A few years back we watched a small, amusing movie called “Adventureland.” Starred Jesse Eisenberg, Kristin Stewart and…I forget. It was about a recent college graduate who can’t find a job in his major (Renaissance studies) and ends up at a second-rate amusement park, in a “seasonal job” with a lot of co-workers who are more or less the same age. It was scratching in my brain for the first part of the summer until I remembered why every day reminded me of it, at least a little bit. Not that our waterpark was entirely Adventureland, but there were distinct elements, mainly because for the first time in my life since I was a teenager, I was working with teenagers. It was kind of a shock, but also lots of fun.
The endless energy, oh my god. One day I was sitting on a post next to a crowd-control barrier that was about, I’d estimate, 40 inches off the ground. One of my fellow guards walked up to it and effortlessly leaped over it, box jump-style. Like a deer. At the end of the day, when I’d be dragging my ass to whatever dinner Alan had prepared for us, they’d be on to the second shift. They could walk in hungover and refresh themselves with a short dip in the pool. It was something to see.
On the other hand, I had skills they didn’t, for instance: Telling time. I learned early on that if someone asks, “What time is it” and you answer “ten ’til,” they will stare blankly until you say “two-fifty.” On the other hand, they could communicate volumes thumb-typing their thoughts on their phones, using a million abbreviations that made their texts as hard to understand as hieroglyphics. But it was lovely, lovely, being in their midst after 40-some years of working with so-called adults. Their amusing slang, their incredible knowledge gaps (“man, Hawaii is really out there, isn’t it?”), the way they … well, let’s put it this way: No one knows shit about anyone else’s life. It made me think of the newspaper business, when we’d try to figure out what readers wanted, without talking about whether they were even readers in the first place. We all live in bubbles. It’s good to get out of your own, even if you have to go around for a few weeks as the old-ass white lady in the lifeguard crew.
In a few hours, I have to get up for an early workout. In the meantime, here’s some bloggage:
The bloodbath of the Michigan GOP, thanks to fealty to Donald Trump:
The Michigan Republican Party is starving for cash. A group of prominent activists — including a former statewide candidate — was hit this month with felony charges connected to a bizarre plot to hijack election machines. And in the face of these troubles, suspicion and infighting have been running high. A recent state committee meeting led to a fistfight, a spinal injury and a pair of shattered dentures.
This turmoil is one measure of the way Donald J. Trump’s lies about the 2020 election have rippled through his party. While Mr. Trump has just begun to wrestle with the consequences of his fictions — including two indictments related to his attempt to overturn the 2020 results — the vast machine of activists, donors and volunteers that power his party has been reckoning with the fallout for years.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of crazy people, if you ask me.
I hope you’re in Adventureland yourselves right now. See you soon.
Jeff Borden said on August 29, 2023 at 9:10 pm
I miss being around the smart, focused young adults who made up the vast majority of my students at Loyola. I learned a lot from them. . .especially about music and oddball TV shows. But it was time to leave.
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alex said on August 29, 2023 at 10:21 pm
Last time I was immersed in youth culture was when the millennials came of age and I had my ex’s kid living with me while he attended art school. He has done tremendously well for himself — we celebrated his fortieth a year ago! — while my Gen-X/late Boomer ass is about to retire from a thankless dead-end job so I can do what I love while not making any money at it.
Kids these days, and even back then, got their heads screwed on right.
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Ann said on August 29, 2023 at 11:10 pm
My husband, who taught high school for 40 years, was always the first to challenge anyone who started complaining about “kids these days.” He would agree that most of them have their heads screwed on right.
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Alan Stamm said on August 30, 2023 at 7:59 am
I trust you turned the young-uns onto Shadow Show if they weren’t already clued.
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Julie Robinson said on August 30, 2023 at 9:35 am
The energy is astounding. Even in our 30’s we thought nothing of working full time and having evening activities three or four times a week. Now we start looking for excuses to go to bed earlier and earlier.
Idalia was noisy overnight but she is taking most of her sorrows further north and west of us. We’re under tornado watch most of the day and it’s still raining but that’s welcomed. I take my clues from the TV weather guys, who take off their jackets, roll up their sleeves, and even loosen their ties when things get serious. One is still wearing his jacket, and everyone’s sleeves are full length with ties tightened. I think we’ll be okay.
