Calling All "rowpro" Girls

[[old] Krysta Coleman]

Are there any other women here with RowPro software? I just got my copy recently, and have been splashing about online this week a bit. I'm really enjoying the company on these internet races and have found everyone to be very friendly and helpfull. Still, my on screen "character" seems to be the only one out there with a pony-tail. So don't be shy, you don't have to be fast - it's just for fun and it'd be great to see some more ladies out there!<br /><br />Send me a message if you'd like to do an online row with me anytime. <br /><br />- Krysta

[[old] grams]

Hi Krysta,<br /><br />I too was looking for a lady on RowPro a few weeks ago. I'm 62, and have been 'out' due to injuries this last year, and was hoping to find someone slow enough to erg along with so that I wouldn't push too hard and hurt myself again. <br /><br />I didn't find anyone, although the guys said the handicap system would take care of my slowness. Even with a handicap they would still have to wait to start though, probably for them a long time. I'm not sure that there are many guys over 60 participating online in any case.<br /><br />I am going to wait till I get faster and my house guests go home and I have more time before I give it a try again. Meantime I will be lurking on the RowPro forum to see how it all goes for you and the distaff side in general. I'm sure you will get faster if you stick with the group.<br /><br />My affiliation is with the Ancient Mariners, and our goals are for lots of meters, not speed. <br /><br />regards,<br />grams

[[old] Annabassand]

HI there<br /><br />I am not on rowpro yet, but would like to join. I have put it off for a while to get my times up (I just started rowing again about 14 days ago)... <br /><br />I hope we can team up at some point <br /><br />/Anna

[[old] Ralph Earle]

<!--QuoteBegin-grams+Aug 26 2005, 03:18 PM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(grams @ Aug 26 2005, 03:18 PM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->... Meantime I will be lurking on the RowPro forum to see how it all goes for you and the distaff side in general.  ... <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />Female:Male<br />Distaff:?????<br /><br />[No, not "Datstaff"]<br />

[[old] Citroen]

<!--QuoteBegin-Ralph Earle+Aug 27 2005, 07:02 PM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(Ralph Earle @ Aug 27 2005, 07:02 PM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin-grams+Aug 26 2005, 03:18 PM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(grams @ Aug 26 2005, 03:18 PM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->... Meantime I will be lurking on the RowPro forum to see how it all goes for you and the distaff side in general.  ... <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />Female:Male<br />Distaff:?????<br /><br />[No, not "Datstaff"] <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />If my searches on Google have turned up the right stuff.<br /><br />Female: Distaff<br />Male: Spear side <br /><br />

[[old] eparizeau]

More than you probably want to know...<br /><br />From www.randomhouse.com<br /><br />A distaff is 'a staff with a cleft end for holding wool, flax, etc., from which the thread is drawn in spinning by hand'. It can also be a simliar attachment on a spinning wheel. A dis is a bunch of flax. The word distaff first appeared in English around the year 1000. We find it in Chaucer (e.g., in the "Nun's Priest's Tale": "And Malkyn with a dystaf in hir hand") and in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy ("Tradesmen left their shops, women their distaves"). There was also an expression "to have tow on one's distaff" meaning 'to have work in hand or trouble in store,' as in the "Miller's Tale": "He hadde moore tow on his distaf Than Gerueys knew." (Tow is the fiber of flax or jute prepared for spinning.)<br /><br />Since women were the ones who did the spinning, the meaning of distaff was extended to mean 'woman's work'. This sense also goes back to the Canterbury Tales. In the "Monk's Prologue" we find, "She rampeth in my face And crieth...I wol haue thy knyf And thou shalt haue my distaf and go spynne." In King Lear Goneril says: "I must change names at home, and give the distaff into my husband's hands," i.e., 'I must become the soldier and leave my husband to do the spinning'. Shakespeare also used the word in Cymbeline: "Their owne noblenesse which could have turn'd a distaff to a lance." The distaff is contrasted with the sword, women's work of spinning contrasted with men's work of fighting.<br /><br />The day after Twelfth Night was called distaff's day": that was the day on which women resumed their spinning and ordinary household tasks after the Christmas holidays. Herrick wrote a poem called "St. Distaff's Day."<br /><br />Eventually distaff came to be used figuratively for the female sex, and the female branch of a family came to be known as the distaff side (as we might say "on my mother's side").<br /><br />The adjectival use of distaff as a synonym for 'female' became very common in the middle of the 20th century, as evidenced in the print media in expressions such as "the distaff tradition in English fiction" or "the distaff Ivy League colleges" or "the distaff side of the proceedings."<br /><br />In an interesting extension, distaff is also applied to horses as a synonym for 'female'; and we also find distaff side when speaking of horses.<br /><br />The corresponding terms for men, "sword side" and "spear side," come from old Germanic words (Old English "sperehealfe" and Middle Low German "swerdhalve" or "swerdside") but didn't appear in English until the 19th century ("from a grandfather on the spearside"; "by reason of their consanguinity, swordside and spindleside" -- another spinning term!) and are rarely used. Just yesterday I came across the following sentence in The Chimney Sweeper's Boy by Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell): "...if she had shown an interest in ... the distaff side, wouldn't her father perhaps have instructed her in the helmet side?" I haven't found "helmet side" anywhere else.<br /><br />Be careful using distaff as a synonym for'female'. Some women might find it offensive -- especially if they know the origin of the word.

