Woman's Brains vs Men's Brawn

I was reading today all the hurrah over Kelly Kulik winning the PBA Tour, the first woman to do so and the comments gushed and crowed...now doesn't that prove that women can do anything as well as a man?? No, it actually only proves that a woman bowler can beat the pants off of men bowlers. Make no mistake, Kelly won by 70 pins and if you've ever bowled, you know how many pins that really is!!! But in a championship competition it's just bowler vs bowler, and game strategy , composure and smarts win. There is the eternal argument that finesse can beat out brute strength every time. I believe that wholeheartedly and will say it to anyone, any time. I remember having a conversation at a gathering at Brock and DiDi Peters house back in the 70s with Muhammad Ali and a bunch of other people. Now, readers here know I am a superfan of the Champ. He's my homie, and I always say 'Yeah, I'm from Louisville, me and Ali.' Now that makes what happened that night even a little more outrageous to some and really typical Ruth. We were still a little edgy over the recent bad earthquake here and the conversation had gone to what we all would do if one hit right at that moment. Somebody said we'd be glad the Champ was there because he was strong enough to lift the house up off of us so we could get out. Of course I said, well what if the way out does not depend on who is the strongest, but who is the smartest? Talk about heads swiveling in my direction, complete with real glares. Not Ali though, he just grinned and asked what I meant. I said, what if the house had fallen in on us and you could lift the roof off of us, but I knew where there was an exit door and we could get off without any heavy lifting. Ali graciously said, he hoped that I was around when the next earthquake hits and we all laughed. I understand the realiance on muscles thoughts. I was the number one tomboy in Louisville KY and could be counted on to throw a ball harder, take any dardevil dare, climb a tree higher and jump into anything that required some physical challenge, even when my brain cautioned. That I never listened of course is the reason, I broke my left arm, ran a spike through my right leg, split my head open several times and sailed ass over elbows off my bike half a dozen times to bruises, bumps, cuts and scars. Then I got sidelined by polio and had to rely solely on my brains. I'm happy I did or I might have been a woman's sports champion (not bowling, though)....who knows what the fate of the sidetracked Ruth Lavida Adkins Robinson would have been?

Of Jaguars and Men

Back in 1977, my mentor Brock Peters lent me to Lonne Elder to get some practical writing experience before I set out to write a script on an idea for a sequel on "To Kill A Mockingbird." Brock thought I had good ideas and talent but needed experience. Lonne was working on "A Woman Called Moses" and he took me on as an assistant. I wrote a passage one day describing Harriet Tubman saddling a horse. Lonne called it 'really good.' I thought I'd died and gone to Heaven. Of course, it probably wasn't and Lonne was being kind to the kid. He was an actor in the original cast of "Raisin in the Sun" and playwright "Ceremonies in Dark Old Men" and screenwriter. In 1973, he and Suzanne de Passe had become the first Black writers to be nominated for the Academy Award for writing. Lonne for "Sounder" and Suzanne for "Lady Sings the Blues." He was a giant, Lonne was--about the same height as me with a towering talent and a huge spirit. At the time, I didn't have a car and Lonne had an extra one and said I could use it. Can you believe it was a Jag, a BIG Jag, an XJ12 with all that gorgeous burl wood, painted a bright Turquoise? Every time you pressed your foot on the gas, you could see the fuel indicator move downwards. It was too loud and too expensive to operate, but oh god, I loved it. It also went to the shop every five minutes being constructed for the damp weather in England, not Southern California. But I loved it anyway. Just about the time I decided to buy another Jag, they became Fords and it didn't seem to hold all the luxurious allure... I do have a thing about cars. Ask me about the collection of Austins I once owned-all six of them-I'm the hard-driving Ruth Adkins Robinson.