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Dave said on August 30, 2023 at 1:42 pm
All I can say is that it’s a shame that the bloodbath of that party doesn’t seem to be happening in Hoosierland, Florida, and several other states.
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Jeff Borden said on August 30, 2023 at 1:59 pm
If you despise the loathsome rat, Rudy Ghouliani, here’s some delightful news.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/30/politics/rudy-giuliani-georgia-election-workers/index.html
The cockroaches who put the lives of innocent people trying to play a small part in our democracy should be treated like the insects they are beginning with this drunken shell of a creep. A pox on all the rest.
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Dorothy said on August 30, 2023 at 2:20 pm
A great aspect of my job in the Music office was being with the student workers. And the students who came in and out the door off and on most days were delightful. Ann your husband is right – most of the time the kids are just terrific. I loved when the ones who had graduated would pop into the office and come by for a hug and some conversation to catch up on each other’s lives. And when we hired someone who had little to no experience working at a position like the office workers, it was gratifying to watch them grow and learn how to do locker inventory, answer the phones correctly, talk to incoming visitors who were likely prospective students and their parents – they matured right in front of our eyes.
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Deborah said on August 30, 2023 at 3:13 pm
So it seems McConnell had another freeze episode, this one not quite as obvious as the previous one, but it’s time for the guy to call it a day. It’s way past time for old geezers like Diane Feinstein, Grassley and McConnell to step aside. I can say that because I’m an oldster myself and I knew when I needed to retire, so glad I did when I did.
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David C said on August 30, 2023 at 3:14 pm
As I get older I remember what my great-aunt Bet told me when she heard someone putting down people a bit older than me at the time. I must have been ten because she passed when I was 12. She told me they said the same things about her peers when she was young because all they cared about was doing the Charleston. Having a great-aunt who was a flapper does wonders for your attitude toward the young. I think they’re pretty damned great too. My supervisor at work is 29 years-old. Plenty of others my age would have their nose out of joint to be supervised by someone so young. He’s the best supervisor I’ve ever had, by far.
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alex said on August 30, 2023 at 6:01 pm
My boss at work is ten years and one foot my junior and he’s a bigger fuddy-duddy than any crabby old fart I’ve ever met.
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Deborah said on August 30, 2023 at 10:40 pm
We watched the super blue moon rise above the foothills in Santa Fe tonight, it was pretty cool, very large. In the background we could hear music from rehearsals for Zozobra which is this weekend. Zozobra is a weird event they have every year here where they burn a huge effigy of old man gloom that’s stuffed with people’s glooms like “bad habits, hurt feelings, failings, old love letters, divorce papers, photos, paid-off mortgages, parking tickets, – all printed out on paper”. I’ve mentioned this in years past in the comments, we’ve never been to it but thousands upon thousands of people go, it’s quite rowdy and sometimes people get killed during the event, but still they go year after year. As I said in a previous thread next year will be the 100th anniversary of the cultural event, which should be something to stay away from for sure. Our place is less than a mile away from where the event is held, we could easily walk, but no thanks.
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Joe Kobiela said on August 31, 2023 at 8:35 pm
First off I apologize for just copying this but I couldn’t figure out any other way to present this, it’s from the Wall Street journal by Daniel Henninger.
Thought it was pretty interesting and worth the read.
Pilot Joe
An overwhelming majority of the public, more than 60%, doesn’t want either Joe Biden or Donald Trump to run for president. Yet the two major political parties are tumbling toward that unwanted choice. The late Washington economist Herb Stein articulated what came to be known as Stein’s law: “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” That’s my belief about this election: Biden vs. Trump is unthinkable, therefore it won’t happen.
Former Wyoming GOP Sen. Alan Simpson, one of the most acerbic characters in our politics, used to call Republicans “the stupid party.” But Sen. Simpson wasn’t done. Democrats, he said, were “the evil party.”
Which would you rather be right now, the stupid party or the evil party? My money says the evil party will find a way out of the Biden-Trump dilemma.
Put it this way: The party that nominates someone other than these two will win the decisive votes of independents, and the election. The Republicans look locked into their forget-the-independents choice. I don’t think the Democrats are.
It is difficult to disagree with the assumption that the multiple prosecutions are ensuring Mr. Trump’s nomination. Virtually every event related to the four indictments ratchets up the Republican rage meter another several points for the former president. You knew that Trump mug shot was worth millions the moment you saw it. So too U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s decision to plop down the Trump trial in Washington on March 4, hours before the Super Tuesday primary. Her explanation: “My primary concern here is the interest of justice and that I’ve balanced the defendant’s right to adequately prepare.” Uh-huh.