[[old] woolsmith]

Wow, interesting info. I used to sell spinning wheels and related supplies, and I didn't know that and how it related to a rowing term. That's another piece of knowledge I'm going to stash in my spinning/weaving files. Who woulda thunk that my spinning and rowing were so interrelated like that? <br /><br />Thanks for the report, eparizeau!<br /><br />--jen, aka "woolsmith" Now you know where the "wool" in woolsmith comes from.

[[old] Ralph Earle]

<!--QuoteBegin-Citroen+Aug 27 2005, 06:37 PM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(Citroen @ Aug 27 2005, 06:37 PM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin-Ralph Earle+Aug 27 2005, 07:02 PM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(Ralph Earle @ Aug 27 2005, 07:02 PM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <br /><br />Female:Male<br />Distaff:?????<br /><br /> <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />If my searches on Google have turned up the right stuff.<br /><br />Female: Distaff<br />Male: Spear side <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br /><br />Here's my other favorite:<br /><br />Masculinity:Femininity<br />Virility:??????????<br />

[[old] grams]

And you thought I just threw in the word 'distaff' casually. Although it is a common perception that Americans have a limited vocabulary, us ladies know the true meaning of 'women's work' and all the words that pertain to it. That's another good one-pertain.<br /><br />grams

[[old] Citroen]

<!--QuoteBegin-Ralph Earle+Aug 28 2005, 06:43 PM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(Ralph Earle @ Aug 28 2005, 06:43 PM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin-Citroen+Aug 27 2005, 06:37 PM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(Citroen @ Aug 27 2005, 06:37 PM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin-Ralph Earle+Aug 27 2005, 07:02 PM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(Ralph Earle @ Aug 27 2005, 07:02 PM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <br /><br />Female:Male<br />Distaff:?????<br /><br /> <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />If my searches on Google have turned up the right stuff.<br /><br />Female: Distaff<br />Male: Spear side <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br /><br />Here's my other favorite:<br /><br />Masculinity:Femininity<br />Virility:?????????? <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />Hopefully, Google rules again.<br /><br />Masculinity:Femininity<br />Virility:Muliebrity

[[old] Ralph Earle]

<!--QuoteBegin-Citroen+Aug 30 2005, 09:40 PM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(Citroen @ Aug 30 2005, 09:40 PM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin-Ralph Earle+Aug 28 2005, 06:43 PM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(Ralph Earle @ Aug 28 2005, 06:43 PM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin-Citroen+Aug 27 2005, 06:37 PM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(Citroen @ Aug 27 2005, 06:37 PM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin-Ralph Earle+Aug 27 2005, 07:02 PM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(Ralph Earle @ Aug 27 2005, 07:02 PM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <br /><br />Female:Male<br />Distaff:?????<br /><br /> <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />If my searches on Google have turned up the right stuff.<br /><br />Female: Distaff<br />Male: Spear side <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br /><br />Here's my other favorite:<br /><br />Masculinity:Femininity<br />Virility:?????????? <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />Hopefully, Google rules again.<br /><br />Masculinity:Femininity<br />Virility:Muliebrity <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />Mr. Google wins again!<br /><br />(And thus endeth the hijacking of this post.)

[[old] chutchings]

Thanks for the row, this morning I really enjoyed it. If anyone else wants to have a go rowing let me know.<br /><br />Its not about how fast you go it about taking part.