www.theotherpress.ca

Opinions.

 

Rants and Raves

Do you want to share something you love or hate? Has something been weighing on your mind? Then write it out! If you have a quick rant or rave that you'd like to submit for publication,
contact the Opinions Editor at opinions@theotherpress.ca— we want to hear from you!

 

think I may be alone here, but I can’t stand when intersections or guard railings have make-shift memorials planted beside them, “honouring” someone who died there.

First off, I thought that’s what cemeteries were for? If we're going to be erecting tributes everywhere someone died, then places like hospitals would be overflowing with
things like flowers and plush animals. Frankly, seeing roadside memorials is depressing and after a few days in the rain, unpleasant to look out. If you want a way to warn
drivers about a potentially hazardous intersection or piece of road, maybe start a petition to have a sign put in instead of transplanting a temporary garden.

- Roadside rage

 

 

music.

eadphones are my favourite accessory. I want to acknowledge that few people—myself included—actually look good sporting massive pods on either side of their

head, but after I recently canned my earbuds in favour of something more substantial, I know I can’t go back. I’ve always had trouble making earbuds stay in my
bizarrely small ears, but even apart from that, the experience of listening to music on headphones is so much better. Ears don’t hurt from having music blasted directly
into the drum; they block outside noise much better, so I don’t have to listen to honking cars or chirping birds if I don’t want to; and if you invest in a good pair, the sound
quality is much better. They’re spectacularly dorky-looking, and aren’t nearly as sleek or subtle as the easily hidden earbuds, but there’s really no other way to listen to

- Music to my ears

 

 

“m nowhere near being an expert in health, but I’m really sick of hearing about how unhealthy binge drinking is, and how college students are slowly killing themselves
one bottle at a time. No one’s pretending that they’re paragons of health by downing shots, and to be honest, few people even think about the effects of alcohol on
their liver when they’re at a party. That’s one of the points of going to a party: have fun, and forget about exams, commitments, and other concerns. I’m well aware that it
would be better to limit how much alcohol I consume. My hangover the morning after drives that point home just fine without articles and advertisements warning me
that my organs are shrivelling up. Obviously people should be safe, drink with people they trust to avoid becoming vulnerable, and not die. Those warnings are fine, but
I’m young, I like to have fun, and I don’t want to hear about how my having fun is dangerous to the health of my organs.

- Sorry for party rocking

 

 

 

don’t think this gets emphasized enough outside of fights that develop from little white lies, but honesty really is the best policy. Every once in a while Ill find myself in

a situation where telling someone the truth will be awkward and embarrassing, possibly hurtful, and almost definitely complicated, and like most people, I’m tempted
to lie. Whether by omission or admission, a lie is almost always the easiest way to go, at least in the short-term. But I’m slowly finding, based on the few times that I’ve
recently had to confront my aversion to honesty, that I don’t regret telling the truth. I don’t regret being honest about what I’ve thought, felt, or done. I only regret other
people’s reactions to my honesty, and their reactions are up to them—not me. So, much as I don’t really have anything against lying (it’s still a tempting little treat), I’m
finding more and more that I love being honest.

- TBH

 

 

Cooking is not rocket science

Getting to the bottom
of the Yvonne Brill
memorial scandal

By Angela Espinoza, Arts Editor

anadian rocket scientist

Yvonne Brill sadly passed
away on March 27 due to breast
cancer at the age of 88. Brill’s
enhancements of propulsion
systems and inventions, some
of which are still used today,
have secured her as one of the
great scientific minds of the past
century. Unfortunately, while
this should be a time to mourn
and celebrate a great person,
Brill’s accomplishments in her
lifetime have not been making
the headlines. In place of these

accomplishments, you'll find
the highlight of these stories has
been her beef stroganoff—or, at
least, the outrage of it.

To clarify, the Winnipeg-
born Brill spent much of her
working life in the US, having
most recently been a resident of
New Jersey. As such, Douglas
Martin of The New York Times
felt obliged to write a loving
obituary in Brill’s memory,
which was published on March
30. The following is what
the opening of this obituary
originally read:

“She made a mean beef
stroganoff, followed her
husband from job to job, and
took eight years off from work
to raise three children. “The
world’s best mom,’ her son
Matthew said.

But Yvonne Brill, who
died on Wednesday at 88

in Princeton, NJ, was also a
brilliant rocket scientist, who
in the early 1970s invented a
propulsion system to help keep
communications satellites from
slipping out of their orbits.”

Within the next day, there
was a public outcry against the
offensive intro. The Times edited
the piece so that, “She was a
brilliant rocket scientist,” now
replaced, “She made a mean
beef stroganoff.” The rest of the
article otherwise reads as it was,
which, to be fair, is a respectful
and detailed account of Brill’s
career and family life. (Her son
Matthew was interviewed for
the piece, after all.)

Though there still remains
the line, “followed her husband
from job to job and took eight
years off from work to raise
three children,” which is just as
unsettling to read. At this point,

with all the attention the piece
has garnered, the argument is no
longer about who Brill was, but
how the public should remember
her. But the argument doesn’t
end there, because now attention
also rests on how all women’s
careers should be viewed.

What was originally a blind
mistake (I hope) has become
another painful reminder that
no matter what a woman does
with her life, she’s just going
to be associated with kitchens
and family in the end. Rocket
science was not Yvonne Brill’s
side project, or something her
husband assumedly allowed her
to do.

What if Brill had never
gotten married or had children?
Well obviously this is how
her obituary would read:
“Yvonne Brill was a brilliant
rocket scientist who died on

Wednesday at 88 in Princeton,
N,J. In the early 1970s, she
invented a propulsion system
to help keep communications
satellites from slipping out of
their orbits.”

Better question, after all the
negative response, why the hell
doesn’t it read that way now?
Why couldn’t something like,
“She was also a loving wife and
mother, who took eight years
off from work to raise three
children before returning,”
be the first part of the second
paragraph instead?

It's wonderful that Brill
was a good mother who found
a way to balance her career and
her family life. But I also hope
this serves as a reminder that
unless she is a chef of some sort,
no woman should ever have her
obituary start with, “She made a
mean beef stroganoff.”

1/