Waiting room reading

I had to wait a long time at the rheumatologist’s this morning. I can’t believe that people can just sit and squirm with boredom for half an hour. I’ve always got a book in my bag. At the moment it’s “Women’s Wicked Wit” compiled by Michelle Lovric. 300 pages of quotes - and yes, as usual, I did laugh out loud. I’m still in the men’s section:

 Annie Proulx said “Listen if it’s got four wheels or a dick you’re goin’ a have trouble with it, guaranteed” and of course lots from Mae West “His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork”

There are so many that I wish I could memorise.

 

Do women have a soul?

I was looking up something in a French reference book last week. Quid is a sort of who’s who, encyclopaedia, years news, lists of everything, book. We have the 1992 issue; 2000 pages to get lost in. I was surprised to find that there was a section entitled ‘women’.

This included the debate about souls and whether women were to be considered a human being at all. This is a very ancient debate, by the way, and was used to illustrate some point or other. A lot of statistics, including how many women are beaten and the social background of the men beating them up. Then there were statistics on prostitution giving lots of details on the social background, race, and religion of the men paying for services. How long do women spend on housework? Not a very positive bunch of figures at all. It would have been more interesting to see how many women have received the Nobel peace prize for instance (In the quid yes, but not in the women’s part), the women holding important posts in politics, education etc. I haven’t looked at a more recent Quid. I do hope they’ve managed to find women’s souls in the last 17 years.

Buffy Sainte-Marie

This is one of the songs I want for my funeral. To save you waiting, I’m letting you listen to it now. The Indian calling in the back ground gives me goose bumps every time I hear it. Listen until the very end. Afterwards go and read about her on Wikipedia. I was shocked at the censorship she suffered in the past. She’s still a prominent social activist today.

Thanks Bo!

I’m a great fan of Deezer. I can listen to whatever music I want at anytime without breaking any laws. I love remembering names from the past and typing them in to see what comes up. Recently I’ve been listening to a lot of Bobbie Gentry. Do you remember her? Pretty, slim with lots of black eye makeup and long back-combed hair. She takes me back to the late 60s, early 70s, her show was on TV every week, I watched religiously with my mum and sisters.

At school, our geography teacher couldn’t understand why, for the first time ever, the entire class could spell Mississippi. My best friend and I who were the eldest in our families dreamt of Bobbie as an ideal older sister. Where did Bobbie go? That is a mystery equal to that of the object thrown from the Tallahatchie Bridge…

If you read the Wikapedia entry for Bobbie Gentry, take a moment to move to the discussion page.

I’ve chosen a video of her singing Fancy. A reminder of how the role of women has changed in the last 40 years.

Thinking about age

Remembering how my grandmother used to sleep in the afternoons when I went to stay with her as a child. When I was 6 years old she was 50. I’m three years older now and I don’t have a nap in the afternoon, if I do go to bed during the day it’s because Rob and I are having a little sieste – as we call it…

All this has come about because AOL France recently started a debate on dressing your age. I was pleased to read that most of the ladies commenting were around my age and we all still treasure our jeans. There was a general agreement that micro skirts and cropped tops at our age were out, but with a bit of adaptation women our age could give the youngsters a run for their money.

My grandmother went to the hairdressers every week on Friday mornings. She wouldn’t have dreamt of colouring her hair (perhaps a lavender rinse). Isn’t it wonderful that we aren’t expected to follow rigid rules and regulations any more?