Dogging the governor, as it has for months, was the California Nurses Assn., which organized a luau at the Trader Vic's in the same hotel. As Schwarzenegger's defeats mounted, giddy nurses formed a conga line and danced around the room, singing, "We're the mighty, mighty nurses."


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-110905elex_lat,0,3584854.story?coll=la-h

name changing at marriage a sexist custom:

I still remain more interested in what name changing signals in women's writing. What I'm recognizing from my reading here is that either women must deliberate, discuss naming with their partners and families, and reach a sometimes difficult decision, or women change their names because they want to go with the flow, or have not thought about writing / publishing and feminism.

I'm also noticing that, no matter what decision is made, it is one that remains a lifelong consideration. "Mother's Maiden Name" is a security code trigger parallel to "pet's name" and the last four digits of your social.

This has got to have an impact on writing. Or perhaps I'm taking Mary Daly (not a close relative) too seriously? Hardly. What a joy that she refused to talk to male students in her audience when she visited my college. Because of course they were the ones who attempted to dominate the Q&A, if only in a weird attempt to impress us with their "feminism."

I will offer that a conversation with a neighbor who is unmarried, has a double-barreled name (though she's given serious thought to eliminating her father's name, and doesn't use it when introducing herself) but has been with her (male) partner for more than six years, revealed how uncomfortable people are with her situation. It is slightly less shocking, I guess, to be separately professionally established -- the assumption is that I am Mrs. Burch at home (I am not), and only Ms. Daly at work.

We are also wondering about the way naming female children after the mother and male children after the father creates even more of a gender divide in the family. To my mind, it seems to enforce the stoopid idea that you've got the have a boy to "carry on the family line" and a girl "to keep to your heart."

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