Baseball players come and go - and notable ones have both come and gone recently. Dorothy Kamenshek, who was one of the inspirations for the character of Dottie Hinson in the movie A League of Their Own, died two weeks ago at the age of 84. She was one of Sports Illustrated's top 100 female athletes of the century. Kamenshek, a seven-time all-star in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, played first base for Illinois' Rockford Peaches from 1943 through 1953, except during the 1952 season.
Another veteran of the League, her friend Lavone "Pepper" Paire Davis, called Kamenshek the best player in their league. Kamenshek, she said, "had the whole package. She could hit with power, she could lay the bunt down and steal the base. She was a great first baseman — she could go off the ground three feet and grab it, or dig it out of the dirt. She was a tough lady, and she was as smart as they come.”
A minor league men's team offered to buy Kamenshek's contract in 1947, but Kamenshek chose to stay with her own league. She thought the motive behind adding her to the men's team was a "publicity stunt" and that, at 5'6" and 135 lbs., she was not well-matched physically with "those big guys."
Standing 5'1" and weighing 115 lbs. then, as Eri Yoshida does, presents quite a challenge to one who would compete in a sport in which some top contemporary male performers have felt the need of taking steroids to bulk them up beyond the natural physiques which provided them with sufficient success in their sport to admit them to the major leagues in the first place.
But as Tom Hanks' character, Jimmy Dugan, says of professional baseball in A League of Their Own, "It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it great."
Yoshida must believe in the greatness of baseball, as she has come a long way from home at the age of 18 for the opportunity to play in a U.S. independent league, and she seems to be entirely ready to face its difficulty. “She’s always doing the extra step,” according to fellow pitcher Justin Segal.
The question of whether Yoshida's invitation to play in the independent Golden League was to some extent a publicity stunt has been raised. A lot of media were in attendance for her debut appearance in the League, from both the U.S. and Japan. More than twice as many fans showed up as had been in the stands the previous night for the team's home opener.
But the fans the Times reporter spoke to clearly didn't come to see a gimmick. Despite Yoshida's inability to speak English (she's taken advantage of the fact that her team is based in a college-town, Chico, CA, to enroll in an English class), and her having arrived in the U.S. without friends or family, she has rapidly developed a base of support.
A high school Japanese teacher, Michelle Martin, brought some of her students to see Yoshida play. They held up signs they'd made, in Japanese, to encourage her. Another fan, Nicole Ferroggiaro, who'd been one of two women in an 89-member Air Force security detail, teared up when Yoshida hit a single which drove in a run. Says Ferroggiaro, "She's representing a lot of women."
Times have changed since Kamenshek played, and while baseball has changed little, the ways in which both baseball and the times have changed don't necessarily make it any easier for a woman to compete - except for the fact that, unlike the women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, Yoshida wears the same uniform as the men and therefore doesn't have to slide into a base in a skirt and bare thighs. Nevertheless, Yoshida says her goal is to reach the major leagues.
One caveat about the otherwise good NY Times story on Eri Yoshida which is linked to: It begins with the writer's claim that an ex-major leaguer playing in the same game being jeered by a fan to "hit like a man" when he bunted constitutes "the ultimate compliment" to Yoshida, as it shows that she is accepted as "just one of the guys."
I think it's a mistake to attempt to reframe as a compliment, or as meaningful commentary of any kind, remarks from someone who thinks smashing rotely at the ball, as an expression of "manliness", is more important than playing strategically in the manner you think is most likely to serve the team well. And regardless of what level of success Yoshida achieves in baseball, she will do it not "like a man" but like a woman - herself.
A Place of Their Own in Their Leagues
Pope Puts On His Investigating Hat
(Trigger warning for sexual abuse of children)
Following up on a statement made in a pastoral letter he sent to Irish Catholics in March, the pope has appointed the archbishops of Boston, New York, Toronto, and Ottawa to begin an Apostolic Visitation in Ireland, in a further effort to contain "explore questions surrounding" a furious scandal in that country which erupted on publication by the Irish government of two reports documenting widespread physical and sexual abuse of children in the care of the Church, as well as decades of cover-ups of abuse by both the church and Irish police.
Protocol will be maintained. To investigate the Archdiocese of Armagh, the seat of All-Ireland primate Cardinal Sean Brady, the pope has appointed a fellow Cardinal, Cormac Murphy-O'connor. It would not do to have the work of a Cardinal investigated by someone of lesser rank, even that of a Cardinal whose resignation is being called for because of his participation in a church investigation of an abuse case in 1975 "in which two children were forced to sign secrecy oaths."
