Caturday Heroines
Posted: June 30, 2012 Filed under: just because | Tags: Hillary Clinton, Jean Patchett, Nora Ephron, Ruth Ginsburg 30 CommentsMorning, news junkies! Okay so not a cat picture, but Jean Patchett qualifies as pretty darn feline in my books… heh. Also, I can’t get this pic to post because it’s copyrighted, but here’s a photo of Hemingway and Patchett in tow with kitties.
Well that’s it in the way of an intro for today. Let’s get right to the links.
First up… by now I’m sure you’ve all read quite a few of the “Hillary makes history” items in the headlines lately, so I won’t reinvent that news wheel. But, in case you missed it…here’s a neat profile on Hillary Rodham Clinton at makers.com, entitled “The Lesson of ‘Hillarycare'”. Includes several video interview clips of Hillary reflecting on her life. Snippet from the write-up:
Wellesley College seniors had never before chosen a commencement speaker from their own ranks when Hillary Rodham stepped to the podium on the last day of May in 1969. Education, she said, must grant “the courage to be whole” and permit people to live “in relation to one another in the full poetry of existence.” The speech received national attention and marked Rodham as a leading light for the young women of her generation.
By now, it’s safe to say that the early promise has been borne out; had Hillary Rodham Clinton “merely” attended Yale Law, served on the staff of the Senate Watergate Committee, become a respected children’s rights advocate, been the first female partner at her law firm, been a mother, and served as First Lady of Arkansas, we would think of her as a leader. And yet she has by now spent two additional decades at the very heart of the national consciousness—as a sometimes-embattled First Lady, as a distinguished senator from New York, as a groundbreaking 2008 Presidential candidate, and now as the 67th Secretary of State. Clinton has outlasted the smears to top Gallup’s “most admired woman in America” a record 16 times since 1993. “The courage to be whole,” indeed.
Next, from the New Yorker’s Amy Davidson… Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Hero:
I am glad that John Roberts, the Chief Justice, voted to uphold almost all of the Affordable Care Act. But the stance of humble gratitude toward Roberts that’s been assumed by many in the past day is beginning to be a bit much. This is especially true since the real hero of the day is Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
On the front page of the late edition of the Times Friday morning, there were four stories on the Supreme Court decision. One talked about Roberts’s “exquisite delicacy,” and how he “considers himself the custodian of the Supreme Court’s prestige, authority and legitimacy.” Ginsburg’s name didn’t appear before the jump in any of them; she only ever appeared in one, seventeen paragraphs in. Her picture and surname were in the infographic—all the Justices were there. There were four pull-quotes: two from Roberts, and two from the joint dissent from Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Anthony Kennedy.
And yet Ginsburg wrote what would have been the dissent—and a strong one—if Roberts had voted with the four conservatives to throw out the entire health-care law.
Read the rest. It’s worth the click and it’s news you won’t find out from the Dewey Defeats Truman newsrooms of America!
Historiann on Nora Ephron…. I highly recommend clicking on the first link in her post, which I’ve linked here too for your convenience:
From the New York Times obit:
The producer Scott Rudin recalled that less than two weeks before her death, he had a long phone session with her from the hospital while she was undergoing treatment, going over notes for a pilot she was writing for a TV series about a bank compliance officer. Afterward she told him, “If I could just get a hairdresser in here, we could have a meeting.”
Ms. Ephron’s collection “I Remember Nothing” concludes with two lists, one of things she says she won’t miss and one of things she will. Among the “won’t miss” items are dry skin, Clarence Thomas, the sound of the vacuum cleaner, and panels on “Women in Film.” The other list, of the things she will miss, begins with “my kids” and “Nick” and ends this way:
“Taking a bath
Coming over the bridge to Manhattan
Pie.”
And, on that note. I’m gonna go draw a nice soothing bath and bake something yummy this Saturday. You know what to do in the comments, Sky Dancers… Have a lovely weekend!
Reblogged this on Let Them Listen.
Hi Mona. Thanks and Happy Caturday!
Hiya Ralph, thanks… Will post kitty pics later this evening!
I’m a big fan of the Hemingway cats. I visited his Key West home and just loved it. Would love to see the one in Cuba.
ooh, I’m totally envious!
