A trip to the dentist puts me over the edge;-(

I’ve experienced lots of discrimination and sexual harassment, but back in the sixties and seventies, it was just part of life and I was so naive I lived with it. I was timid and had no aspirations to climb any corporate ladder, so though I resented it, it didn’t really get in my way. The incident I remember was actually one tiny step for womankind. My first job out of college was with a small publishing company that produced several automotive aftermarket magazines. Although much of the staff was female (with male editors) the female names appeared as initials in the masthead to hide their femaleness from our manly readers; they used full names for the male editors. I guess because of my androgynous name, I was the first female to have her full name in the masthead. Occasionally we would receive auto-related queries from Playboy, for their Playboy Adviser column. My editor would pass those off to me and I’d be quoted in Playboy as an expert on tires or brakes! (I told you it was a tiny step!)

There is an interesting book you all might like about just this topic. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell, is a quick read (two evenings) and dissects gut reactions.

Last week I bought an itty bitty package of Norwegian Smoked Salmon for $5.99. I went back a few days later to buy more…and the same package was $7.99! I think Publics was trying to gouge us for Good Friday! Didn’t seem like a legit price increase to me.

My first job out of college, in the late 1960s, was with a small company that published automotive trade magazines. The staff was about half female, but that fact was hidden from advertisers and readers by using initials rather than first names in the masthead. (The full names of male editorial staff was listed.) I was the first female to have her full name used. The funny part was that occasionally I would be contacted to answer tire-related questions in the Playboy Adviser column of “Playboy.” Wonder what Heff would have thought if he’d known a 22-year-old girl was answering questions about retreads and steel-belted radials!

I pick American women who’ve changed our world: Sacajawea, Margaret Sanger, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas and Rosa Parks.

You New York ladies ought to look up Laura Bennet…the runner up on last year’s Project Runway on Bravo. Her designs are classic, sophisticated and grown up.