The U.S. and Canadian Archbishops will lead investigations in three other dioceses, as well as one into Ireland's seminaries. In addition, religious orders will be investigated by two priests and two nuns.
In further evidence of how seriously the church takes the issue of (bad publicity resulting from) child sexual abuse by clergy, the pope yesterday accepted the resignation of Richard Burke as Archbishop of Benin, Nigeria. Burke withdrew from the actual administration of his archdiocese over a year ago, when the St. Patrick's Missionary Society of which he is a member informed him that they were investigating an allegation by a woman that he had begun sexually abusing her when she was 14 and he was a priest in her diocese.
A year and a half later, the pope has chosen to accept the Archbishop's resignation from his position, which he says he submitted because he has been "unfaithful to my oath of celibacy." That seems implausible in several respects.
It's certainly an odd statement coming from a Catholic bishop since, in church doctrine, celibacy refers specifically to remaining unmarried, and while it is mandated for all priests, I'm not aware of any required oath-swearing in connection with it. Chastity refers to refraining from all sexual activity, other than with one's spouse, if one has a spouse, and while members of some religious orders do make a vow of it, it is expected of all Catholics, not just priests.
Burke says he had a sexual relationship with his accuser, but that she was 21 when it began. The St. Patrick's Missionary Society also issued a statement Monday, saying their investigation into Dolores Atwood's allegation "found no evidence to corroborate the allegation of child sexual abuse."
They do not appear to have made any statement as to what they would consider corroborating evidence. Stone tablets, perhaps, with a full account of the events engraved thereon by a heavenly hand? The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has "taken over" the case, according to The Irish Catholic's story, and there it lies.
Burke still maintains that he has "never, ever, in my life – in any way – sexually abused a child." Dolores Atwood says otherwise. The Irish Catholic says Burke "has given an exclusive interview to The Irish Catholic and this will appear on Thursday."
Perhaps dogma has once again confused Burke. The Church's official position seems to be that the problem of children being sexually abused by priests has been caused by allowing gay men to be priests. Banish gays from the priesthood and voilá - no more sexual abuse of kids. Since Burke is straight and his victim was a girl, he can't have sexually abused a child. You just have to learn to logic like the pope, and all is made clear.
Question of the Day
'Designer Series' Trapper Keeper from the mid-1980s. Both of my sisters and I used this little baby--and still it endures, trapperly-keeping old history notes from The Lady Eve's youth. Those Trapper Keepers were built to last--structurally, at least. Style-wise, not so much.
I just pulled this tasty item out of the bookshelf in my parents' guest bedroom, where I stay when I'm here.
Back in the day, this 'Designer Series' Trapper Keeper binder was de rigueur for a hip (or nerdy) California tween's problem sets and history notes. Over the years, it has trapped three girls' polar graphing exercises, keyhole paragraphs, who-what-when-where-why-how summaries, German and Spanish verbs, and tedious Thomas Hardy essays.
Looking at my old Trapper Keeper, I thought of my cousin C. C. grew up in Katy, TX, where she used to go dumpster-diving for discarded Keds brand shoes, cut the blue rubber Keds insignias from the heels, and glue them to the off-brand canvas sneakers her mother bought. All because certain kids at school would relentlessly torment anyone who dared to wear off-brand rubber-bottomed canvas shoes to middle school. I don't recall any such pressure to own a rainbow Designer Series Trapper Keeper, but I know it was the style at the time (usually with New Kids on the Block, River Phoenix, or even Bruce Willis pasted inside the cover).
So, folks: tell us about an emblematic item from your youth. Did it cause you suffering or joy? Have you recently rediscovered it?
Quick Craft Project: Split-Back Patchwork Throw Pillows
This weekend, I made some 18 x 18-inch throw pillows for my sister's new apartment. She admired this patchwork cotton from Gorgeous Fabrics, and asked for a neutral solid on the other side, with a split-back design for easy removal and cleaning. I chose a machine-washable polyester faux suede for the backs. I got these fabrics on clearance a couple of weeks ago. They are on sale again until midnight Eastern time today for Gorgeous Fabrics' Memorial Day sale, along with many other patchwork cottons and other great fabrics. If you miss this sale, though, rest assured that there will be another sale soon--that's one of many great things about Gorgeous Fabrics.
It took one yard of each fabric to make the pair of pillow covers. [CORRECTION: It only took just over a half-yard of the patchwork and a half-yard of the 'doeskin' for this project; I have a half-yard or so of each left over, and I bought one yard of each. Gorgeous Fabrics cuts generously. I have enough fabric left over to make my other sister a great little bag!]
Instructions and more views below the fold, including a close-up of the patchwork fabric.
