"I've done that a couple of times. I didn't know there was funding available."

But seriously, now. Ewwwwww.

It started well before the Olsen Twins... I remember the websites counting down to Natalie Portman's 18th, roughly coinciding with the release of the first Star Wars prequel. My guy friends were only about 19 at the time, but I still thought it was icky.

When Britney appeared on the scene, no one seemed to worry much about waiting for the countdown to end before they'd admit to drooling. They just drooled.

I'd rather go to the dentist than go to the gym (if I drag myself there twice, it's a really good week), but I'll play ice hockey as many times a week as I can afford. I get no satisfaction out of exercise that isn't, in and of itself, fun. Even with TV and books and music and movies on my Zune, every minute at the gym is excruciatingly, spirit-crushingly boring. Unfortunately, a month at the gym costs less than a single hockey game.

I cross into British Columbia several times a year to watch hockey games or play in hockey tournaments, and the contrast between the two countries is so obvious.

The friendly Canadian border guards ask what we're there for, which rink we're playing at, and how we like our chances in the the tournament. Then they wish us good luck and wave us across.

The US border guards are surly (I've run across exactly two exceptions, ever). They're skeptical that an American female would be driving any significant distance to play that weird Canadian sport, and usually ask if "those hockey sticks belong to my boyfriend." I get grilled about who owns the car I'm driving, what college I went to, what I majored in, what I do for a living, why I have a friend from a different (neighboring) state in the car with me, and, of course, whether I went shopping in Canada. I've had them take my hockey sticks out of the car to investigate whether the tape over the end is fresh (the new sticks are all hollow and, I guess, could be used to hide drugs or whatever).

Interestingly, they've never yet discovered the Tylenol-with-codeine I nearly always pick up while I'm in BC, hidden in the stinky depths of my hockey gear bag. So their system of being jackasses is really working well.

As far as anyone on that field knew (including both coaches and the umpires), if the injured player didn't finish rounding the bases herself, the 3 additional runs would not have counted. Everyone at the game was operating under the assumption that the pinch runner would have to start at 1st base and the hit would be recorded as a single. It was under that assumption that the opposing players volunteered to carry her.

Later, the coaches got clarification of the rules and learned that a pinch runner would have been able to finish rounding the bases and the homer run would have counted.

I think it's a fairly beautiful example of sportsmanship, and exactly the way the game (ANY game) should be played. It's not like an outfielder stood holding the ball waiting for the batter to be carried around--the ball was out. The fielding team isn't NOT doing anything within the rules to allow the batting team to score.

I also think there are plenty of men, even professionals (in certain situations), who would do exactly the same thing.

Personally, I like looking things up myself.

From Wikipedia's entry on the Silver Star:

In 1944, four nurses serving in World War II became the first female recipients of the Silver Star. 1st Lt. Mary Roberts, 2nd Lt. Elaine Roe, 2nd Lt. Virginia Rourke, and 2nd Lt. Ellen Ainsworth (posthumous) were cited for their bravery in successfully evacuating the 33rd Field Hospital at Anzio, Italy on February 10.

They remained the sole female recipients until Leigh Ann Hester was awarded the Silver Star in 2005 for gallantry during an insurgent ambush on a convoy in Iraq.

Three nurses serving in World War I were posthumously awarded the Silver Star in 2007.

Army Spc. Monica Lin Brown, the first woman serving in Afghanistan to be chosen for this honor, was awarded the Silver Star in March 2008.

Did you read the Washington Post article that was linked? It gave specific examples of "women's skills," in the context of soldiers in Iraq.

...the culturally sensitive role of providing medical treatment for local women, as well as searching them and otherwise interacting with them.

Whoops.

She played the strong, smart, capable female lead in the first Indiana Jones movie.

There was a strong, smart, capable female lead in the first Indy movie? I guess she starts off that way, but mostly I remember a chick in a filmy white dress screaming a lot and needing to be rescued. It was like as soon as she changed out of her khakis, the helpless damsel archetype took over.

It's simple, tasteful, and has all of 2 photos of the happy couple, and cute but not nauseating 4-paragraph stories of how they met. I'm the least sentimental person I know. My fingers aren't capable of generating some schmaltzy, self-indulgent, cooing love-fest of lace and pink hearts, no matter how much I love my friend.

The site is decorative and matches the wedding's theme, but it's utilitarian at heart.

The site's real purpose: a ton of important and useful information that won't fit on a Save-The-Date card or isn't appropriate to include on the invitation. Date, venues, gift registries, and a boatload of custom map links for the people driving in (from multiple states), flying in (to multiple airports), renting cars and staying in various hotels.

And all this for a relatively modest, self-planned wedding with 100 guests. Today's working bride, planning her own wedding with help from her (also working) girlfriends and (also working) mother, doesn't have time to answer phone calls from 100 guests telling them where she's registered. But that can't go in the invitation, so...