Atlanta, where we endure our bitter exile, is lately become bitterer due to extreme cold and the fact that we really dislike our heavy coat.  We are not as well informed on weather-related matters as we once were: the Royal Meteorological Society was one of the first of our luxuries to get the axe when the Bolsheviks came to power.  Happily our redoubt is furnished with illegal cable, so we are able to access the dentifrice-promoting meteorologist on Channel 9 every night at 6.  Typhoons, gales, cyclones, massive loss of life and property damage, even puppies stranded midstream cannot dislodge this woman’s smile.  And the latest cataclysm to assail her Ipana-reinforced dentition is a phenomenon she cheerily calls the Alberta clipper.

In the bleak midwinter, when nature forces us to wear a heavy coat that we really hate, one wants to believe that an Alberta clipper is something as cheery and bright as our meteorologist’s smile.  But an Alberta clipper is a bad thing.  It is a very bad thing.  There are, from our own limited knowledge of the province, few things of Albertan origin to be recommended; only the Café Praha in Edmonton comes to mind.  And nothing could recommend the Alberta clipper.

March is National Women’s History Month. Often times ‘history’ is relegated to things, people, and events of the long dead past.  Things that aren’t really relevant to our lives now. Or so we think. But ‘history’ is in many ways a living part of the human experience. Every day living, breathing people are making history. And Women’s History is not just about women but also about the impact women have and are making on world events, politics, society, and all of history.

Case in point: In February, the Asheville City Council took up the issue of offering equal benefits to city employees with a same-sex partner as is offered to married straight employees. This would include health insurance, bereavement leave, prescriptions drugs, and life insurance.  Seems fair.  Same-sex couples are barred from marriage in North Carolina therefore gay and lesbian couples cannot access the same benefits and privileges as married heterosexuals can even though their families and households function in much the same way.