The support for Mr. Trump is overwhelmingly an emotional rush and blood feud. But come election time, Democrats won’t do emotion. They’re bloodless, with eyes only on the prize. As Bill Clinton said after the 1996 election to Bob Dole who complained about unfair Clinton attack ads: “You gotta do what you gotta do.” This time, Democrats will take the advice of a Clinton who knew how to win.
Mr. Trump’s capture of the GOP nomination could become secure if their support for him in polls rises into the strong 60% or even 70% range. That polling momentum, propelled by anti-prosecution rage, could produce early, fait-accompli Trump wins in Iowa, New Hampshire and then South Carolina on Feb. 24.
Once Democrats conclude the Republican Party has arrived at a point of no return on a Trump candidacy, it will be time for another Clyburn moment.
Ahead of the February 2020 Democratic primary in South Carolina, Rep. Jim Clyburn, reflecting the Democratic establishment consensus, pulled the plug on then-front-runner Sen. Bernie Sanders as unelectable in a general election, and endorsed Joe Biden. It was a fraud on voters that Mr. Biden was a “moderate,” but Democrats do what they gotta do.
To win in 2024, they will pull the plug on Joe Biden.
Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota is already laying the groundwork, saying recently that “Democrats are telling me that they want, not a coronation, but they want a competition.” As widely reported, some 50% of Democrats don’t want Mr. Biden to run.
The 2024 presidential election has mega-importance beyond the needs of any single personality. The U.S. is at a political tipping point. Depending on party control of the White House, the country will go further left, as it is now, or turn back across the center-right. For nearly three years, Mr. Biden has been a figurehead president, allowing the party’s career progressives to use executive orders and administrative rulemaking to put in place their longtime policy goals and mandates on climate, labor-union practices and statistically derived social equity outcomes.
The party that wins next year could set the country’s direction for a generation. Democrats won’t let Mr. Biden’s weaknesses put their agenda at risk.
I don’t know which village elders would go in to tell Mr. Biden he has to withdraw. But the message to Mr. Biden would be that he has a choice: Be remembered by his party as the most progressive president since FDR, or as an unpopular incumbent who lost to Donald Trump or was forced to resign for reasons of incapacity.
Unlike the Clyburn endorsement, there won’t be a coronation. Democrats can’t explicitly throw over Kamala Harris, but they can open their primaries to an array of Democratic governors who would evade responsibility for Mr. Biden’s economic policies: California’s Gavin Newsom, Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer, North Carolina’s Roy Cooper, Colorado’s Jared Polis, Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro, New Jersey’s Phil Murphy or Illinois’s J.B. Pritzker.
Democrats don’t have to win big. They just have to win, and most of these governors, with the party and its donor base behind them, could pull across a winning margin of independents desiring a minimally acceptable alternative to voting for the Trump tumult. Then they would likely win again in 2028.
Of course, the opposite is true: Virtually any of the other Republican candidates would surely defeat a Joe Biden unpopular for personal and policy reasons. What is not a mystery is whether the stupid party or the evil party will figure this out first.
Write henninger@wsj.com.
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Sherri said on August 31, 2023 at 10:28 pm
If you’re going to copy and paste whole articles, at least find something better than op-eds from the WSJ.
Covid has got me. Sore throat, congestion, and cough started last night, but I tested negative. Then I heard that I had been exposed to someone who had tested positive, so I retested, and it was instantly positive. I was hoping to make it until the new shot was available, but no luck.
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Dave said on September 1, 2023 at 1:29 am
Trump is about as evil as they come, Joe, he has no loyalty, he screws over everyone he comes in contact with, he loves dictators, lies every time he opens his mouth, has done all he could to destroy or put serious doubt in what seems to have mostly worked for a very long time, but you know all this and still, you’d vote for him again, I’m guessing.
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Mark P said on September 1, 2023 at 1:41 am
What a load of utter nonsense. It’s stupid even for a Republican. The idea that Joe Biden is even slightly left of center can be contemplated only by a moron so used to fascism that he thinks the Repulican mental midgets running against Trump are centrists. Biden is closer to an Eisenhower Republican than he is to a true leftist.
