of what think about her, her height, her voice, her abilities; how they perceive her sexuality and her gender presentation. She's used to it, which I think shows an amazing amount of maturity. Her one public incident her freshman year when she punched an opposing player seems to be well behind her now--which is good, because things could have gone an entirely different way. I am not a big fan of Baylor as an institution or Kim Mulkey as a coach, but I think they have done something good with Brittney Griner. Mulkey publicly expressed her anger with the way social media and opposing team fans have treated Griner earlier this week. Of course the kicker is that the woman Mulkey hugged last night after Baylor took the title--Muffett McGraw--didn't do muc...