Canada: 3. USA: 2. OT. Gold medal game.
What a game!
Image Credit
Girls. Grit. Gold.
February 20, 2014 by 32 Comments
Joy Johnson
December 29, 2013 by 28 Comments
“She was 86, competing in the marathon for the 25th consecutive time. Even injured, she abided by one of her enduring rules for any race, which was to smile down the homestretch, aware of the roving race photographers and believing it never served anyone to be caught in a grimace.
Joy Johnson crossed the finish line at the New York City Marathon this year nearly eight hours after she began. Of the 50,266 people to finish, she was among the very last — wearing a pair of Nikes and a navy blue bow pinned neatly in her hair, leaning on a stranger for support. Her forehead was bloodied in a fall she took at around Mile 20…Johnson, who was raised on a Minnesota dairy farm and was given to cheery understatement, waved off any concern. “I wasn’t watching where I was going,” she told her sister shortly after finishing. “It looks just awful, but I’m fine.”
…she herself didn’t have an exercise regimen. Until one day in 1985, when she and her husband were newly retired and their four children all grown, Johnson, who was 59, took a three-mile walk and found it energizing. Soon she tried jogging and enjoyed that even more…As a senior citizen, she ran an average of three marathons a year, buttressed by dozens of shorter races, always with a bow in her hair. Her home in San Jose grew so cluttered with running medals and trophies that she began storing some of them in the garage.
Early the next morning, looking cheery, with her medal around her neck and a blue kerchief over her head, the right side of her face swaddled in bandages, Joy Johnson waited in the crowd outside NBC Studios to say hello, as she did postmarathon every year, to Al Roker (“a nice young man,” she called him) from the “Today” show…”
I won’t be a spoiler. Be sure to read this article and how it finishes: Joy Johnson, a Marathoner to the End
Credits:
- Elise, thank you for sharing. Inspiring. How do you define grace and class: Joy Johnson.
- Image & Article: NYTimes.com
It can’t be helped. It’s natural. Biological.
October 7, 2013 by 32 Comments
“Beauty is often treated as an essentially feminine subject, something trivial and frivolous that women are excessively concerned with. Men, meanwhile, are typically seen as having a straightforward and uncomplicated relationship with it: they are drawn to it. The implication is that this may be unfortunate—not exactly ideal morally—but it can’t be helped, because it’s natural, biological. This seems more than a little ironic. Women are not only subject to a constant and exhausting and sometimes humiliating scrutiny—they are also belittled for caring about their beauty, mocked for seeking to enhance or to hold onto their good looks, while men are just, well, being men.
The reality is, of course, far more complicated, as our best novelists show us. They train our gazes on men at not only their most shallow and status conscious but also at their most ridiculous (the clenched jaw). It’s not always easy to know what to make of these men, who certainly aren’t wholly bad. But in a world where women are so frequently judged by their looks, it’s refreshing to encounter male characters whose superficial thoughts are at least acknowledged by their creators.”
~ Adelle Waldman, in an excerpt from The New Yorker, “A First-Rate Girl”: The Problem of Female Beauty
Image of Kaya Scoderlario from Baronvonmerkens
Kissing. 10 Tips From Scientific Research
August 8, 2013 by 28 Comments
- 59% of men and 66% of women have ended a relationship because someone was a bad kisser.
- People remember their first kiss more vividly than the first time they had sex.
- Prostitutes often won’t kiss because it requires a “genuine desire and love for the other person.”
- Men who kiss their wives before work live 5 years longer, make 20-30% more money and are far less likely to get in a car accident. Psychologists do not believe it’s the kiss itself that accounts for the difference but rather that kissers were likely to begin the day with a positive attitude, leading to a healthier lifestyle.
- It matters a lot more to women than men.
- Ninety-six percent of women reported that they like neck kisses, while only about 10% of men do.”
- No matter how attractive someone may be, poor hygiene can kill the moment before it even begins. This is particularly true for men. Women depend heavily on taste and smell and pay close attention to teeth when evaluating a partner.
Read all 10 Tips and a great post at @ Barking Up The Wrong Tree
Image Credit
Tootsie = Epiphany
July 13, 2013 by 22 Comments
This emotional three minute interview with Dustin Hoffman has gone viral on Youtube. Hoffman said he’d initially had doubts about making the movie Tootsie unless he could be made to look like a beautiful woman. In the moment he was told that he was as attractive as he was going to get as a woman, the actor said he had an epiphany.
