Random Thoughts

We are starting out the week with random thoughts. It really is more random articles than random thoughts but today I am just having trouble getting organized so I decided to share the first three things that came to my in box.

First up is an article about art that was thought to be destroyed by the Nazis during World War II:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101108/ap_en_ot/eu_germany_degenerate_art;_ylt=Aovi_f_dTQ0M4fyF.RYjkxqs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFrbHV2bmdoBHBvcwMxNjEEc2VjA2FjY29yZGlvbl9lbnRlcnRhaW5tZW50BHNsawNhcnRiZWxpZXZlZGQ-

Next we are going to help you find a place to rent for one dollar a week:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101104/od_nm/us_australia_town

Finally we are going to share the story of a young student that created music using DNA in a virus:

http://www.aolnews.com/weird-news/article/grad-student-alexandra-pajak-composes-sounds-of-hiv-songs-using-dna-of-aids-virus/19701375

Your comments are appreciated and since I am disorganized your comments can be too.


WHO AM I?

I was born in 1849 and was a descendant of Daniel Boone and a sister of a U.S. Senator. At age 15, I eloped with a farmer and we immediately began having children. Since he had difficulty supporting our family we moved several times to places including Portland, Oregon and San Jose, California. When my husband deserted me and our five children, I began studying law in the office of a local judge. After being denied admission to law school because of my gender I sued and argued my own case. I won admission. Even though I passed the bar exam California allowed only white males to become members of the bar. I then authored a state bill which replaced "white male" with "person." I kept extensive career scrapbooks, wrote many letters and was in the process of writing my autobiography when I died. I have a building in downtown Los Angeles named after me. Not satisfied with becoming an attorney I became a leader in the woman’s voting rights movement. During a career that spanned 56 years I almost single-handedly pushed a great deal of progressive legislation for women’s rights in the voting and legal fields. At the Chicago World’s Fair , during a "congress" of the Board of Lady Managers I introduced my idea of the public defender, a then-radical concept of providing assistance to indigent criminal defendants. My many trail-blazing accomplishments include becoming the first female clerk for the State Judiciary Committee; the first woman appointed to the State Board of Corrections; the first female licensed Notary Public; the first woman named director of a major bank; and when I was eighty-one I became the first woman to run for Governor of California. I was the first woman to be admitted to the California bar and the first female deputy district attorney in the United States. In my spare time I raised five children as a single mother.I authored the following quote: "Everything in retrospect seems weird, phantasmal, and unreal. I peer back across the misty years into that era of prejudice and limitation, when a woman lawyer was a joke ... but the story of my triumphs will eventually disclose that though the battle has been long and hard-fought it was worth while." WHO AM I?