1.23.2006

Alison and Walter in the news

Here are a couple of recent newspaper articles that quoted me--one in the Houston Free Press on roller derby and one in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle on women changing or not changing their names when they get married.

Also, somewhat randomly, Walter and I were interviewed by Money Magazine, of all things, about being in a commuter marriage--thanks to Sara Walker for the link!

7 comments:

The Mom said...

Wow, Alison & Walter! When did this happen? (If the dates were posted on the articles, I didn't notice, and don't want to go back now and look!) I'll try to remember to tell Aaron & Mary about this so she can tell her sister about the article.

Anonymous said...

I really enjoyed the article on the name change thing. However (and correct me if I'm wrong here), isn't the whole idea kind of a Western notion? My understanding is that in Korea, it's not really done.

When we were married, some of our family members were kind of surprised Angela wasn't dying to take my name. Probably because you get loads of attention being named after a camping stove. I guess what really took us off guard was just who took an issue with it (it's never the one's you think...). Anyway, we just explained that we were in fact being traditional, to Angela's Korean heritage. Silly honkies bought it hook, line and sinker.

The article on commuter marriages was also great and since Angela and I lived in separate cities for 2-1/2 years prior to getting married, I think a lot of that was sound advice.

Kenneth Burns said...

If you're in Money magazine, does that mean you have money? Can I borrow some?

Anonymous said...

Regarding 'roller derby'-- Is it not right and just to have women respect their bodies? Must women be such as the manly pigs that crush and rip into one another over a pig's skin? I hope this does not degrade women to abuse and the status of animals in the eyes of male counterparts

Biffle said...

Here's the funny thing about us being in Money magazine--not only are we fairly resistant to capitalism (some of us more than others), but we don't have much money. They actually were going to do a whole profile on us in the magazine, but when they found out how little we made, they changed their minds!

And Kevin O'Mara, you are a mess. (That's a Shirley Biffle-ism, for those of you who are paying attention.)

Katie Dills said...

Roller derby is SO AWESOME. All the girls who do it are so real and into the game itself. The fact that 'ooh guys think it's HOTT' really doesn't factor into it. I wasn't sure how serious it was till I came to Portland, but these girls are very talented serious athletes! Especially your sister-in-law Mary's sister, she is an amazing skater and one of the best in the league. I've never met a group of girls more self-confident than they are. Nobody worries about how fat they are or how big their boobs are or aren't. The bigger girls are actually revered and favored over the small ones for their excellent blocking abilities. I've been eating like crazy recently and I think it's roller derby subconciously making me want to have more mass so I don't get knocked around so much. Anyhow, what I'm trying to say is, these girls are just as serious about the sport as female soccer or basketball players are.

Sometimes we wear short skirts but it ain't for the guys. We do it all the time, mainly when guys aren't even going to see us. We just think short skirts and roller skates are cute. I love going to practice and falling down and not caring that anyone sees my underwear because it's considered normal.

I didn't change my last name at first because I was lazy. But then later I became attached to it...in college I had a blog (before the word blog was invented) simply called 'Millsville'. MILLS! Katie MILLS!!!! That's who I am! But I really don't mind when people call me Katie O'Mara. Man funny story...one of my friends here suggested as a roller derby name 'Katie Kills' but I said nah cuz no one knows my last name is Mills so she's started calling Kevin 'Mr. Kills' cuz I guess she assumes his last name is Mills (a perfectly logical assumption) and I think it's too funny to tell her otherwise.

I'm curious, what do you say to the the multiple hyphen after multiple generations argument? Like your daughter will be Biffle-Piepmeier-Smith and her daughter will be Biffle-Piepmeier-Smith-Johnson?

There's no way I'd be willing to pull off a long-distance marriage. I miss Kevin after 8 hours of work. The main reason we decided for Kevin to quit his current job is because we weren't seeing each other enough. That's awesome it's working for you guys though.

Biffle said...

Quick thoughts for Katie:

LOVE your take on roller derby. That's so cool. I hope I get to see some someday.

I'm going to respond to your name-change question in a real post soon....