Anzidei mentioned the National Women’s Soccer League where little kids now run routinely to their mothers after games. Four players in the Orlando Pride team had babies between 2019 and 2021. Come soccer mom/players returned to the field within months after giving birth, and one player surprised everyone with training videos while she was 7-months pregnant. Two married soccer mom/players adopted a daughter and belong to a family-friendly league whose manager is a former player and mother of two. Others have to choose between continuing to play or step back. I can’ imagine playing any sport and having to take a break to express breast milk!

The Soapbox feature in PW (8.1.22) was a good surprise. Author Seth Kaufman found out shortly before the publication of his comic-novel Seductive Lady Vanessa of Manhattanshire that the idea for his book had already been done. Not just once, 270 years earlier, but many times. In fact, 27 others have imitated Miguel Cervantes’ Don Quixote. After getting over the shock, Kaufman admitted his take-off matched Quixote’s over-the-top buffoonery more than the 17-year-old heroine in The Female Quixote of 1752. What fun!

Honestly, I have no idea of what to make of the obituary in The Economist (8.13.22) for Ann Shulgin, 91. It started with the first time Shulgin tried peyote -- sickening at first and then marvelous beyond compare. Shulgin admired Aldous Huxley who used mescaline. She used anything her husband, chemist Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin concocted in his lab. Despite criticism about it, she compared her psychedelic experiences to what people have when the fall in love. Ann was working as an administrator at University of California when she first met Sasha, who was married at the time. By then, she’d been married three times. She endured a miscarriage alone when two months pregnant and almost bled to death.

Ann and Sasha were deliberate about documenting their experiences scientifically by recording them and having pre-set rules. They eventually married and kept experimenting. She saw the function of a specific drug, MDMA, as an insight drug and clocked in about 2,000 more psychedelic trips. Creating new drugs to her was similar to creating music. Not many agreed. The Drug Enforcement Administration raided their home and fined them $25,000. Later, universities and therapists researched the use of MDMA as therapy for brain connectivity and neuroplasticity. She was labeled a pioneer. She simply said, they helped you love yourself. I’m no purist, but 2,000 times? Hmm.

blog post. https://rokeefehistory.com/blog #amreading; #RochesterNY; #Women&Sport; #RochesterDemocratandChronicle; #USATODAYNETWORK; #SerenaWilliams; #soccermoms; #breastfeeding; # Melanie Anzidei; #SethKaufman; #LadyVanessaofManhattanshire; #TheFemaleQuixote; #MiguelCervantes; #TheEconomist; #AnnShulgin; #SashaShulgin; #selflove;