And then I wrote...

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... that this column is going to test my typing ability, which is already suspect. I think I was the only one in my high school typing class not to earn the 40 wpm pin. And in my long career at the newspaper, several of the young women with whom I worked found occasion to giggle or snicker at my “hunt and peck” approach.

It is sort of the same reason why I could never master the guitar. My fingers do not obey my mind quickly enough. That is also why I depend on a mouse and can’t use the touchpad on the computer.

The problem?

The Iowa women lost their NIT basketball game to Washington State over the weekend. Washington State is the name of the school, but the team roster read more like a United Nations all-star lineup.

This is not sour grapes. They played better than Iowa did that day, and deserved the win.

Most of the young women on Iowa’s team seem to come from this state or neighboring Midwest states. I don’t think anyone has been imported from abroad.

Washington State’s team included eight players from foreign lands: Two from Australia and one each from France, Macedonia, Portugal, Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria.

Would it be naive of me to think they were all just drawn by the academic excellence of the school and its Mediterranean climate?

I listened on WMT radio, and the announcer must have prepared well, because he did not falter in pronunciation. Despite names like Pinepoli Pavoppilou, Ivana Kmetovska and Maria Kosyourkova. Whew!

If that’s tough on sportswriters and announcers, the Ladies Professional Golf Association might be even worse!

I noticed Thidapa Suwannapura, Pomanong Phatium, and a young woman whose last name really takes the prize: Santiwhattanaphong, Her first name? Sherman!

Just seeing them in print resembles what might appear if a couple kittens had walked over the computer keyboard.

I hope they all have nicknames.

There were a couple names I had to shorten with a (‘) or two to fit in a box score. That last one would have stumped me!

Listening to radio this morning, I heard that this was the anniversary of the terrible fire than killed over 100 women in a factory fire. They had been locked in at the place where they were sewing shirtwaists.

What in the ever lovin’ blue eyed world is a shirtwaist, I wondered.

Turns out, it is a woman’s blouse tailored to look like a man’s shirt.

Today, I suspect, the women would simply wear a man’s shirt!

Made in China or Taiwan, and not New Jersey.

P.S. You should have seen spell check going through the above!