Laughter begets laughter...

Our Funny Girls Away Day gave us a chance to celebrate female comediennes over the last 85 years, starting with that queen of swagger - Mae West - with her fabulous one-liners, and culminating with the equally swaggering Mo'nique, with her no-nonsense take on "skinny bitches." On the way, we sampled American and British comediennes from the sit-com, stand-up and comic sketch traditions: Lucille Ball, Patricia Routledge, Dawn French, Mary Tyler Moore, Joan Rivers, Ellen deGeneres, Fiona Allen, Doon Mackichin, Sally Phillips, Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley, June Whitfield, Margaret Cho, Kathy Griffin and Sarah Silverman, among others.
And after a full day of viewing, Christmas lunching (yes...we know...but we were exploring the idea of incongruity in humour...) and rigourously working (and challenging!) several traditional philosophical approaches to the realm of humour, we cobbled together our own philosophy of humour - and with it, some answers to what makes us laugh:

• The sharing of a laugh
  
• The unexpected twist or surprise that catches you off guard
  
• A taboo or two...
  
• Absurd, extreme and/or politically incorrect situations
  
• The simple act of seeing another person laughing
• Situations that you can see yourself getting into
• Finding humour in our own mishaps
• Just hearing the name of a comedian or sit-com that has made you laugh before
  
• Shocking content that can only be delivered by a certain type of woman
• Comfort of the known
  
• Not so much a joke as a situation - usually a tense one - that you observe with another, and both see the funny side in.

By the end of the afternoon we were all laughed out...And equally questioning why certain things just don't make us laugh at all (even while the whole world laughs on without us). This was a fun and eye-opening day, and given the paucity of women in comedy we were delighted to find a way to highlight those who are out there making us laugh, and working the crowd. Funny Girls...We Salute You!!!

Thanks to all of you who made this such a good experience. We are already gathering names of other female comediennes in preparation for "Funny Girls, The Sequel."

Funny Girls Away Day Comin' Right Up!

Don't forget to book yourself in for a day of humour and laughter at the Nurtury. This day is bound to lift your spirits and it's a lot cheaper than therapy! It's all happening this Saturday, March 27, from 10am to 4pm. Details are, as ever, available on our website.

Don't hesitate to contact us for more information.

Following on from our Canadian women's hockey triumph at the Olympics, wwp women triumph on the ethics front

Yesterday's salon evening follows hot on the heels of the drama of the Winter Olympics and prior to the start of the Paralympics. In light of certain ethical issues that got a lot of media exposure (our gold winning hockey players' post game on-ice celebrations, for example), Rona and Wendy - a passionate and accomplished sportsperson - took on the task of illuminating what might constitute a 'good' sportsperson through introducing us to virtue ethics. This is an ethical approach that places 'character' and 'virtue' at the centre of our understanding of human good and the good life for human beings. To open up the evening Rona gave us an idea of how virtue ethics works and how we might use it to examine 'who is Wendy?' in her various sporting contexts.

Rona proceeded to interview Wendy about her sporting life while members 'sketched' Wendy’s character in order to find out 'who is Wendy' when she plays, coaches and watches sports.

Members then shared their character sketches in smaller groups through talk and reflection. Each group discussed the various character traits and virtues that surfaced during the interview and posed their own quesions to Wendy in order to get to know her better. In our ongoing quest to learn as much as we can about different conversational forms through experimenting with them, we also talked about the value of the formal interview as a pedagogical tool.

Many thanks to Wendy for her honest and insightful reflections and comments. She really helped us to understand how virtue ethics can be used to illuminate a person's character in a particular context. Thanks also to Marilyn, Mary and Elaine for venturing out to discover more about wine women and philosophy. As always, we are ever grateful to our wonderful cohort of members. You all make these salon evenings such a delight.

The next members' salon evening takes place Thursday May 13 and will be run by Pat and Linnet. The salon topic is 'obedience' and we will explore this concept through Pat's early lifetime experience as a novice. In addition to examining what obeyance entails and what happens when we disobey, we look forward to expanding our understanding of the places where philosophy and religion cross and diverge. As always, our door is open to potential new members.

International Women's Day

Happy International Women's Day to all our supporters and friends.

May we wine together,
dine together and
change the world together.

Time to Sign up for Yoga at the Nurtury!

We're already into March, and our Yoga at the Nurtury weekend with Marta Fudakowska is fast approaching. Sign up now to be part of this life-enhancing and gently balancing experience.

It's all happening May 7-9 ...You'll find full details of this weekend on our website.

Join wwp at the National Women's Show in Montreal, April 9-11

Rona or Linnet will be there to greet you at stand 710 throughout the whole show. Following on from her wonderful debut at the Ottawa National Women's Show last September, Bernice will also be on hand to answer your questions and tell you all about wine women and philosophy. Throughout the weekend we will have our salonnieres dropping in to talk about their respective weekends with us...Watch this space for more details of their involvement.

Please contact us if you want any more details about the show. We are looking forward to seeing you there with your friends, colleagues, sisters, mothers, aunts, cousins...This show is for women, so come in numbers!

The National Women's Show takes place at:

Palais Des Congrès
201, avenue Viger Ouest
Montreal

Below you'll find more information taken from the National Women's Show website:

Friday, April 9, 2010 ~ 12 noon - 9pm
Saturday, April 10, 2010 ~ 10am - 6pm
Sunday, April 11, 2010 ~ 10am - 5pm

Admission: $12
Tickets are available at the door - NO advance ticket sales.

Located over highway Ville-Marie, the Palais is easily accessible by car. It also has two parking lots with a capacity of 1,600 spaces:

1,200 spaces are available at the parking lot of the Quartier international de Montréal at 249, rue Saint-Antoine Ouest;
and there are 400 spaces at the Palais's parking lot located just West of the 201, avenue Viger's entrance, at 1025, rue Chénevillle.

Take the metro to the PLACE-D'ARMES station, located under the Palais or the 55 and 129 buses will take you to the Palais.

The Palais des Congrès is a fully accessible venue.