Learn Your

Machine

Now that the spring and summer weather is upon us, it's time to take a good long look at our cars. Yes, old man winter, (or is it old person winter?) has taken its toll on automobiles this year. Hard winters, road salt and bad driving conditions can do damage to cars. It's time to give your car a first rate inspection and cleaning.

1. Wash your car. Do it yourself. Don't go to a carwash. You can save money and get a little sunshine and exercise. Believe it or not, there is a right way and a wrong way to wash a car. You should start with the roof, then the hood, trunk, door and side panels, fenders and then the wheels. Use a good car washing solution. Always have plenty of running water on the car and use a soft cloth mitt or cloth to do the job. Next stop is to wipe off the excess water. use a soft cloth for this too. If water is left on the car it will streak.

2. Wax your car. Car should be waxed usually in early spring and fall. Wash car before waxing.

3. Check for rust spots. Sand rust spot with fine sandpaper. Sand down to the bare metal. Get all the rust out. With automotive metal primer touch up the bare spot. If the spot is small, use small bottles of finish that match your car. (Check your owner's manual for paint color or go to a dealer and match the color.) Paint over the primer and blend in the color. Paint should dry for a few weeks. Then wax the area.

4. Change your snow dres.

5. Check your windshield wipers. If they are chipped or cracked, replace them. Worn wipers cause streaking and may cause an accident.

Contributed by Mary Jane Glovanetti

6. Check fan belts. Replace worn or cracked belts.

7. Clean your chrome. Get some chrome cleaner and shine up the car. Chrome cleaner removes surface rust and keeps your car looking good.

My apologies to everyone for not writing my column in last month's issue. But due to a sudden illness I could not bring myself to write. You see, I had spring fever.

WOMEN

SPEAK UP,

BUT....

NEW YORK(LNS) Charges that men tend to dominate conversations with women have been widely aired for some time, and the standard retort has always been that women should learn to speak up.

A recent study by a sociologist at the University of California, however, suggests that this is not enough. According to the study, the problem is not that women fail to initiate topics of conversation, but rather that men do not respond to women's Initiatives.

"Men control topics by veto as well as by positive effort," said Pamela Fishman,who authored the study In analysing 52 hours of converstion of three midd,e class couples between the ages of 25 and 35, she found that the women raised nearly twice as many topics of conversation as the men, because so many of the women's topics failed to elicit any response.

When faced with the men's grunts and long silences, the women often resorted to attentiongetting devices, explained Fishman. For example, the women asked three times as many questions or prefaced beginnings of converstions with remarks like, "Do you know what?" and "This is interesting." Men also used these devices if their topics were failing, Fishman noted. But for the most part this wasn't necessary, since the women usually responded enthusiastically when the men spoke. Maybe that's part of the problem.

WOMEN'S HISTORY LIBRARY

In Laramie, Wyoming, at the University of Wyoming, almost four thousand files on subjects ranging from "Affirmative Action Programs' to "Women's Studies" constitute the collection of the WOMEN'S HISTORY LIBRARY, formerly of Berkeley, California. The comprehensiveness of the collection is not duplicated anywhere else, and it includes material from around the world.

According to Laura X, founder of the library, it "was begun by concerned individuals who could not wait for public and academic libraries to reorder their priorities to include women as part of their focus." Laura adopted the symbol "X" to represent the anonymity of women's history.

The LIBRARY began in Laura's small house in Berkeley in 1968. After learning that Int'l Women's Day had begun in the U.S. in 1908, she and a group of friends compiled a pamphlet entitled "Women in History," and were deluged with donations from women around the world. These materials formed the basis of the LIBRARY.

They then began collecting material on the contemporary women's movement: pamphlets, newsletters and papers, manifestos, articles and clippings. These were sorted topically by countries, women's groups, individuals, roles, action projects, and others.

Since it began, the WOMEN'S HISTORY LIBRARY has been recognized by the American Library Association, educators, researchers, writers, attorneys, civic leaders, and women's

groups as the library of record for the current international women's movement. It has been maintained by The Women's History Research Center, Inc., a non-profit foundation.

The Center published a "Women's Songbook,

a 1975 "Supplement," a "Directory of Films By and/or About Women," "Bibliographies on Women," a bibliography of "Women's Studles Courses," and three microfilm series. The Center also publishes a newspaper,

The collections on women include: Ada Louise Huxtable, architect critic; Isobel Lennart, author of Funny Girl, singer-dancer Eleanor Powell; actress Caroll Baker; artist and Spanish literature scholar and critic Rachel Frank Bromberg; Neille Taylor Ross; historian Grace Raymond Hebard; suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt; and many others.

University archivists describe this as "a most comprehensive and significant collection of articles, documents, and literature on the women's movement in the past and in recent years, and on the condition and treatment of women in American society. "As a major university librarian wrote Laura X in 1972, "The Importance of your work can scarcely be exaggerated..... Society, not just the scholary world, is in your debt. ́* For further information, contact:

Gene M. Gressley,

University of Wyoming

WHY A MAN?

June, 1977/What She Wants/page 5