My FIRST blog entry

Hello. This blog will cover ALL the topics that interest me. That's a very long and diverse list, but includes:

• knit and crochet
• politics (liberal)
• feminism (radical-thinking; reform-acting)
• reproductive choice (I'm for it)
• domestic violence (I'm against it - and it's the focus of my professional and volunteer life)
• sports (love all kinds; football is my favorite and I've been a rabid Washington Redskins fan since 1955, when I was 5 years old )
• my kids (son Allen, born 1985; daughter Marcia, born 1989)
  
• my life partner (Marty, born ____ (he'd probably prefer I didn't say); we met in 1982; married since 1985)
• human beings (everything about them interests me, including how they relate to each other and how they feel about themselves internally)
  
• movies
• law
• technology, especially for my beloved Mac computer (I despise mere gadgets, but love technology when it's a tool)
  
• music, art, literature
• good writing - including grammar and usage

And much, much more. Presumably no one else is interested in all these same things. I even considered starting multiple blogs so the knitters wouldn't have to slog through the politics and the movie lovers wouldn't have to slog through the knitting. But instead I'll just do my best to tag posts accurately.

As for my background, I guess I'll start with my job. (That's how all American respond to, "What do you do?" Did you know that a European might answer this same question, "I like to ski"??)

I'm a law professor at the University of Tulsa in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Math from above will tell you I was born in 1950 - total Baby Boomer. I was raised in Washington, D.C. (thus...the Redskins). My father moved to Washington when he was 13, and my mother's family has lived in Washington since before the Civil War, so we're real natives. I have one older sister; we're very close. I went to the Quaker school in D.C., Sidwell Friends, all the way from 1st through 12th grade. (Chelsea Clinton went there - as well as Richard Nixon's daughters when he was Veep.) I then went to Cornell University (American history major, '72) and Harvard Law School ('75). After three years as a practicing lawyer at the U.S. Dept. of Labor in D.C., I became a law professor, so this year marks 30 years in teaching. I've taught at the law schools of American University in D.C., U. of Florda (met my husband there; son born in Gainesville), Albany Law School in Albany, NY (daughter born there) and, for the past 13 years, at U. Tulsa.

My husband, also a law professor, has been the Dean of the University of Akron Law School in Akron, Ohio, since Jan. of this year. I will be leaving Tulsa and joining him pretty soon, probably at the end of the current academic year.

And...while I'm at it...I might as well mention my biggest claim to fame. I'm one of the all-time champions on the TV game show "Jeopardy!" In 1987, I won nearly $50,000 - and that was before they doubled the money amounts, so in today's game my winnings would have been almost $100,000. I was a semi-finalist in the 1988 Tournament of Champions, where I was out of my league. Then I appeared as a contestant in the 2002 Million Dollar Masters tournament, where I was way, way, WAY out of my league. But, hey, they gave me $10,000, plus an all-expenses paid trip to New York, including putting me up at the Waldorf-Astoria. Thus, I was perfectly content to be fodder for the other, much more knowledgeable Million Dollar contestants.

As you might expect from a Jeopardy! champion, my brain is chockful of trivia. If I'm not there and my friends are arguing about anything (Was it Barbara Stanwyck or Katharine Hepburn in that movie? Who was President in 1900? How old was Dickens when he died?) - someone will say, "If Kate were here, she'd know." More than one person has told me, "If I'm ever on 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire," you'll be one of my phone-a-friends."


In a future post, I'll say why I named the blog "Kate Can Help." At the moment, the title is misleading. For now, I'll be focusing on sharing my thoughts and activities. I'm going to allow comments, but I probably will NOT respond to comments or offer help very much.

Thanks for reading.