A Message From The Creator
Inspiration Of Motherhood: Dear Baby: When I Was Pregnant with You…
Women’s News: Body Exchange, Gym, Bans Skinny People To Create A Safe Haven For Plus-Size Women
Inspiration Of A Screenwriting Legend: Nora Ephron
A Message From The Creator
“Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing.”
-Harriet Braiker
Inspirational Woman Of The Day: Coretta Scott King
Coretta Scott King was an American civil rights activist and the wife of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. She established a distinguished career in activism in her own right. Working side-by-side with her husband, she took part in the Montgomery Bus Boycott and worked to pass the Civil Rights Act. After King’s death, she founded the Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta.
Profile
Civil rights activist. Born on April 27, 1927 in Marion, Alabama. Although best known as the wife of 1960s civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King established a distinguished career in activism in her own right. Working side-by-side with her husband throughout the 1950s and 1960s, King took part in the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 and worked to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Her memoir, My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr., was published n 1969.
Following her husband’s assassination in 1968, she continued their work, founding the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, GA. She served as the center’s president and chief executive officer from its inception.
In 1980, a 23 acre site around King’s birthplace was designated for use by the King Center. The following year, a museum complex was dedicated on the site.
King also was behind the fifteen-year fight to have her husband’s birthday instituted as a national holiday — President Ronald Reagan finally signed the bill in 1983.
In 1995, King passed the reins of the King Center over to her son, Dexter, but she remains in the public eye. She wrote regular articles on social issues and published a syndicated column. She had been a regular commentator on CNN since 1980. In 1997, she called for a retrial for her husband’s alleged assassin, James Earl Ray. Ray died in prison before the trial could be effected.
Coretta and Martin Luther King, Jr. had four children: Martin Luther King III, who now serves as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC); Yolanda, an actress; Bernice, a lawyer and Baptist minister; and Dexter; who runs the King Library and Archive. King suffered a heart attack and stroke in August 2005; she died on January 30, 2006.
Inspiration Of Motherhood: Dear Baby: When I Was Pregnant with You…
Monica Wyche
Actor, Southerner, Brand New Mom
As my due date creeps ever closer (now two days away), I’ve been thinking back on my pregnancy, and feel there are a few things our little guy should know about this very special time in our lives.
You, Baby, should know that:
1. If I had it to do all over again, I would tell people you were actually due two weeks later than the date the doctor told me. Having people ask, “are you still pregnant?” stopped being a novelty around week 38.
2. There was a direct correlation between how close I was to my due date and the number of exclamation points your maternal grandmother used in her emails.
3. Your father always set out my vitamins for me, read all the good childbirth books, went to tons of classes and built baby furniture like a superhero. Plus, he took the dog out first thing every morning so you and I could keep sleeping.
4. I found myself watching Days of Our Lives more often than I care to admit. In fact, it is on the TV as I type this post. You will never watch this show. Nor will you ever watch Game of Thrones. Ever.
5. You moved around ALL THE TIME, which I loved, because you were telling me you were healthy and happy. Your dad and I liked to watch you make ripples across my belly when you moved, especially closer to our due date. At 3:00 a.m., however, I loved it a tiny bit less.
6. We decided to keep your name a secret until you were born. That way, people wouldn’t have a chance to complain, ask why we chose it or suggest other options. Also, it was kind of fun to watch your grandparents squirm.
7. I went to lots of prenatal yoga classes, because they not only made me feel more stretchy, but everyone there was at least as big as me. And that felt good in a different way. I think the Germans call it schadenfreude.
There are lots more things you should know, not just about the time I spent pregnant with you, but also about how we live here in NYC. You’ll learn them pretty quickly, but for starters, you should know that as a family, we recycle. We make and attend theatre. One of our cats has repeatedly threatened to suck the breath out of you, but she’s a known liar, so don’t worry about her. The British lady with the visor down the street isn’t as mean as she seems. Your godparents are amazing people.
And we cannot wait for your arrival.
We love you already.
Women’s News: Body Exchange, Gym, Bans Skinny People To Create A Safe Haven For Plus-Size Women
Hey Ladies, what are your thoughts on this one?
The Huffington Post
By Emma Gray
In an effort to create a more comfortable workout environment for plus-size women, Body Exchange, a Vancouver-area gym, has adopted an unusual membership policy. It doesn’t allow men or thinner women to be members, the British Columbia-based newspaper, The Province, reported.
Body Exchange caters to plus-size women of all ages, though the majority of their clientele are between 35 and 55. All potential members go through a phone screening process. If they don’t meet the gym’s criteria, they simply aren’t invited to join. The founder and CEO of Body Exchange, Louise Green, told The Province that the gym’s members are looking for a place where they can exercise and get healthy without feeling self-conscious. “Many of our clients have not had successful fitness pasts, so I can see the anxiety before we get started, and I can see the relief and happiness after we finish,” Green said.
