The best mother's day gift this year

Having a 4 year-old in the house at gift-giving time always makes for a memorable holiday. First, there's the challenge to "keep the secret" about what my gift was. BoilerBaby 4 was about to burst with the secret he knew. He came close to telling me, but managed (just barely) to keep it in. It only took a reminder an hour to not tell. But to make Mother's Day especially special,


BoilerBaby 4 picked the best gift, Frosted Mini-Wheats. My own box! Oh yeah, I'll be living large, enjoying my Frosted Mini-Wheats. Every mom should be so blessed.

The real me???

If you don't know me and wonder what I look like, this is me! If you already know me, this is what I look like without make-up. Didn't know that I wore so much make-up, huh?

I was rather surprised when I found this picture on ZoomInfo, allegedly of someone who shares my name. My name's pretty common, so that wouldn't even be noteworthy except that part of the information provided about this person is my information. According to the listing, she has my degrees and my job, and has served on some of the of the same professional and community boards as I have. There are some "facts" that don't describe anything about me. In fact, if it were describing one person, this would be a very busy person--she has two jobs! According to the site, this info was gathered from 20 references.

Does that mean I shouldn't believe everything I read on the 'net?

Geez, I didn't know that

Schools are generally proud of their alums who enjoy success. So I was rather surprised to learn that Jerry Springer was a Northwestern Law alum. Jerry Springer, that icon of tabloid TV.

I don't know if the Jerry Springer Show is still on the air, but it never ceased to amazed me that people so craved their 15 minutes of fame that they would allow it to be announced to the world that although everyone thought Becky Sue's baby had been fathered by her husband's best friend, with whom she'd been having an affair with the full knowledge and consent of her husband, the child was really fathered by Becky Sue's mother's ex-boyfriend. Everyone should aspire to host such a show.

Maybe that's why Northwestern Law never bothered to send out any updates about Jerry in the alunni news. And maybe that's why the 2008 graduates are less than pleased about Jerry being their commencement speaker, as reported here.

The commencement speaker for my graduation was former Senator Dale Bumpers, also a Northwestern alum, and he gave a very good and inspirational speech. Perhaps the only blight on the day was that somone failed to plan for the fact that my class had 25 more graduates than in past years requiring that there be 25 more hoods. As we approached the end of the alphabet (with me only three or four away from the end), there was a mass commotion on the stage as someone was literally ripping hoods from the faculty and guests who were seated on stage to make those hoods available to the graduates. I am convinced that I actually got Senator Bumpers' hood.

But all that aside, what is going on at Northwestern?

Mildred Loving 1939-2008

By all accounts Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving were madly in love. They had grown up near each other and fallen in love at an early age. First comes love, then comes marriage, so the saying goes, and that's what followed for them. Nothing particularly unusual about that--just an old-fashioned love story. Except that their union was illegal.

Until 1967, the Commonwealth of Virginia had the audacity to criminalize interracial marriages. The so-called Racial Integrity Act made it a felony for blacks and whites to marry, as Mildred and Richard discovered. Mildred, black, and Richard, white, had married in Washington D.C., but returned to Virginia, and the Commonwealth just wasn't going to have any of that race mixing. Police officers invaded the Lovings' home in the dead of night and upon finding them in bed, arrested and convicted them. They were sentenced to 1 year in prison, suspended, if they would leave the Commonwealth. The U. S. Supreme Court overturned their convictions, finding the statute unconstitutional.

Mildred and Richard didn't set out to make history or even to make new law. They just wanted to be married and to live in the community in which they had grown up. That's not much to ask.

Mildred died several days ago. Richard has been dead since 1975, killed in a car accident caused by a drunk driver.