The PillowsXpress website admonished me to choose a pillow insert 2 inches bigger on a side than my finished case size, so I got two 20"-square pillow inserts in their Perma Soft variety. You could also go green with a bamboo-filled pillow insert, or make your own with bamboo or corn fiberfill.
I happened to do this project in inches, but it's easy to convert to centimeters and vice versa.
I used 1/2-inch seam allowances, so I cut a 19" square of freezer paper as a pattern for the pillow fronts. The backs were the same height, and the formula for calculating the width of the split back pattern pieces is easy: the front width plus 5 inches, divided by 2. So in this case that came out to 19 inches high by 12 inches wide for the back pieces.
I cut one front piece of patchwork and two back pieces of faux suede for each pillow cover.
First, I did a double-fold hem on one long side of each back piece by pressing a quarter-inch of fabric to the wrong side, then folding and pressing again to make it a full inch. I then topstitched close to the fold.
It helps to have a grid for this next part. My mother has a rotary-cutting mat with a 1-inch square grid on it. I laid out the hemmed back pieces right side up on my grid, overlapping the hemmed edges at the center by three inches. I then checked that my final total width was indeed 19" and pinned the overlaps together at top and bottom.
Then, I laid the front piece right side down on the back and pinned it all together. I sewed all four sides with a straight stitch, then did that again just outside the first line of stitching. I also reinforced the places where the back pieces overlap with a third row of stitches. This would all go faster on a serger/overlock machine, of course, if you happen to have one.
To help minimize "pillow-ears", I ran a few stitches straight across each corner, then clipped the corners. Finally, I pressed the heck out of the whole thing, using a seam roll to press seam allowances to the back.
The corner only has a little bit of a "dog-ear", which strangely enough looks graceful with the square patchwork here, I think.
I like the shape of these pillow corners, but if you have zero tolerance for dog-ears on your throw pillows, try tapering the corners of your pattern or invest in a pillow template, which has multiple sizes and a nice taper to the corners. For more on pillow-making and corner-tapering, read this great pdf article excerpted in Threads magazine: Great Pillows 1-2-3.
Here's the nifty split back in poly faux suede. This polyester is pre-fused to a nylon interfacing and would make a great trench coat too.
I am also at work on a pair of 12"x 22" pillows for The Lady Eve's new place, using both faces of a great heavy reversible starburst-print denim. I'll show y'all how they turn out when I eventually get to finish them.
EDIT: total cost for this project (including shipping charges for fabric and pillow inserts) was about $12 per pillow. One could cut costs by using less expensive fabric, but this still beats retail prices for 18" throw pillows of this quality.
A Girl Like Me
This is a fascinating and heartbreaking* look at how young Black women (and a few young Black men) see themselves, the pressures they feel around their Blackness, and their relation to their roots. Entirely work-safe. Kudos to Ms. Davis for the superb film.
Edit: As Shaker codeman38 points out, I completely failed to take into account the needs of Deaf people here, and I'm sorry for that. I don't have time to add a transcript to the post, and codeman38 informs me that the automatic transcription is useless. If anyone has time to do a transcript, I'd be most appreciative.
More edit: Shakers TheChemist and nomethegnome both leapt to do their All-In best, and a transcript is now appended.
For my high-school literature class I was constructing an anthology with a wide range of different stories that I believed reflected the black girl’s experience. For the different chapters, I conducted interviews with a variety of black girls in my high school, and a number of issues surfaced concerning the standards of beauty imposed on today’s black girls and how this affects their self-image. I thought this topic would make an interesting film and so when I was accepted into the Reel Works Teen Filmmaking program, I set out to explore these issues.- Filmmaker Kiri Davis, on how she came to make the film.Tip of the CaitieCap to Emily W for the link.
* From my privileged white point-of-view, of course; nothing in here will be news to those who've grown up without that.
Transcript below the jump, provided by Shaker nomethegnome; my gratitude also to TheChemist, who also did a transcription.
Stephanie: Every black female has a big butt and big boobs.
Glenda: Loud, obnoxious...Ghetto.
Jennifer: Light skin being more attractive than dark skin.
Wahida: That we're not smart...We're this way, we're that way and...A lot of times we have to prove ourselves as [that] not being true.
(Voiceover: At a young age, I already knew the standards for a girl like me. As I become older, they become more obvious.)
Stephanie: You have to have permed hair, relaxed hair...
Wahida: You know, straight hair, or like blonde hair...You know, long waves or something.
Stephanie: And if it's natural, that's even, that's, that's good hair. Like bad hair is hair you have to relax, because it's kinky...
Wahida: Like it's not like appealing to have, like natural hair styles. Or like if they are natural, they
have to be like the curly haired black girl, or something who looks mixed or something.
