Someday I’d like to meet Dorothea Salo

On the surface, she’s probably as unlike me as possible: she’s younger, I’m older; she’s loves the cutting edge of various technologies, I’m lucky if I can put the code in for a link without screwing it up; she’s not into “girly” things; I color my hair blonde, wear make-up, and have closets full of clothes and shoes (including sexy ballroom dance stuff); she’s not into having kids; I’m really into my two and my new grandson; she likes Tolkein, I like Zimmer Bradley. She’s happily married; I’m once-married-long-ago and now happily single. She probably drinks coffee (don’t all techies?) and I only drink tea. But I’ll bet that if we sat down with each other across our libations of choice, we’d find that we laugh at the same things; want the same things from the world in general and the opposite sex in particular; and have very strong senses of who we are, where our strength and “power” lie, and how we want to exercise them. We also use our voices, clearly, confidently, and appropriately. I it would be interesting to find out how those voices harmonize in a two-way conversation. It’s not likely to happen, given where we live and how we live. But I still think it would be way cool!

3 thoughts on “Someday I’d like to meet Dorothea Salo

  1. Actually, I hate coffee. I just do. I had to learn to drink it in self-defense when I visited Hungary a decade ago, but given a choice I’ll pass. I can take or leave tea. My usual beverage at work is water; at home, I drink apple juice or a cran-apple blend. With the occasional two-liter of ginger ale or root beer.
    You’re always welcome in the Frozen North, Kalilily. I do have a guest room, and I swear up and down we Wisconsinites consume things other than cheese, brats, and beer.
    If I had a clearer notion where my strength lay, I probably wouldn’t have played to my weaknesses *quite* so often as I have. But I appreciate the thought. Thank you.

  2. Well, I’ve met Dorothea (and thank her for the kind words on her 9/11 anniversary posting, and I’d do it at CavLec except I can’t find the comment machinery if any). She came to New York for unrelated reasons and we squeezed in dinner. (I don’t travel except out of duty or in hopeless optimism, and afterwards I always remember why I don’t).
    Anyway, I drink neither coffee nor tea (little white pills if I must, but on no account for two or more days in a row), greatly enjoy both JRRT and Marion Astra, I’m a registered geek, but anyway….
    What I wanted to *comment* on was the term “opposite sex”. I know it’s a standard part of the language, but I think it’s damned divisive, and I try to avoid it and encourage others (including members of the other sex) to do the same. Men and women are not “opposites” in any significant way, and using the phrase warps one’s thinking in the default (and bogus) direction.

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