Doris O'Brien is a retired college Speech teacher and banker. She has published two books of humor (Up or Down With Women's Liberation and Humor Me a Little) and for many years contributed light verse to the Pepper 'n Salt column of the Wall Street Journal. She is an avid writer of letters to the editors.
Doris celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary in the same year she welcomed her first grandchild. She now lives in Pasadena with a great view of the San Gabriel mountains — and the annual Tournament of Roses Parade.
She can be reached by e-mail: witsendob at (@) gmail.com
A Cooper Hewitt Object of the Day: Inspired by the Opera
Subscribe to the Object of the Day and enjoy decorative creations while the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt Museum is in the process of renovation. One such object is that of Inspired by the Opera: A French embroidered waistcoat dated between 1785-1795 shows Dido and Aeneas in a scene from Didon, a 1783 opera by the Italian composer Niccolò Piccini with librettos by Jean-François Marmontel. Derived from Virgil’s Aeneid, the opera tells a fictional version of the story of Dido, Queen of Carthage, and the Trojan hero, Aeneas, who went on to found the Roman race. The opera had its public premiere in Paris in December 1783 and was an instant success, enjoying more than 200 performances. more »
"An Invitation to an Expensive Court Battle": Making Your Own Reproductive Health Care Decisions
"The State has extended an invitation to an expensive court battle over a law restricting abortions that is a blatant violation of the constitutional guarantees afforded to all women. The United States Supreme Court has unequivocally said that no state may deprive a woman of the choice to terminate her pregnancy at a point prior to viability. North Dakota House Bill 1456 is clearly unconstitutional under an unbroken stream of United States Supreme Court authority." more »
Funny? Really? Underrage Female Characters on TV in Sexually Exploitative Scenes
The study revealed that out of 238 scripted episodes which aired during the research period, 150 episodes (63%) contained sexual content in scenes that were associated with females and 33% of the episodes contained sexual content that rose to the level of sexual exploitation. The likelihood that sexual exploitation would be considered humorous increased to 43% when the sexual exploitation involved underage female characters. more »
From Selma to Shelby County: Working Together to Restore the Protections of the Voting Rights Act
Wendy Weiser testifies: Unless Congress acts, future discriminatory voting changes will also move forward without review. In the run-up to the 2012 elections, state legislatures passed scores of new laws that would have made it harder for eligible Americans to vote. While most of the restrictive new voting laws were blocked, mitigated, or repealed before the elections, efforts to cut back on voting access continue. In the most recent legislative session (as of April 29, 2013), 28 restrictive voting bills were introduced in states that were covered wholly or in part by Section 5, and two of those bills already passed. more »