Stephanie: Like I remember when I first started to wear my hair natural, at first my mom was okay with it, and she, she thought it looked nice. And then after like the second day, she was like "Oh, stop that." She was like, "You're starting to look African". I was like, "Well, I AM African" and that really pissed me off.
Glenda: There are standards that are imposed upon us, like, um...You know, you're pretty, you're prettier if you're light-skinned.
Wahida: I knew people in the past that like, just like, wanted to be light-skinned. Not for any particular reason...You know, 'cause they loved theirselves...I mean they, they loved theirselves except, you know, for the color of their skin.
Jennifer: My siblings are all lighter than me and my um...My mom, she's dark-skinned, but she's lighter than me. So, like, I noticed and I was like, "Hey how come I'm the darkest, and, you know, everybody else is so light?" And...I don't know. Since I was younger I, I also considered being lighter as a form of beauty. Or, you know, beautifu- more, but...beautiful than being dark skinned. So I used to think of myself as being ugly 'cause I was dark skinned.
Wahida: I knew people who actually, like, went out there and got, you know, bleaching cream and everything.
They actually like, laid in the tub, with like, and poured capfuls of bleach into it, just so they can, like, see if their skin would get lighter.
Stephanie: But yeah my aunt that lives in Honduras, she basically started using skin bleaching cream when she was about 25...And she started her oldest daughter on it when she was about 11. And then she has an even younger daughter that was about 6 when she started using the skin bleaching cream on her.
Glenda: I've seen people say that "I would never marry a dark-skinned man, because, you know, because I don't want that in my gene pool."
Wahida: On the other hand, light-skinned girls have their issues too...We've been called "high yella", "conceited house nigga"...I feel like both sides have their issues.
Jennifer: I guess I sort of felt, like, there was not any attention towards me because of maybe my skin color, or because my hair was kinky, or...You know, just basically that. Or even when...Also when I was younger, like, say, there're like...Say there was, I don't know, a doll...I used to have a lot of dolls, but most of them were just white dolls with long, straight hair that I would comb. And I would be like, "Oh, I wish I was just like this barbie doll."
(Voiceover: In Brown versus Board of Education, the famous case that desegregated schools in the 1950s, Dr. Kenneth Clark conducted a doll test with black children. He asked them to choose between a black doll and a white doll. In most instances, the majority of the children preferred the white doll.
I decided to reconduct this test, as Dr. Clark did, to see how we've progressed since then.)
Narrator: Can you show me the doll that you like best, or that you like to play with?
[First child holds up white doll]
Second child: This one.
[Picks up white doll]
Third child: This one.
[Touches white doll]
Fourth child: I like that one.
[Points to white doll]
[Fifth child picks up white doll]
[Sixth child picks white doll]
[Seventh child picks black doll]
Eighth child: This one.
[Puts down black doll, points to white]
Narrator: That one?
[Ninth child picks black doll]
Tenth child: This one.
[Pats white doll]
Eleventh child: I like to play with...This.
[Chooses black doll]
Narrator: And can you show me the doll that is the nice doll?
[Seventh child picks up white doll]
Narrator: And why is that the nice doll?
Seventh child: She's white.
Narrator: And can you show me the doll that looks bad?
[First child picks up black doll]
Narrator: Okay. And can you give...And why does that look bad?
First child: Because it's black.
Narrator: Hmm...And why do you think that's a nice doll?
First child: Because she's white.
Narrator: And can you give me the doll that looks like you?
[Child pushes black doll forward]
[Voiceover: 15 out of the 21 children preferred the white doll.]
Glenda: Our ancestors came to this country, and they were pretty much ripped, ripped out of their culture. You know, they couldn't speak their language, they couldn't, you know, they couldn't be themselves. They had to be what everyone else told them to be.
Illiana: When you don't know where you're from, and you don't know what country you're from, all you know is, basically, you're from Africa, and that's all you're given...I feel like it brings on like, a lot of ignorance and it, it builds a lot of anger. I've seen, like, I've seen it build a lot of anger in a lot of black young females. Like, I don't know, they feel like because they...They feel like they have a right to disown any kind of, you know, African roots.
Jennifer: I think for a black girl in general, it's like you're missing a piece of you, you know. For me, it's like, I don't have any...Any actual...Heritage? Not heritage, but like...Culture. Like, I know I'm from Africa, but, you know, different...The different countries in Africa have their different cultures, their different morals, their different values. And not knowing that, it just, it, it sort of keeps us at a loss...And we just...I feel like we're busy searching for it, while everybody else in society is throwing their ideas, and what they believe what we should be, at us. But, you know, personally, we know that that's not what we should be, but we're gonna take it because we don't know exactly what we should be, because we don't really know where we come from.