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Deborah said on September 1, 2023 at 8:56 am
I don’t put Biden in the same category as Feinstein, Grassley or McConnell as an oldster at all. Biden is physically fit and mentally sharp. He’s turned out to be one of the best presidents in regards to getting things done. He knows how to govern. I don’t hear anyone that I know think he isn’t up to another term. There is no comparison to Trump, none. Biden is a decent fellow. It’s a shame his son had lost his way into drugs and alcohol but that has nothing to do with the father’s presidency. I admire the president’s unwavering love for his son and all of his family. He has even come to accept the young granddaughter his son fathered unknowingly when in the depths of addiction. That’s character, President Biden is a good man and a good president and I have every expectation that he will continue to be for his second term.
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4dbirds said on September 1, 2023 at 9:37 am
Did our troll say something worth reading? I scroll past him but his post is long so I figure he must spewing against decent people again.
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tajalli said on September 1, 2023 at 12:02 pm
Well put, Deborah. 4dBirds, Joe just quoted a (typically biased) op-ed from the Wall Street Journal in its entirety.
The current Democratic Party looks to me like Eisenhower era Republicans and the current Republicans as WW2 fascists.
Talk about things going around in circles or spirals – circumstances seem to be spiraling upwards for gradual improvement and simultaneously spiraling out of hand with the imminent collapse of the Atlantic Ocean current system and other ecosystem imbalances.
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Scout said on September 1, 2023 at 2:07 pm
“Daniel Henninger is an American commentator. He serves as the deputy editorial page director of The Wall Street Journal, and is a Fox News contributor.”
Tells me all I need to know about his opinion. The specious both siding with the stupid party/evil party was a huge tell also.
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ROGirl said on September 1, 2023 at 2:21 pm
I looked him up, too. If I felt compelled to read wsj editorials I would pay for a subscription. This was just a sad waste of time that I will never get back.
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4dbirds said on September 1, 2023 at 3:14 pm
Thanks for the CliffsNotes. As my daughter would say “I can’t EVEN” with that guy so I don’t read him if I can help it. I’ve done a good job of getting toxic people out of my life and also trying not to be constantly angry, so I don’t go where I’ll be triggered.
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alex said on September 1, 2023 at 5:16 pm
I guess Joe’s not getting enough of a rise out of us by trolling with his own misspelled/misused words, so he’s cribbing from people who have bylines.
Speaking of which, I saw an interesting tidbit in a David French column that took me by surprise. Although I’m too young to remember it, he claims that Gerald Ford lost the 1976 election over a fumbled debate question. As French tells it, Ford had a perfectly good explanation for his gaffe but the media created the impression that Ford was too stupid to know that the Soviet Union controlled the countries of the Eastern Bloc and it stuck to him like tarpaper.
My concerns about Biden are only that he’s getting similarly bad treatment by mainstream media in addition to being relentlessly hammered with outright lies by the partisan media. Objectively I don’t see any problems with him at all. The WSJ’s real beef with Biden is that he’s pushing back at Big Pharma and student lenders, but rather than come right out and say it they have highly paid concern trolls trying to persuade Democrats to sabotage their own president.
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Scout said on September 1, 2023 at 5:33 pm
Alex, I’d like to know if the sabotage efforts are actually working. I don’t know anyone who isn’t thrilled with Pres Biden. Not everyone I talk to is as informed about all he has accomplished as those of us who are more plugged in to politics, but they certainly recognize that he has been good for leading us out of the trump wreckage, and intend to vote for his second term.
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David C said on September 1, 2023 at 5:50 pm
David French is full of shit. I was only 17 at the time but Ford had been my Congressman from birth until he became VP so I followed it pretty closely. Ford started out way behind Carter before the debates and they helped him a lot. Ford damn near won it. If Ford hadn’t pardoned Nixon, he would have probably won. I suspect French is trying to pave the way to say Biden should pardon TFG, for the good of the nation of course. Because Ford didn’t lose because he pardoned an obvious crook. Oh no, he lost because of a debate gaffe. Fucking clown.
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alex said on September 1, 2023 at 6:25 pm
The Ford vignette was just a small aside in a much bigger piece in which French tore the ‘nads off of Vivek Ramaswamy and for that I give him mad props. I started getting Ramaswamy crap in my Facebook feed a couple of months ago and my impression upon listening to him talk and reading his positions on things is that he’s a total dingbat with a charismatic presence. The mainstream media, so far, have been remiss in pointing out that Ramaswamy is full of shit, probably even more full of it than Donald Trump, but he knows how to pull off a much more polished delivery.
