It's true that General Aviation is declining, and that most pilots you'll meet on any GA field are "retired white guys," as the article mentions. But I don't know if I'm more upset by the Times writer's willingness to make such glib assumptions about gender ("nearly every boy" used to dream about flying) or AOPA prez Phil Boyer's willingness to publicly alienate and condescend to the women his association needs more than ever. Honestly, he's trying to get women interested in flying by teaching them how to "help" in the plane?

The women's group at the airport where I used to take lessons, a tiny hilltop airstrip in Northern California, would not have taken kindly to the tone he sets in this interview. They were a large and vocal group who welcomed and supported me as a budding pilot. One of the group's leaders, a woman in her 70s, had a line of flags painted under the window of her Mooney, representing the various countries she had flown in and to. She even flew the Bering Strait once.

Why didn't I get my license? It was money, pure and simple. Not only does it cost significantly more per hour than it did when my parents (both of them) were getting their licenses (my mother could fly before she could drive), it also took longer than it did for them. I've heard from my parents and others that you used to be able to solo after less than 10 hours of instruction. My instructor rarely let a student up alone before at least 15 or 20.

Part of what I always loved about flying, and about pilots, was a striking *lack* of sexism on the field. There was no derision, no condescension -- just a mutual love affair with the sky. Makes sense in a hobby where the names Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart are often mentioned in the same breath.

As a slightly outdated sidenote, Joss and fellow Buffy writer/producer Marti Noxon each wrote letters to the MPAA last March encouraging them to deny "Captivity" a rating as a consequence for the billboard campaign. Apparently the effort failed, but you can read both letters here:

http://removetherating.blogspot.com/2007/03/discuss-discuss-discuss.html

Just scroll down to the March 26 entries. Marti's, especially, goes a long way towards explaining the connection between real-life sexual violence and the public depiction of sexualIZED violence against women.

Just to echo Lapsang's sentiment, it's a bit hard to know how to react to this particular brand of fandom. I've been more or less obsessed with the HP books ever since a Wiccan friend loaned them to me back when there were only three out and no merchandising -- just a strange bit of buzz about schoolkids actually getting excited about something they were reading. I was a newspaper reporter in a small town, and I remember interviewing a baffled-yet-pleased school librarian who told tales of students who had always hated books suddenly spending their lunches in the library. When I picked the books up myself, partly out of solidarity with this new-fangled 'reading' craze, I read each one faster than the last. Now I have all of them in hardback and a few British versions as well, just to compare. I'm a fan, right?

Only I've never read any fanfic (I have the same bookish reservations as Ms. Traister), never dressed up as any of the characters, never gone on to try and cast real spells. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just not my scene.

But part of me wonders if that's what's required of 'real' fans now, and wonders if, maybe, that might be turning some people off. I've met a fair few bookworms who've stayed away from HP because of the perceived hype and intensity of the fans.

Then again, that's a bit like refusing to listen to a band because they've become popular.

At any rate, I've got my Book 7 pre-ordered. And I'll probably even queue up with the other rabid fans at midnight, partly because I live in Edinburgh now and it's the last book. But mostly, because I can't wait to *read* it.

"Until that time, men who really really don't want a kid right now should probably not have sex."

Maybe all these young guys who don't want kids right now should be hooking up with older women like the one who wrote Cary Tennis...

This doc sounds a bit like 'Hiroshima', the book John Hersey wrote shortly after the war ended. It shocked the hell out of me when I read it years ago, and I wondered then why more hadn't been made of this.

Well said! This is the same choice every woman has to face when she encounters a male stranger -- not wanting to unfairly judge on appearances, but also not wanting to be a statistic. The danger is very real and quite common. While overly-paranoid reactions to fathers minding daughters aren't helping the situation either, the real problem is that a dangerous minority of men are giving their entire gender a bad name. Seems to me this vast majority of guys who don't believe in harming children should be focusing their anger on that, as your grandfathers did.

Joss Whedon turns his back on network tv for ooooone little minute, and the whole thing goes to shit.