Monday Blogaround
Today's blogaround is brought to you by Shaxco, makers of Tilsy McEwan's Kitty Gone Fishin' fishing poles, for McEwans with no opposable thumbs.
Alexander Chee: You're Not From Around Here
Historiann: Violence, Rape, and Class. They're talking about [Trigger Warning] Jonathan Franzen's New Yorker story, "Agreeable", over at Historiann's place.
Ecoratorio: Paper of the week: Effects of prenatal exposure of pthalates
Neuroskeptic: This Is Your Brain's Anti-Drug
Disability Rights Advocates for Technology (DRAFT): Segs4Vets Program receives Secretary of the Army's Public Service Award
taz at Sepia Mutiny: The Copycat Facebook Ban
Amy Shah: Mind-Controlled Prosthetic Limbs
Dr. Who Open Thread! S5E6!
Alright you Wholigans, Canada finally joined the rest of North America last night, and we've had a peek at S5E6, Vampires in Venice.
Please remember that spoilers from episodes after S5E6 are explicitly off-topic, and will annoy your friendly OT host (i.e., me) because she hasn't seen the later eps yet.
Also, note that spoilers from any Doctor Who material coming before S5E6 are explicitly on-topic.
So, starting from a progressives' p-o-v: did anyone else have a lovely warm fuzzy to note that the race of the gondolier (Isabella's dad) never came up? I mean, yes, there's a lost opportunity to examine the racism of 16th century Venice, true; but there're also important roles in the episode being earned by actors of colour, and I think that's a positive thing, given the about-to-be-released whitewashed live-action versions of Prince of Persia and The Last Airbender.
I really liked Rory's role in this episode, a lot. I think his common-sense response to the outlandish things he encounters frames the Doctor and Amy in a clearly different light. Rory and Amy hear screams: Rory, like most people would, runs away from the sound. Amy runs towards it. He continually provides a contrast to the march-to-the-sound-of-the-guns approach taken by the Doctor and Amy.
Also, sonic screwdriver healing? That's new, isn't it? I don't remember seeing a sonic screwdriver used for that before?
Also, Moffatt REALLY LIKES FANGS, huh?
Open Thread
Hosted by a cast iron skillet.
This week's open threads have been hosted by awesome kitchen utensils.
The Virtual Pub Is Open
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
TFIF, Shakers!
Belly up to the bar,
and name your poison!
Today's Edition of "Conniving and Sinister"
I've got friends coming to visit for a long weekend, including Mr. Deeky W. Gashlycrumb himself, who will be arriving shortly, and then Iain and I are taking the rest of next week off for a much-needed holiday at home, so consider me officially Gone Fishin'.
I'll be available (though less so than usual) by email. Please remember that when I'm away, we're down one moderator, so take extra care in commenting and make an effort to support the other mods who will be picking up my slack.
(And don't worry—I'll post the Virtual Pub!)
To the USian Shakers: Have a nice and safe Memorial Day Weekend.
See you soon!
RIP Gary Coleman
Gary Coleman, pictured above in his iconic role as Arnold Jackson on the late 70s sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes," has died at age 42 after an intracranial hemorrhage earlier this week.
Coleman's death leaves Todd Bridges the sole survivor of the three "Diff'rent Strokes" kids (Dana Plato took her own life in 1999), whose lives were/have been extremely troubled; Coleman was arrested on two occasions for assaulting women, one an autograph-seeker and one his wife. Collectively, the "Diff'rent Strokes" kids were/are widely regarded as a tragic cautionary tale about the cost, to oneself and others, of childhood fame (and the abject abandonment that frequently accompanies the onset of puberty) and its potential to corrupt.
Without trying to excuse or justify or mitigate Coleman's hurtful actions toward others, I have real sorrow for how genuinely difficult I think his life really was.
More Breaking News
Glenn Beck is still a soulless pot of shit who thinks that mocking 11-year-old girls is totes cool, as long as you don't like their dads.
Asshole.
Quote of the Day
"You don't just walk into one of these places like you're getting your nails done. I think we're armed with enough information to make adult decisions without being emotionally tortured."—Laura, a 36-year-old woman who opted to terminate a pregnancy in Birmingham, Alabama, where abortion providers are required by law to do an ultrasound and offer patients a chance to view the image.
Although abortion is not a difficult decision for every woman who gets one, it was for Laura, who declined to view the ultrasound image, which she said would not have changed her mind but "would have added to the pain of what is already a difficult decision."
[H/T to Shaker BlueRidge.]
