The Bloomer Blogs

           For many years now the trend in sports reporting is to put female reporters on the sidelines while male sports commentators remain in the booth. As a female, a former national and professional athlete, and a sports writer, I noted this first with appreciation, then disappointment, and now mixture between resignation and determination.         Initially, we all understood the set up: the former players and oft older, ‘wiser’ male commentators sat in the booth. They represented experience and well-researched opinions while the females on the sidelines were eye candy, young, and exciting mirroring the young, post-game super-hyped athletes . One quick Google search reveals the truth as ‘male sports casters’ brought up links to bios of sportscasters, the best or funniest, and those with the boldest predictions. The same search with the word ‘female’ presented lists of the ‘hottest’ and...

The United States and New Zealand are the only countries in the world that allow medications to be touted on television with amazing promises. Be happy! Get thin! Sleep better! Make new friends! Then in little, teeny, tiny print or in an incredibly fast voiceover that is almost impossible to understand come the words, “if you have excessive bleeding, vomiting, a heart attack, go blind, get raging diarrhea, become paralyzed …. You should discontinue this medication.” Gee. But that probably won’t happen so … go ahead and take this stuff because look how happy our actors now appear to be!             It’s called direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising and it is totally legal in this country because we have literally given carte blanche to the medical and pharmaceutical companies in the holy name of greed.             It has worked beautifully because now Americans are self-diagno...

            Okay, so try to imagine how weird it would feel if people from your church, your work, your gym, even your own family actually took note of how often you put on a dress.   As I promoted my books, even media members actually took note of my life-long aversion to dresses.             It was one thing when I was in the 5 th grade and, on the first day of school, Craig Krueger and Jimmy Dunn told me I couldn’t “be in the military” with them because I was wearing a dress.   The one day – the one day – of the year that my mom could get me in the dress and this is the day my childhood buddies were going to recruit new officers.   D For years I foiled my mother’s attempts to refine me by pulling off my first-day-of-school-skirt on the way to school to sport my jean cut-offs or athletic shorts.   She caught on and bought me a dress so that I couldn’t shed...