“I went home and started crying, talking to my wife, and I said, ‘I have to make this picture,’” Hoffman said, choking up as he recalled his reaction. “And she said, ‘Why?’ And I said, ‘Because I think I’m an interesting woman, when I look at myself on-screen, and I know that if I met myself at a party I would never talk to that character because she doesn’t fulfill, physically, the demands that we’re brought up to think women have to have in order for us to ask them out.’
“She says, ‘What are you saying?’ And I said, ‘There’s too many interesting women I have … not had the experience to know in this life because I have been brainwashed. And that was never a comedy for me,” he said.
Hoffman, 75, has been nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning two for his performances in Kramer vs. Kramer and Rain Main. His other notable films include Midnight Cowboy, Little Big Man, Papillon, All The President’s Men, Tootsie, Hook and Wag the Dog.
Source: Thank you (again) Lori @ Donna & Diablo. Moved. Full stop.
They liked the cut of her jib. And so did I.
July 7, 2013 by 37 Comments
“…One Sunday morning, when I was running out to get some groceries, I saw a big woman standing on the sidewalk, waving a Yard Sale sign around. She was wearing an outfit that didn’t compliment her body. Her boobs were jiggling and bouncing in a wild way, but she was smiling and shaking this big piece of cardboard with something scrawled on it. You could barely read the words. The writing was in ballpoint pen and maybe she ran out of room for the address because the last part was squeezed in there, and then there was this huge space under the words anyway. The whole thing was very unprofessional, the kind of thing that, if I had done it myself, I would’ve ripped it up, declaring it unacceptable, and then I would’ve complained about how I didn’t have anymore goddamn poster board to start another sign. Then I probably would’ve blamed my husband for not buying more poster board at the drugstore. ‘When I say get some poster board, that word “some” means more than one piece.’
I also would not have put on that outfit, if I were as big as she was. I’m not slender, mind you. But let’s be honest: if I were her, I would’ve looked in the mirror and moaned softly and then crawled back into bed. Even with a perfectly good outfit on, I wouldn’t have agreed to stand on the curb with a bad sign, drawing attention to myself. No way. If I were her, I would’ve made my husband stand around with the sign, and then I would’ve blamed him when the yard sale got too crowded and hectic. ‘Where have you been? I can’t handle this whole thing on my own! This was YOUR IDEA IN THE FIRST PLACE!’ [Read more…]
My 1%
June 21, 2013 by 14 Comments
Rush jobs. Corners cut. One constant in 30 years, disappointment.
A handful of notables come to mind. So few, I can picture the craftsman. I can picture the chair. Here the tired and the scuffed are healed to a high gloss sheen.
It’s rare. 1%.
Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.
Kloten Airport in Zurich.
Allen Edmonds, Port Washington, Wisconsin.
And, Grand Central.
Her country of origin? My best guess. Guatemala. Age? Impossible to gauge. Hunched over. Plump. Hands tough, cracked. Brown skin is smooth, free of pock marks. Hair pulled back. Green smock. I’ll say mid-50’s. But a hard 50.
I wait for her to be done with another customer. The other shoe shiners, all men, smirk. I turn away, anger surges. Clench my fist. [Read more…]
Watch.
June 20, 2013 by 18 Comments
We’ve heard of woman soldiers being subjected to sexual harassment, and worse. Here’s the response to a scandal in his army by the Head of Army for Australia, Chief Lieutenant General David Morrison. I can’t remember when I was so moved by a 3-minute clip. No more words. WATCH.
Source: Thank you Lori @ Donna & Diablo who shared this video clip with me. Lori, a continuous feed of inspiration to me every single day. Not sure how we connected in this blogosphere community Lori, but I am lucky and blessed.
Swimming in so much hate
June 20, 2013 by 21 Comments
In a softer voice, she said her initial reaction to reading it had been “Really?” and then, she said, “Why would someone O.K. that?” Without mentioning the name of its author, Ms. McCarthy said: “I felt really bad for someone who is swimming in so much hate. I just thought, that’s someone who’s in a really bad spot, and I am in such a happy spot. I laugh my head off every day with my husband and my kids who are mooning me and singing me songs.” Had this occurred when she was 20, Ms. McCarthy said, “it may have crushed me.” But now, as a mother raising two young daughters in “a strange epidemic of body image and body dysmorphia,” she said articles like that “just add to all those younger girls, that are not in a place in their life where they can say, ‘That doesn’t reflect on me.’”
