Photo illustration by Juliana Jiménez Jaramillo
Is an All-Female Mission to Mars the best way to go?
Medical studies at the start of the space race showed that women have stronger hearts, could better withstand radiation, and coped better than men in isolation. And because of their size, they’d be cheaper to launch and fly than men.
That didn’t cut any ice in the macho 50s during the all-male moon missions, but now?
Well, NASA has done some new studies, Kate Greene reports in Slate, that verify much of the earlier tests. And with the astronomical costs of a Mars Mission, maybe we’ll take another look at the value of an all-women crew?
I’m not holding my breath.
Read the article
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If NASA had believed in merit: The terrible injustice of Jerrie Cobb,
The first American astronauts, dubbed the Mercury 7, were certainly well-qualified, but the best candidate was constantly passed over — and for all the wrong reasons.
When the space race began, Jerrie Cobb, 26, seemed like the perfect fit for astronaut. Thirteen American women — today known as the Mercury 13 — were selected to participate in the three phases of testing as astronauts. Cobb was the only one who passed them all.
Not only did she pass, her scores placed her in the top 2% of all candidates, meaning that if the same criteria that were applied to the Mercury 7 were applied to her as well, she would have been selected. But without official NASA backing, the testing and training programs for women were shut down. Cobb never made it into space.
Read the article
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There’s a commemoration poster in the honor of the Mercury 13, the women selected for astronaut training in the early days of space exploration., that contains an excerpt from a poem of mine.
For the first incandescent moments when NASA asked if the could use my poem, all I could do was sit and stare. And then I screamed. And then I cried. And then, after I tapped out a permission slip, it began to sink in for real.
NASA WANTED TO USE MY POEM.
I was, at least vicariously, finally going into space.
Read the article
See the poem here
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Writer’s tics
My first reader and editor (aka husband) often exclaims “Weasel Word” as he gleefully slashes from my copy such modifiers as “sort-of”, “probably”, “perhaps”.
Sometimes, I concede, he’s sort of got a point.
Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich admits that she has a writing tic: colons.
I love colons. A colon is more emphatic than a comma, tidier than a dash. It’s a tiny drumroll that tells the reader: Get ready. Something important or shocking is on the way. Because I love colons so much, it pains me to acknowledge that my attraction to them borders on addiction.
She asked several other writers “What tic (or call it a habit) would you like to change in your writing?”
She got some fascinating replies, including one from Gillian Flynn, author of the phenomenon known as “Gone Girl:
“I’m trying to wean myself off my very Gen X abuse of the word ‘literally,’ ” she said. “Gone Girl contains at least 33 uses of the word, which is 32 more times than any single novel needs. … I basically (literally) use it instead of an exclamation mark.”
Read the article
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Must reads for Feminists
The other day we talked about the books by women that all men should read. Now Emma Cueto at Bustle gives us:
13 Contemporary Novels All Feminists Should Read
Feminists and books go together, Cueto says. Whether feminists are writing books or reading them or both, the literary world has long been a place for women to tell their stories, in both fiction and nonfiction. It’s been a place for women to do so on their own terms, not through male intermediaries. And in today’s literary landscape, that is more true than ever.
Read the article
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THIS ‘n THAT
The Literary United States: A Map of the Best Book for Every State
illustration by Sarah Lutkenhaus
Read the article
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The 10 Best Mark Twain Books
Read the article
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11 of the Most Chilling Book Covers Ever Published
Read the article
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Quote of the Day
“I would give my life to fly in space. It’s hard for me to talk about it but I would. I would then, and I will now.” ~ Jerrie Cobb
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Alma Alexander
My books
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