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Women Drivers, ViagraVision and Art Attacks

Three for the price of one…

By Gloria Diaz

Check out Gloria's Blog — Edge of Gloria!

Fort Wayne Reader

2005-06-13

I was out of the country while the Indianapolis 500 was being run, so I didn’t know until the next day that Danica Patrick finished fourth. I was happy for her. I’m always glad when a woman takes on men in male-dominated professions or sports and is able to achieve something. My brother was there to see it live, and said when Patrick had the lead for a few laps, most of the crowd was cheering for her. Hmmm. Really? In a sport that is increasingly being dominated by European drivers, the Indy Racing League should take notice. Will the All-American, beer-swilling crowd at the Indy 500 cheer for a woman? You bet, especially if she’s an AMERICAN woman. This should be the IRL’s cue to recruit more American female drivers to bring back fans.
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Does anyone find it funny that Viagra is linked to vision loss? Wait -- let me rephrase that. Do any women find it funny that Viagra is linked to vision loss? I find it really, really funny. They come up with a drug to provide robust boners, but some men can’t see to appreciate them. In a country where birth control pills aren’t always covered by health insurance and some renegade pharmacists refuse to fill prescriptions for them because it’s against their beliefs, it’s poetic justice Viagra causes men to lose sight. It may just cut down on population growth, if you can’t see your woman. And if you can’t find your woman, and she couldn’t get her birth control prescription filled, well then, you’ve just avoided adding another mouth to feed.
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I walked into my living room a few weeks ago just in time to hear that three of the 102 Mastodons created as a city-wide art project were vandalized. My first thought was “this is proof that the city doesn’t deserve anything nice, because its citizens don’t appreciate it.” My second thought was, unfortunately, “it took them this long to vandalize them?”

Fort Wayne has a strange mentality about what it wants and what it thinks is worthwhile. I personally think the Mastodon project is cool; it allows our creative talent to show off a bit and promotes local business at the same time. It’s bringing people downtown at a time when there aren’t any festivals going on, which is a rare feat. And it gives the city some sort of identity; Chicago had a similar art project, with bulls, but Fort Wayne has mastodons, an animal you don’t see every day.

But a few are ruined, and for what? Were the vandals bored? Was it a statement against corporate-funded art? A hatred of prehistoric elephants?

Whatever the motive, it makes the city look bad; like we’re all a group of spoiled brats who, given something nice or interesting or fun, we take a collective dump on it.

Does anyone else think this attitude is what’s keeping corporations from investing in the city? Why is it corporations pass us by for ritzier cities, even though property is incredibly affordable here? Newcomers remark on what a friendly town this is. We’re not too terribly far away from Chicago and Indianapolis, if you have to make a business trip there. The traffic is not as bad here. Fort Wayne has a lot to offer corporate types, if only someone would take on the job as the town’s press agent.