~ Melissa McCarthy responding to a reporter about Rex Reed’s review of her performance in “Identity Thief.” He described Ms. McCarthy as “tractor-sized” and called her “a gimmick comedian who has devoted her short career to being obese and obnoxious with equal success.” (Read more…)
Melissa Ann McCarthy, 42, is an American film and television actress, comedian, writer and producer. She was born in Plainfield, Illinois and currently lives in Los Angeles. McCarthy first gained recognition for her role as Sookie St. James on the television series Gilmore Girls, where she starred from 2000 to 2007. From 2007 to 2009, she portrayed Dena on the ABC sitcom Samantha Who? McCarthy was then cast as Molly Flynn-Biggs on the CBS sitcom Mike & Molly, a role that earned her an Emmy Award win. McCarthy was also nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her work as host on Saturday Night Live. McCarthy achieved major success and fame for her breakthrough role in the 2011 comedy hit Bridesmaids, which garnered her numerous award nominations including an Academy Award nomination, a BAFTA nomination and a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She also appeared in the films The Nines, The Back-up Plan, and Life as We Know It, and her 2013 roles include Identity Thief, The Heat, and The Hangover Part III. (Source: Wiki)
Source: New York Times – Melissa McCarthy Goes Over The Top. Photo: fansshare.com
4:22 am. And Inspired.
April 17, 2013 by 51 Comments
Wednesday mornings are customarily reserved for my selections of fellow bloggers’ inspiring posts of the week. We’re departing from our normal fare. My Rachel shared this 6-minute clip last night. I was captivated. No more words. WATCH.
Note to Rachel. Your short email to me said: “good video about how we (women specifically) perceive ourselves.” Your subject heading was “awesome video.”
I do believe you missed a few sentences in your email. Here’s what I read between the lines:
“Dad, you were relentless and I didn’t like you for it. How many times did you tell me I didn’t need eye make-up? Hundreds, I think. How many times did you tell me that I didn’t need hair color. That nail polish didn’t matter much. That I didn’t need any make-up at all. That I was beautiful just the way I was. I’m beginning to get it now Dad. You were right. (Again) Thank you Dad.”
You are welcome Honey. You are more beautiful than you think. Yes you are.
Lead-Learn Mashup
August 23, 2012 by 18 Comments
- Waiting For The Karma Truck: “You Want To Talk Leadership? Talk to the Hand“
- Execupundit.com: “The Success/Failure Index”
- The Atlantic: “Why Women Can’t Still Have It All” (THNQ Rina)
- Penelope Trunk: “Marissa Mayer Becomes CEO of Yahoo and Proves Women Cannot Have It All“)
- Image Dynamics: “Where Are You on The Ego Elevator” (THNQ George P)
- Nicholas Bate: “Excellence 7 x 4“.
- Broadside: “What’s your personal brand?“
- David Pollay: “The Law of the Garbage Truck“ (THNQ Ed O)
Image Source: Source: beantz via crescentmoon06
Hump Day: 4:02 am and inspired…
May 9, 2012 by 11 Comments
Kicking off Hump (Hug?) Day with Dave Matthews Band and “Everyday.” (Lori, music video is dedicated to you). And now to feature some of the most inspiring blog posts of the week by some of my favorite bloggers:
If I had a son who was playing high school football – he’d be lucky to play for Coach Bill Moore – the Westfield, MA High School Football Coach. I was inspired by Coach Moore’s recent post “Jugs”: “It was 1989 when I faced a monster nicknamed Jugs. He was a colossus of a man, six feet six inches tall and 300 pounds of powerful mass and ill content. I watched the film in the week before the game. I knew what was coming. I had faced powerful men before, but nothing like this…”
Leonard Buchholz at DealerPro Training Solutions with his post Want to have a big day today? Get a checkup. “Anyways, I think I have probably heard ‘do a checkup from the neck up’ at least a million times in my career. It is as pure an attitude adjustment technique today as it was when first uttered. I picture a Roman general saying to his troops just before battle “Hey, get in the war man. Do a checkup from the neck up before we rush over that moat” or something like that. That’s how old it is.” Check out his prescriptions. Leonard lands yet more ah-has with this post.
Gender shouldn’t matter, but apparently it still does…
April 11, 2012 by 4 Comments
HBR Network – Gender Shouldn’t Matter, But Apparently It Still Does
Guess who comes out on top (again)!
Related articles
- Wednesday For Women: Are Women Better Leaders Than Men? (davidkanigan.com)
- Wednesday for Women…Wonder ‘Am I a good leader?’ (davidkanigan.com)
- Wednesday for Women: Who are you calling a Mama’s Boy? (davidkanigan.com)
Wednesday For Women: Are Women Better Leaders Than Men?
March 21, 2012 by 23 Comments
“…survey of 7,280 leaders… confirms some seemingly eternal truths about men and women leaders in the workplace but also holds some surprises.
