Between Friends Blog

A Weekend Thought, a day late

(Posted on Saturday instead of Friday because I ran out of time...)

I waste a lot of time wishing I had more time.

-Gina Barreca, Ph.D.  in Snow White Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Another Weekend Thought...but on Monday.

"It's an amazing thing to push yourself and to accomplish a goal... I feel if in your mind you can do it, you can do it. You cannot doubt yourself. Doubt is a killer. You just have to know who you are and what you stand for."


-Jennifer Lopez

(from Glamour Magazine)

"Doubt is a killer"...truer words were never spoken...

Tuesday Weekend Thought: 5 Tips for Women

(Sent to me from a friend...thanks, Mary Ann, gave me a good laugh!)

Five tips for a woman.... 

1. It is important that a man helps you around the house and has a job.

2. It is important that a man makes you laugh. 

3. It is important to find a man you can count on! And doesn't lie to you.

4. It is important that a man loves you and spoils you.

5. It is important that these four men don't know each other.

A Tuesday Weekend Thought

One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.

-Simone De Beauvoir

(A reader sent me this quote in response to last week's "Real Women" series.  I'd never heard of Simone De Beauvoir and I googled her.  I'm very interested in her book "The Second Sex" and I'm going to track it down.  I'll be looking for the newest translation by Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier.  Apparently, De Beauvoir felt the first translated book distorted her intended message.)

 

 By the way . . . about last week's "Real Women" series . . .

 
- this series was a departure from what I usually do in Between Friends but I thought it was fun.  I mentioned in an earlier blog post that I wondered how it would be received because it was so different from my regular format.  Would people like it? ..would they hate it? ...would readers be completely indifferent to it?

Well...as usual, I was suprised by the response I received.  It wasn't what I expected, but then - it never is.  I'll post some snippets of some of the mail regarding this series in the next day or two.

 

Weekend Thought: Women Cartoonists or Cartoonists who are Women

"...we're not women cartoonists, we're cartoonists first - but I think there's a side to what we do as women that brings a new perspective to the world."

- Liza Donnelly

Weekend Thought

Change occurs when one becomes what she is -not when she tries to become what she is not.

- Ruth P. Freedman

(Almost) Weekend Thought

I haven't posted a quote for a while...so here's one of my favourites from one of my favourite cartoonists:

"If you're a woman cartoonist, people always ask you what it's like to be a woman cartoonist.  What's it like to be a woman anything?  We push our breasts out of the way and try to do the job."

-Kim Warp

(from Sex and Sensibility - Ten Women Examine the Lunacy of Modern Love...in 200 cartoons; Edited by Liza Donnelly)

Weekend Thought

The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.

(My friend sent me a whole page of these type of "ponderisms"...they weren't credited to anyone.  I thought this one spoke volumes.)

Here's an early weekend thought...

You know what I haven't posted for a long, long time on my blog?  A quote for the "Weekend Thought".  So I'm going to remedy that right now with this quote sent to me by one of my buddies...

'Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater. If you give her sperm, she'll give you a baby.. If you give her a house, she'll give you a home. If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal. If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart. She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her. . So, if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of shit.' 

Weekend Thought for a Monday

Just got this in an e-mail from one of my friends and thought it was a good thing to share:

Always remember.....
When life hands you lemons, Ask for Tequila and salt and call me over!!

Thought for the Weekend

Okay, so today's "Thought for the Weekend" isn't really one of those inspirational-type quotes that I usually post but it is one of my all-time favourite quotes from a member of the female gender.  (Carolyn Parrish was a member of the Canadian federal Liberal government and I'm providing a brief bit of back-story to put the quote in context)

On May 19, 2005, Paul Martin's Liberal government faced two votes of confidence on its 2005-06 budget legislation. In the days leading up to the vote, Parrish said that she would support the government despite her difficulties with Martin's administration. Her support was critical to the government's survival, given the even division in the house. On the morning of the vote, Parrish informed a media representative that she was suffering from severe pain due to a medical ailment (there was speculation at the time that this was appenditicitis or an ovarian cyst, though informed sources now indicate that it likely was kidney stones). Some media sources speculated that she could be forced to miss the vote, but Parrish denied this, claiming,

Come hell or high water, there's no frigging way I'm going to let one ovary bring the government down.