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FDChief said on September 1, 2023 at 9:18 pm
I won’t pretend to be thrilled with our current US gerontocracy. It’s an ugly indictment of the system we’ve accepted that the median donor-acceptable candidate is an aged white dude.
That said…the GQP is fucking bugnuts. I’d sooner have a doddering fub in power than lunatics like Empty G, Fauxbilly Vance, and Stroke McConnell get to do much as sit on a soil and water conservation board.
The WSJ Ed page is a hive of juicy wingnut goodness so of course they want moar batshittery.
Taking political advice from a WSJ editorial is like getting recipes from the Donner Party Cookbook.
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alex said on September 1, 2023 at 10:18 pm
Oh dear. If Ramaswamy can pick off the mild to moderately stupid (neo-fascist to right of center) and coalesce with Trump (the abjectly stupid) we might have a problem.
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Joe Kobiela said on September 2, 2023 at 7:40 am
Damn it,
Jimmy Buffet died, bought my first Buffet album in 1974 saw him twice in Indianapolis downtown when he played on the Tennis courts, maybe 2,500 people, and really enjoyed his books, especially tales from Margaritaville. He was also a pretty good pilot.
Pilot Joe
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Icarus said on September 2, 2023 at 1:59 pm
it looks to me that the way the GQP will get voters who don’t like Trump (or whomever) is to scare them into thinking Biden will step down and Kamala Harris will become president because nothing scares GQP than a black woman in charge.
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Sherri said on September 2, 2023 at 2:10 pm
Occasionally health care isn’t completely frustrating. I tested positive for Covid on Thursday night, sent a message to my care provider that evening. Friday morning they called me, asked a few questions, offered me a telehealth appt that afternoon to discuss Paxlovid. I saw a nice nurse practitioner who went over the pros and cons of Paxlovid, listened when I explained why my kidney numbers don’t tell the whole story, checked all my prescriptions for interactions, and wrote me a prescription for Paxlovid, which I started Friday night. I also had a nice note from my PCP doctor expressing sympathy about my having Covid.
This round of Covid has been much worse than my first bout, but I’m starting to feel better now. The worst part was the headache.
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Joe Kobiela said on September 2, 2023 at 4:01 pm
Icarus,
Google Condoleezza Rice.
Pilot Joe
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Sherri said on September 2, 2023 at 4:09 pm
Condoleeza Rice has never held elected office. Nikki Haley would be a better example, Joe. Not that either has a chance of winning the GOP nomination for president.
How Florida has tried to both sides slavery: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article278582149.html
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Deborah said on September 2, 2023 at 6:07 pm
Jimmy Buffet died as we all know but in NM the big news is the death of former governor Bill Richardson. He was controversial but well liked by many, I always thought highly of him.
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alex said on September 2, 2023 at 7:32 pm
Richardson got #me-tooed and kind of disappeared from public life these last few years.
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Deborah said on September 3, 2023 at 6:45 pm
Alex, I’m not familiar with any “me too” issues with Richardson, and they’ve been erased from Google as far as I can tell, not that they don’t exist but I can’t find them online. After he was governor of NM there was a Republican gov, a woman, Susana Martinez, she was not well liked. The current gov, another woman, Michelle Lujan Grisham is not well liked by Republicans but I’m OK with her, Lujan is a big name in NM politics. NM is an interesting state, lots of Hispanics and Native Americans make it so. Currently it’s very blue. I vote in IL though, which as we all know is also quite blue.
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MarkH said on September 3, 2023 at 7:27 pm
RE: Bill Richardson / Me, Too’d
NYT 12 years ago.
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/02/us/ex-governor-bill-richardson-is-said-to-be-under-investigation.html
2nd entry on my Google search.
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Deborah said on September 3, 2023 at 8:18 pm
Hmmm, not sure why that didn’t show up on my google search, maybe the way I asked the question?
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Dexter Friend said on September 4, 2023 at 4:53 am
Rise and shine, walkers. It’s time for pancakes and coffee and to head for the start of the Mackinac Bridge Walk for 2023. It’s all different now. In my walking days, school buses drove us across to St. Ignace and we’d walk back to Mackinaw City, and straight to The Keyhole Bar for many Labatt’s Blue lagers. Now walkers and wheelchair folks can walk or go half way, then back, or become “Double Crossers” and go 5 miles over and 5 more back. I had to think…I am sure I walked this walk 6 times, last in 1992. It was amazing. Time got to me and my bridge walks are long-over.