“…the women’s advantages were not at all confined to traditionally women’s strengths. In fact at every level, more women were rated by their peers, their bosses, their direct reports, and their other associates as better overall leaders than their male counterparts — and the higher the level, the wider that gap grows…”
Wednesday for Women…Wonder ‘Am I a good leader?’
February 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Here’s a terrific post by Scott Ebling @ Next Level Blog: Am I A Good Leader? Take the Sheryl Sanberg Test
“Ever wonder if you’re a good leader? If so, I have a simple three question test that will help you answer the question. I call it the Sheryl Sandberg test.
OK, I know that some of you are thinking “Is it really fair to compare myself to the COO of Facebook – the same woman who spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos the week her company did an IPO that took her net worth past $1.6 billion?” I’ll be the first to acknowledge that there aren’t many of us who can compete with Sandberg’s calendar and bank account. That said, there’s a lot that leaders of any station can learn from Sandberg.
When Sandberg left Google to join Facebook in 2008, the social networking site had 70 million users and no profit-making business model. At the end of 2011, Facebook had over 850 million users, revenue of over $3 billion and profits of just over $1 billion. It’s not too big a stretch to conclude that Sandberg has some leadership skills that might be worth emulating.
Wednesday For Women: 11 of 14 Women In Study Were Low Performers…
February 15, 2012 by 14 Comments
FEBRUARY 7, 2012
Speaking Up Is Hard to Do: Researchers Explain Why
By ELIZABETH BERNSTEIN
“…Ever felt like an idiot in a meeting at work or clammed up at a cocktail party? New research from Virginia Tech shows that many people are actually less intelligent in small group settings…Have you ever clammed up at a party or found yourself tongue-tied at a meeting for fear of saying something stupid—even though you consider yourself at least as smart as anyone else in the room?
Researchers offer an explanation of why many people become, in effect, less intelligent in small group settings…If we think others in a group are smarter, we may become dumber, temporarily losing both our problem-solving ability and what the researchers call our “expression of IQ.”
The clamming-up phenomenon seems to be more common in women and in people with higher IQs, according to the report…The researchers reported that 11 of the 14 “low performers” were female; 10 of the 13 “high performers” were men.
What Men Want: Then (1939) and Now (2008)…
February 12, 2012 by 9 Comments
New York Times: The M.R.S. and the Ph.D.
Wednesday For Women: What Women Want in Their Leaders
February 8, 2012 by 3 Comments
HBR Blog Network (Feb 2011): What Women Want in Their Leaders :
“…despite high profile female leaders, the number of women in leadership remains stagnant. What is the disconnect?
As it turns out, the assumption that women favor female leaders may not be true. We conducted a survey of 92 mid-career women across three higher education organizations in order to find out what women really want in their leadership…
…What did we discover? Overall, mid-career women did not show any preference for female leaders. In some instances, they identified leadership practices of women that they believed were not helpful, and others that were useful but commonly identified with male leaders. Gender plays no role. Instead, it’s the style of leadership and the actions leaders take that help women move up in their organization…
…From our findings, here are five specific things leaders — both men and women — can do to deliver the best leadership and support to aspiring women: [Read more…]
Wednesday For Women…Get Seduced
January 25, 2012 by 1 Comment
“It began as a frolic…an innocent flirt. Then she was seduced and was never the same again. That’s the story of Shelly Lazarus, chairman of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide and one of the most powerful women in business. Early in her career, she was working at Clairol and received a call from a headhunter saying that Ogilvy, an up-and-coming advertising agency, needed a junior staffer who knew something about hair. Lazarus remembers thinking, “well, this should be fun. I’ll do it for a year or so, then I’ll go and get a real job.” But then something unexpected happened. “I was seduced,” says Lazarus. “I was absolutely smitten by the world of advertising, the world of ideas.” The rest, as they say, is history. In a steady rise spanning three-plus decades, Lazarus progressed through the Ogilvy empire and became CEO in 1996, a role she held through 2008. She was named Chairman in 1997 and remains at the helm of what has become one of the world’s largest marketing communications and branding firms….
“…Nor would she be type-cast. “There were no boxes around me, no rules to follow. So I made them up as I went along,” Lazarus remembers. “From the beginning, I was fascinated by the way different people lead. I had exposure to all these different companies and watched all these people leading in different ways. I realized that there’s no one way to lead. So it gave me permission to do it my own way – in a way that was totally me.”
“To Lazarus, passion is the lifeblood of a successful career – and life. Get seduced by your business, she advises. Fall in love with what you’re doing. That’s her first piece of advice.
Here’s 8 additional career tips from Shelly:
Live & Learn 