Life Beyond Derby

We've been satirized! Check out this excellent piece in the Richmond Skeptic.

http://www.richmondskeptic.com/2012/02/dire-skates-new-name/

The fantastic King James just pointed all of us at this on the facebooks: what appears to be a quiz site with questions for each rule in the WFTDA book. Play with it and let us know if it's useful (or accurate). Thoughts? Please share in the comments below!

Grantland has a feature piece today about the Title IX anniversary, with a review of women's sport films. Scroll down to the Whip It! section for what I feel like is one of the best brief descriptions of modern derby by a sports writer that I've seen in a long time.

Are you burned out? Pissed off? Broken hearted? Derby dramz abound? Your feelings have been assigned a specific department. Give your league's Grievance Committee a break, because operators are standing by at the Department Of Disappointment Hotline! Just dial (513) 279-2229 (513-CRY-BABY). They're ready to believe you!

(NOTE: This is not some kind of passive aggressive snark in brief article form. It's a real phone number. You should dial it.)

This website is a headscratcher, but scroll down to entry #12 to see one of our favorite roller girls. Surprised there are not more of us here... vote for #12, Carson B. Demented of Duke City Derby!

So, I was raised to respect my elders, and in my book, a 91 year old woman gets to say whatever she damned well pleases. However, here's a bit of a snapshot of how another generation sees things. For me, personally, the shocker was the fat shaming bit. It made me feel grateful for being part of an era with different body image ideals.

Our Em Dash has been a bit busy this week, so I am filling in as chief doglover while she prepares to dominate in Los Angeles this weekend! Here are the winners of the contest, in this lovely gallery. This was no easy task, so please give all your pooches some smooches and treats for us!

The Carolina Rollergirls blog shares the story of former CRG skater Leatherneck for your benefit. The takeaway message: listen to your body.

Researchers in Zurich think it is, in part. When it comes to endurance training (or maybe even endurance bouting in a tournament situation) many of us have been able to use our heads to focus and find physical resources to go on that we didn't know we had.

This is not a link to someone's blog fantasizing, but a newspaper article. They make quite a leap from "rollersports" to roller derby.

However, I was sitting in my driveway this evening listening to Team USA women's boxers training for the 2012 Olympics on NPR. When I was boxing back in 1999, we used to get angry about not being included, and the politics that were keeping us out as a sport. We thought we'd never see women's boxing in the Olympics.

You never know...