Picture It, Hollywood, 2008

I make so secret my affection for one of the funniest comedies of the 1980s – The Golden Girls. The dynamic between the four women in the cast is unmatched.

Yesterday the youngest Golden Girl, though she played the oldest, died. Estelle Getty, who played Sophia Petrillo, died at age 84 after suffering for the past few years with dementia.

Sophia was known for her stinging comments about her daughter Dorothy, played by actress Bea Arthur, her fear of returning to Shady Pines, a retirement home, and her stories filled with wisdom and advice. Sophia’s stories always started with “Picture it” followed by a place and a year. Some of the funniest moments came from these stories. Getty also received seven Emmy award nominations and one win for her playing of Sophia.

Getty will be sorely missed, and hopefully the Golden Girls will live on forever in syndication. Here’s a YouTube video featuring clips of Getty as Sophia, but is only a small fraction of the great work she did on the series.

Political Humor

JibJab is at it again. They have put out a very good video about campaigning for the upcoming presidential election. It is very clever and I just felt the need to share it.

Women in Sports This Weekend

This has been a great weekend for women in sports. I want to touch on two of the biggest stories of the weekend.

First we have Venus Williams defeating her sister Serena to win Wimbledon yesterday. The sisters have been criticized in the past for not playing their hardest when playing each other. That could not be said about yesterday's match. Both women played their hardest, and Venus won in two sets.


Then we have Dara Torres. Torres is a U.S. swimmer who this weekend qualified for the team to compete at this summer's Olympics in Beijing in the 100-meter freestyle event. Torres may also qualify for other events today. This is noteworthy for a few reasons. First, this is Torres' fifth Olympic Games. And she is 41 years old. During the 2000 Games in Sydney she was the oldest member of the U.S. swim team. There's no doubt that she will be again this year. And it should be noted that Torres won her first Olympic medal during the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, which to put into perspective was before current swimming phenom Michael Phelps was even born.


Congratulations to both these athletes!