Green hoped to create a place where women could feel “camaraderie” and comfort when they came to the gym. In addition to providing an indoor gym that is comfortable for plus-size women, Body Exchange offers various boot camps and off-site exercise retreats. (One is even held in Mexico!) And Green’s initiatives seem to be working. Mary McNary, one of Green’s customers, told The Province: “It’s intimidating going into a gym setting. I honestly think some people in a gym setting are judgmental to people who are overweight or have a different body type.” She said doesn’t feel that way at Body Exchange, where she’s been a regular member for nearly three years. McNary works out six days a week, has lowered her blood pressure and has lost 50 pounds.
Body Exchange isn’t the first gym to create workout spaces specifically for plus-size customers. Downsize Fitness, a gym with studios in Chicago, Las Vegas and Dallas,targets “chronically overweight” clientele, although it doesn’t specifically ban anyone, the New York Daily News reported. “We make it known that our specialty is working with people who have at least 50 pounds to lose,” he told the paper. “Most people who come here, come here for that reason.” Michael Hayes, owner of Buddha Body Yoga in New York City, said that his studio has a similar policy.
Green told The Providence that her primary goal is to give her customers the ability to get fit and feel good about themselves. Weight loss is something that might happen as a result, but it’s not the focus of the gym, she said. At the end of the day, she added, she strives to make Body Exchange about enjoyment: “This has got to be fun or it’s not going to work.”
Inspiration Of A Screenwriting Legend: Nora Ephron
I just want to take a moment and pay tribute to a screenwriting legend. RIP, Nora Ephron.
Nora Ephron was born on May 19, 1941 in New York City. Her essays initially grabbed attention in the early 1970s, and by the 1980s, she began to transition into screenwriting. Ephron wrote the screenplay for the romantic comedy classic When Harry Met Sally. Later, she wrote and directed Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail and Julie & Julia (2009). Ephron died from pneumonia, caused by acute myeloid leukemia, on June 26, 2012, at the age of 71.
Early Career
Nora Ephron was born on May 19, 1941 in New York, New York. A talented writer and director, Ephron is known for her successful romantic comedies, such as When Harry Met Sally(1989) and Sleepless in Seattle (1993). The daughter of writers, she grew up in Los Angeles, feeling much like an outsider. She went east to go to school at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.
Gifted with a sharp wit, Ephron first made her mark as an essayist. In 1970, her articles collected and published in 1970’s Wallflower at the Orgy and 1975’s Crazy Salad. Her first novel, Heartburn(1983), drew inspiration from the end of her second marriage and was later made into a film starring Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson.
Commercial Success
Around this time, Ephron made the leap into films, writing the screenplay for the drama Silkwood (1983). It earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay. While that film received much praise, she really hit box office gold with her screenplay for When Harry Met Sally, starring Billy Crystal andMeg Ryan in the title roles. Audiences and critics alike responded enthusiastically to the well-crafted exploration into whether a man and a woman can be just friends and the relationship that develops between the lead characters. She received her second Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay for this engaging, humorous film.
In 1992, Ephron directed her first film, This Is My Life. The film was generally well-received, with Time magazine calling it a “charming and quietly confident movie” that is both “adorable and unsentimental.” This family drama centered on a single mother who is pursuing a career in stand-up comedy. Ephron co-wrote the screenplay with her sister, Delia Ephron.
The next year, Ephron directed and wrote the wildly successfulSleepless in Seattle, which featured Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks as two people who live on opposite coasts and fall in love over the internet. The film earned more than $120 million at the box office, once again showing Hollywood that Ephron was a formidable filmmaker. She also scored her third Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay.
Ryan and Hanks reunited for another Ephron film, 1998’s You’ve Got Mail, which played the romantic possibilities created on the anonymity of the Internet. The two played business rivals who don’t know that they had become friends online. The two opposing relationships unfold during the course of the film. Many critics remarked on the dynamic chemistry between the lead actors. In addition to serving as the director on the film, Ephron co-wrote the screenplay with her sister, Delia.
Recent Years
Ephron’s 2005 film effort,Bewitched, failed to strike a cord with movie audiences. In 2006, she returned to her essayist roots with I Feel Bad about My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman, offering her readers a comic look at aging and other issues.
In 2009, Ephron received wide acclaim for directing and writingJulie & Julia, a comedy about the lives of famed chef Julia Childand a young, aspiring cook. The starred actresses Amy Adams and Meryl Streep (Julia Child), and earned nearly $130 million at the box office.
Death
Ephron died from pneumonia, caused by acute myeloid leukemia, on June 26, 2012, at the age of 71. She was survived by her husband of nearly 25 years, screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi; and her two sons, Jacob and Max Bernstein, from her previous marriage to journalist Carl Bernstein, her second husband (Ephron’s first marriage was to Dan Greenburg).
LadyRomp 