The page-three feature, which appears every Friday, began with a tragedy. While working in Washington after graduating from Radcliffe, Mary Lord was attacked and subsequently hospitalized. Deane took time off to be with her daughter, and while on a therapeutic trip to the Bahamas, they began talking in earnest about their different views of the world. They wrote down some of their thoughts and forgot about the whole business. A year later, though, Deane's friend, New York Daily News columnist Jimmy Breslin suggested the Lord duo try to market the results of their tete a tetes. Today, the column is syndicated, even appearing in a Japanese daily.
Lord and her daughter frequently address the plight of women in America, and discuss the changing nature of American society. Deane usually takes a more reserved stance, defending the hard-working wife-mother and encouraging readers to respect women, regardless of their career achievements. She relies on a folksy style and low-key sense of humor to convey her theme. In a recent discussion prompted by the air traffic controllers' strike, she concluded:
When asked what would happen if all mothers went out on strike, a young father replied. "Why, what a crazy idea."
When pressed, the best he could come up with was. "Gosh, I guess maybe dads would have to scramble more eggs."
Another Humpty-Dumptyism, and we know what happened to Humpty Dumpty.
Women are routinely portrayed as rulers in the realm of "the unironed shirts, the dirty floors, and the unwashed dishes," but they are not to be scoffed at.
And this outlook, not surprisingly, surfaces in Lord's assessment of her own career. She frequently refers to her attempts at juggling marriage, children, and a career. In a piece on Sandra Day O'Connor, President Reagan's choice for the first female Supreme Court Justice, Lord commiserated with the jurist, writing. "I can guess at the hard choices that Judge O'Connor must have made to succeed."
Lord says there are topics--namely gun control and abortion--that she doesn't address. "I'd be willing, but I'm not sure the paper would welcome my views," she says. In a similar fashion, she often finds herself hoping that exciting media events will fall into her lap when Harvard administrators would just as soon see the Yard free of television cameras and sound crews. Last spring, when rumors "were hot and heavy" that Reagan might turn up to give a Commencement speech, Lord appeared on Channel 5 to comment on negotiations between Massachusetts Hall and the White House and she was clearly rooting for the big event to come off. "As usual, I would have loved all the press," she says, adding with a wink, "but I don't think my views were widely shared. Oh well."