They’re all named after movie stars and now they’re like Rita Hayworth the 4th and Ava Gardner the 4th … kinda cute.
Thanks for the roundup, Mona. I have to share this wonderful & delightful interview with Nora Ephron from 2006 that was rebroadcast yesterday at On Point: http://onpoint.wbur.org/2006/08/14/nora-ephron-on-aging
I’ve never been a Hemingway fan, but my favorite spot in Key West is his home there and ALL OF THE CATS. They are polydactyls (extra toes) and they are in the house, on the grounds, simply everywhere. It’s paradise for the cats and the cat-lovers alike. These cats are descendants of Hemingway’s own cats (but most are spayed/neutered, leaving only a few to continue the bloodline). http://www.hemingwayhome.com/cats/
Oh yes, I remember that interview sorta — maybe I’d read her blog something similar on Huffpo! Thanks for sharing, Connie. Listening to her on the NPR link now… it’s unfathomable that she’s not right here talking right now…
On the day of the court’s ruling, I read Justice Ginsburg’s opinion and it was absolutely awesome. Brilliant and she managed to skewer Scalia at the same time. She is most certainly a hero!
I love Davidson’s piece on Ginsburg.
🙂 She certainly puts the dunce cap on “brilliant mind” Fat Nino.
This may be highly likely.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg is amazing. I can think of only one person who could rightfully take Ginsburg’s place some day: Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Charlie Rose had an excellent tribute to Nora Ephron on his PBS show last night. She will be missed.
There is so much we can learn from these women.
I love the idea of Hillary on the Supreme Court. The last real politician there was Earl Warren and he sure didn’t do so bad 🙂
I’m still torn… she’d make an excellent choice for a Supreme, but I think we need Hillary’s voice out and about. She’s grown into such an international treasure.
Exactly. Shero Studies 101 is never dismissed 😉
Princess Dumbass of the North Woods could have made this statement but it was Willard.
Mitt Romney: Students Should Get ‘As Much Education As They Can Afford’
Makes perfect sense. Education is for the aristocrat (preferably males only), not for the unwashed masses. It’s obviously not about educating the most mentally gifted, talented or highly intelligent unless, of course, he has the money to pay for it. Everyone Willard knows already knows that poor people don’t have children who are gifted, talented or smart – why should the job creators donate their money (via taxes) for something wasteful like attempting to educate the uneducatable?
I was just thinking about Mitt’s dumbass comments on education… and what a contrast they are to the Hillary bio in the links up top…i.e. her speech at Wellesley, and education granting the courage to be whole and allowing people to live in relation to one another… Hillary is talking about inclusion on so many levels there. Mitt is basically saying the opposite–he’s preaching the chorus of exclusivity.
She was on Fox News ‘analyzing’ the SCOTUS ruling. All she kept doing was repeating “we can’t put our faith in any one person” to every single question. How’s that for expert knowledge? I kept wanting to change the channel but it was like looking at a train wreck in a pink shirt. I kept thinking how putting vapid women on TV new is just shameful. It reflects poorly on all women. Can’t they at least pull in a woman that’s gone to law school or something? Oops … that would be Michelle Bachmann … let me rephrase that to a REAL law school.
Those two are really bad representatives of women. Of course, the men they have on don’t represent most men that well either.
Yes, and when a student tries to make money to “afford” her SIBLING’S education, because their parents abandoned them and the older sibling has to actually go to college, some powertrippin’ judge throws said student into jail for truancy. GREAT IDEA, Mittens!
There was a fund set up for that young lady. I really hope she cleans up and that judge should be unemployed after the elections.
From your fingertips to the electorate’s at the voting booth!
Some funny from Matt Taibbi…
Thomas Friedman’s New State of Grace
Between Friedman, MoDo, and David Brooks… The Gray Lady should just rename itself as… The New Your ‘Toons.
LOL good one Mona!
🙂
meant to say New York ‘Toons… frick’n Dumbocorrect 😉
Oops 🙂
Texas college hacks drone in front of DHS
oh, well that’s comforting… glad their are such grown-ups working at the DHS