She attended the vote, which the government won by one vote.

Weekend Thought

Hope is a thing with feathers / That perches in the soul, /
 And sings the tune without words / And never stops at all.
Emily Dickinson

Thought for the Weekend

I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.

- Rosa Parks

Weekend Thought: Lighten UP!

I love this song.  It always puts me in a great mood when I listen to it.  I've often thought that if Between Friends ever translated into some kind of television show, it would make great background music for the opening.  Parts of the lyrics  just seem to fit with my strip and women characters... their dealing with the stuff life throws at them in their busy, multi-tasking, wishing-for-more, coping-with lives...

It's not having what you want
It's wanting what you've got

 It's pretty easy to get caught up in the negative things that life throws at you.  I love the message that you've got to remember to look on the bright side.  I know my characters lament about aging issues and office politics and on and on.  I think that's a pretty accurate reflection of the women Maeve, Susan and Kim represent.  But...they also laugh at themselves too.  And they enjoy their friendships and their cappuccinos and various other little pleasures in life.  ( Of couse, Maeve enjoys things like dating Viggo Mortensen and travelling to exotic islands for weekend getaways.  If that didn't make a person " lighten up ", I don't know what would... )

I'm gonna soak up the sun
I'm gonna tell everyone
To lighten up (I'm gonna tell 'em that)
I've got no one to blame
For every time I feel lame
I'm looking up
I'm gonna soak up the sun
I'm gonna soak up the sun

Gotta love Sheryl Crow!

Weekend Thought

"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain."

-Dolly Parton

Weekend Thought for Canadian Women and Pay Equity

"I guess, Madam Speaker, you could consider this a prop considering the fact that it should be put in the garbage.  This is the government's bill and if the members do not want me to use it, maybe that is what they think of it."

- Ms. Judy Wasylyica-Leis, NDP Canadian Member of Parliament

(Comment in response to Mr. Leon Benoit's request that it was improper for Ms. Wasylyica-Leis to use the document of the proposed Bill C - 10 in her debate because it was a "prop".  Madam Speaker ruled that since the document was actual legislation, it was in order )

Following is an excerpt from the site of Linda Diebel, political columnist for the Toronto Star, which explains the premise of Bill C - 10:

It removes any chance women in the federal civil service have of fighting for pay equity by denying them the right to complain to the Human Rights Commission, or to go to court, when they believe there is discrimination. Instead, pay equity issues are to be solved as part of the regular bargaining process but - get this! - if anyone agitates on the basis of pay equity, they face a $50,000 fine. So the Conservative regime is forbidding a woman from fighting for herself and, simultaneously, penalizing her union from fighting for her.

Once this legislation is passed, a woman working in the federal public service will have fewer rights than women working elsewhere in Canada.

Hey, Judy? You go, girl.

What I have in common with Shania Twain

 

Wellllll . . .  we're both Canadian.  That's one.

The second thing I have in common with Shania Twain is the sentiment expressed in the above comic.  Kinda.  Sorta.

I was about to post a quote from Shania ( I feel confident in referring to her on a first name basis seeing as we're compatriots and all. ) and I suddenly remembered this strip.  "Wow", I thought, "Her quote and my comic have practically the exact, same, identical message . . . kinda, sorta."

"It's important to give it all you've got while you have the chance."

-Shania Twain 

You see the similarites?  What's that you say?  Not really?

Well, okay . . . maybe the sentiment is not exactly the same.  But what's interesting here (at least to me) is that this is an example of where a strip idea comes from in reverse.

I realize that probably doesn't make very much sense but I've just deleted my explanation 6 times and I don't think I'm going to be able to make this much clearer.

What I'm trying to say is that, if I had read this quote before I had written this strip, I can see where I would have gotten the inspiration to write this strip.  So this is an example of where strip ideas come from . . . kinda, sorta.

Rock on, Shania!

   

Weekend Thought

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song."

-Maya Angelou

 

Weekend Thought

"Nobody can be exactly like me. Sometimes even I have trouble doing it."

- actress, Tallulah Bankhead

Weekend Thought

"I've never had a humble opinion in my life.  If you're going to have one, why be humble about it?"

- folk singer / political activist, Joan Baez