Women

Happy Birthday, Susan Boyle!

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Susan Boyles turned 50 on April 1, 2011. Here’s a tribute to her beautiful voice and inspiring story, some of which might surprise you.

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Lady Jazz! Drummer Jerrie Thill At Age 93

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93-year-old jazz drummer Jerrie Thill has been playing since her teens. Allee Willis (who wrote the “Friends” theme) captures Jerrie’s amazing spirit in a music video.

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Home Girl Wu Ying Crushes Retirement

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Wu Ying lived through Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution, when everything Western was banned. At age 64, she became a competitive hip hop dancer!

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The Girl Effect: A Very Special Girls’ Friday

No matter what you think of Facebook, I’m thankful it lets me follow the lives of three beautiful girls in my family — Ryanne (21), Carrie (17) and Ashley (15) — since I can’t watch them grow up in person.  They’re becoming special and remarkable women: In her junior year in high school, Ryanne was [...]

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Ladies, Know Your Limits!

Just had to reinstate Bloomer Girls’ Friday with this bit of satire from the BBC’s Harry Enfield and Chums, which ran during the 1990s.  Love those Brits – every country should have a “ghoul standard!” Then pop over to Mrs. Somerville: First Scientist, about a girl whose daddy feared she’d end up in a straight jacket…

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Liz Smith: All This and Johnny Depp Too

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I’ve never considered a facelift because I earn my living by looking old. ~Liz Smith There’s a Liz Smith who calls herself “the 2000-year-old gossip columnist.” She’s often a skilled and entertaining writer. We won’t be talking about her. We will, however, be talking about Hollywood. I’ve written elsewhere about the foibles of living in Hollywood. On the [...]

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Claudette Sutherland: Life On A Sinking Houseboat

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In The Trenches’ Transitions series “profiles ordinary women who’ve made a midlife change due to necessity or passion and have discovered they are anything but ordinary.” Claudette Sutherland’s, an actress turned writing teacher, is featured.

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Fittest After 50: My Story

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In Fittest After 50: Pump Some Iron, I alluded to my World Gym days in the 1980s. I trained at the original Venice location back when Joe Gold, in his leather slippers, greeted you by name and a big guy named Arnie dispensed pointers on squat form (I hear he went into politics). I idolized Rachel [...]

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Fittest After 50: Bodybuilding Brain

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A few days ago, the New York Times published an article on the amazing effects of strength training on the brain.  Although the 155 subjects were all women between ages 65 and 75, I’m sure this equally applies to men: Older women who did an hour or two of strength training exercises each week had improved [...]

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Bloomer Girls Unite!

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Welcome to the premiere of Girls’ Friday, musings for and about les femmes d’un certain âge. I adore the old musicals. The exuberance, the banter, the kitsch. You can’t help but be uplifted by the fantasy that singing will solve all life’s troubles.  (Wait, is that a fantasy?) So I was excited to find a forgotten [...]

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Fittest After 50: More Inspiration

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In the previous installment, I highlighted Clarence Bass and Wendy Ida, two bodybuilders who had gotten their fittest after 50.  Here are some more inspiring folks:  Tosca Reno: Fitness Professional Started bodybuilding in her 40s to cope with a divorce.  After her weight climbed to 204 lbs, she started using a treadmill and lost some, but [...]

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