Celebrating the 3,000th!
You know we love a reason for a celebration (where celebration = cake with candles and lots of crepe paper streamers) and today this blog received its 3,000th comment! Woo-hoo! Thanks to Valerie for her comment to my essay about Frau Schmidt, recounting beautifully her French version of Frau Schmidt, …
Women play poker – Frau Maria Schmidt
…love from one being to another can only be that two solitudes come nearer, recognize and protect and comfort each other. -Han Suyin My suitcase wasn’t on the carousel when we arrived in Munich. Everyone else got their bags, but mine wasn’t there. “I’ll stay with Patti,” my roommate Elizabeth …
Walla Walla, anyone?
If anyone is near Walla Walla, Washington, perhaps this event on March 4th, 2008, featuring my business and creative partner, David Robinson, might be of interest. With a story written and narrated by David, the symphonic work, Into the Wild, combines spoken word and multimedia arts with a musical composition …
Women do science – Rosalind Franklin
I’m afraid we always used to adopt–let’s say, a patronizing attitude towards her. – Francis Crick A man who would later become a friend wrote a book in the early 1980s called Women in the Workplace: A Man’s Perspective, in which he posited the idea that men and women are …
Women make language – Marilynne Robinson
If there were no girls like them in the world, there would be no poetry. -Willa Cather, My Antonia Suzanne Maggio-Hucek has inspired me to focus on women this month, in honor of Women’s History Month. And so, a month of women, some you will know, others you won’t, all …
Consider yourself unstoppable
I have to say that ranting feels good. Ranting with intention feels even better. It’s a step beyond Grumpy Patti, which is the nickname my business partner, David, has recently given me. "Grumpy Patti is good," he’ll say, smiling, after I’ve said my truth in a meeting with a client, …
Imagine
A gorgeous song sung beautifully by 17-year-old David Archuleta. Just imagine… Imagine Imagine there’s no Heaven It’s easy if you try No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people Living for today Imagine there’s no countries It isn’t hard to do Nothing to kill or die …
Stop doing insignificant work in the world
Why have we made a silent, unspoken agreement to not do significant work in the world? I am tired of having long, endless, polite conversations about discrimination and hate. I am tired of executives who keep asking me for the "business case" for diversity as if another notebook of statistics …
The map of our days
There really is no finer day than a day when The New Yorker arrives with not only a profile of Amy Winehouse, but with a new poem by The Man, to boot. That’s a day worth wearing shoes for, worth sitting up straight for, worth making cantaloupe and honeydew cupcakes …
The Land of Counterpane
When I was sick and lay a-bed, I had two pillows at my head, And all my toys beside me lay, To keep me happy all the day. And sometimes for an hour or so I watched my leaden soldiers go, With different uniforms and drills, Among the bed-clothes, through …
