Chris is outside Room-bah'ing the back of my station wagon for our trip to Sequim so I thought I'd do a little blogging. This isn't really a great idea, just an anecdote or something ...
I was going through some old files the other day and found an internal memo we made up when I worked at Seattle Rape Relief which shows, in an kinda funny way (we thought), the extent to which people's ears were unable to "hear" sexual assault. We encountered this on a regular basis when we identified where we worked. People just couldn't underestand what we were saying. I finally resorted to saying, "this is Mary calling from Seattle Rape (as in sexual assault) Relief ..."
Seattle Rape Relief folded shortly after I quit; the victim of (as far as I was concerned) bitter micro-political infighting combined with toxic macro-political issues. It was pretty sad because it was a great bunch of people who worked there, and of course, a pretty good cause.
Here's one of my favorite memories of working there: I was the office manager, and one of a minority of staight wome, and I always wore skirts and dresses (as I still do now, for the most part). I kind of felt like mascot fem. In the summer, we had a softball team and we had a grudge match against the Seattle Coalition Against Domestic Violence (seriously!). I can't remember if we won or not, but I DID hit a ball and ran around the bases with my skirt flying and everyone was yelling, "Drop the bat, Mary! Drop the bat!" Anyway, it's kind of a heartwarming memory for me -- I don't have too many sports-based moments in the spotlight.
So here it is, "The Top 10 Mispronounced Versions of 'Seattle Rape Relief'" (subsequently expanded to 16) (None of these are made up):
1. Toronto Maple Leaf
2. Seattle Make Believe
3. Seattle Late Police
4. Seattle Rave Release
5. Seattle Rope Relief
6. Seattle Rape Police
7. Seattle Rate Release (one of the most common versions)
8. Seattle Rake and Re-Leaf
9. "Seattle what??"
10. Seattle Work Release
11. Seattle Rape Release (checks printed with this on it)
12. Letter addressed, "to the Relief family"
13. Seattle Lape Relief (followed by, "what's a lape?")
14. Seattle Rib Relief
15. Beatle Rape Relief
16. Seattle Babe Relief
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