Adventures in Feministory

Hey there all you Brooklyn hipsters! Did you know that the Brooklyn Bridge is not only useful when one wishes to imply quirkiness (I'm talking to you, Gossip Girl), its completion was also overseen by the first ever woman field engineer?

Emily Warren Roebling was born in New York state in 1843, and became the chief engineer on the Brooklyn Bridge by default when her husband, Washington Roebling (the first chief engineer on the project) became ill. Hey, sometimes it takes a man contracting an exotic and fatal illness (Caisson disease, in this case) in order for a talented woman to get an opportunity to do her thing (sorry dudes, but it's true).

Credited with inventing the family sitcom, a successful, decade-spanning career in television and radio, author of over 10,000 scripts, and a mother on-screen and off, Gertrude Berg is "the most famous woman in America you've never heard of."

My parents have been in the process of moving, which means they've faced an onslaught of old photos, previously packed-away books and forgotten homemade crafts from years gone by. Among the findings is the 1970 gem, Body Language by Julius Fast. His most well known book, Body Language was on the New York Times Best Seller for 22 weeks after its initial publication and has remained in print since then. Read on to glean the most vital information included in Fast's pseudo-scientific pop psychology classic, including 'How to Tell the Girls Apart,' the formerly elusive answer to the question 'Is She Available?' and much, much more!