And I am voting for Joe Biden, our great leader for 2024 and beyond.
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David C said on September 4, 2023 at 6:21 am
As a dedicated acrophobic (structure division, flying is fine, makes no sense, right?), I hate driving over Big Mac. I’m sure not going to walk across it.
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Dorothy said on September 4, 2023 at 6:45 am
I’ve been awake since 3:15; got up 35 minutes later because I just could not get back to sleep. But I’m confident a little nap is in my future, sooner rather than later.
We had company for three nights – they got home safely yesterday late afternoon. My daughter and her partner arrived on Thursday to celebrate my 66th birthday. We had a wonderful time! Even little Jack, who is almost 18 months old, was not shy with his aunt. He hasn’t been around her since March when she came for the kids’ birthdays. Kids that age are usually pretty shy with strangers but that wasn’t the case, much to all of our delight. We got some pool time in on Saturday, too. All in all, a pretty great birthday weekend.
Growing up, I never was in school for my birthday because school started the day after Labor Day. So I never had the chance to have a roomful of classmates wishing me happy birthday. Hell, I tell perfect strangers it’s my birthday – is it any wonder I love being on stage where I can talk to a lot of strangers all at the same time?! Speaking of which, I’m going to audition for The Savannah Sipping Society in three weeks. There’s a character named Dot so I think it’s a good bet I might get the part! She’s also the oldest member of the group of four ladies, and I think I can pass for 69 years old. A very YOUTHFUL 69 years old, of course!
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alex said on September 4, 2023 at 8:22 am
One of Jeffrey Epstein’s underage victims outed Bill Richardson as one of her johns:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8768695/Former-NM-Governor-Bill-Richardson-accused-using-bribes-fund-sexual-services-favors.html
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Deborah said on September 4, 2023 at 11:00 am
Yikes, I take back what I said about thinking highly of Richardson.
Today marks the end of our patio project in Santa Fe, now I have a little less than 2 weeks to enjoy it. It took longer than I expected, but it looks good, in fact it looks way better than I thought. All that’s left is a bit more sweeping of sand into the cracks between the pavers and fixing a warped landscape timber along one edge.
We’re starting to plan our March trip to Japan, I wanted to go back to France in the fall but my husband has been wanting to go back to Japan for ages, he went there for business travel a couple of decades ago, he didn’t have business there but he stopped over for jet lag relief when he went to China for work. I only was in the Tokyo airport for a brief plane change on my way to Bangkok for work many years ago. It should be an interesting trip.
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brian stouder said on September 4, 2023 at 11:34 am
Happy birthday Dorothy!!
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tajalli said on September 4, 2023 at 11:55 am
Deborah@38: Google’s search algorithm incorporates your search and browsing history to present its results, yielding differing results for different users. When I come up dry, I switch to Bing or DuckDuckGo.
I was similarly disappointed when Garrison Keillor got #metoo’d. Prairie Home Companion had been one of my favorite radio programs but that ruined it for me. That behavior is just destructive.
My college field term (now called an internship) was at the University of Miami Medical School in a lab studying tropical fungal diseases but was mostly about the #metoo experience.
A good buddy of mine, who was the previous intern there, drove up from Chicago with a pocket full of dimes and called every entry in the phone book from a payphone until he reached me to get directions to my house so he could warn me in person. I drove to my college before going down and spoke with the two previous women – one had taken the researcher for all the clothes she could get from him and the other was so thoroughly disgusted she actually swore.
After the field term was complete and telling my father, he said, “That’s the way things are.” Although the Dean of Women asked if I’d “been hurt,” I felt it was so outrageous that a woman had to put up with repeated unwanted advances and almost be fired for not complying.
The MD that prevented the firing said he didn’t understand why my college kept sending women down there. Were only men supposed to gain research experience and have science and medicine careers? But this was the thinking in 1970 and it seems the situation is only marginally better a half a century later.
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Mark P said on September 4, 2023 at 6:20 pm
Deborah, my brother had a few business trips to Japan. He always grew out his white beard beforehand because he said the Japanese respect their elders.
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