I nominate the Runaway Bride!
Posted on 02/11/2007 4:38:38 PM PST by A. Pole
We can learn something about life from the Lisa Nowak story.
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Poor Robochick! There is probably some high moral reason that I shouldn’t feel sorry for astronaut Lisa Nowak, who is now charged with attempted murder and kidnapping, but I just can’t help it.
And lots of people I know are also riveted by this tale, straight out of Desperate Housewives, filled with so many kooky soap-opera touches. The wig. The pepper spray. The diaper. And maybe, worst of all, the object of her affections, a “Top Gun” pilot with the unfortunate nickname of “Billy-O.”
Sure, I know that in the great scheme of things, “Lust in Space,” as the New York Post’s headline shrieked, is not very important—but it is oh-so-interesting. The shrewd media know this, albeit there will still be some pious whining about what a fuss is being made.
For example, on Katie Couric’s “Couric & Co” blog, White House correspondent Mark Knoller moaned: “Covering the White House, I thought I was safe from the sad story of astronaut Lisa Nowak. But I was wrong.” Oh, dear! He goes on to yelp, “We’re a nation stuck in a war nobody bargained for. We’ve got a National Debt of nearly $8.7 trillion dollars. Genocide is still underway in Darfur. We’re struggling to address so many problems affecting so many millions. And the pathetic case of Lisa Nowak is what we’re all talking and joking about. I get it. But I don’t like it.”
Hasn’t Mark figured out that Katie is sitting in the anchor seat over there at CBS and making $15 million a year primarily because she was so good at stories just like this? No doubt she is working hard for a big “get” interview with, if not “astro-nut” Lisa, her yet-to-be-heard-from husband or the alleged victim, Billy-O’s g.f. Captain Colleen Shipman.
By the way, Mediabistro’ s Galley Cat reports that a book deal about the case has already been signed—it took all of 48 hours—and no doubt a story “ripped from the headlines” will be part of the plot of an upcoming CSI or Law and Order or, sweet irony, Desperate Housewives.
In many ways, “Lisa’s Losing It” is already being played as another cautionary tale of a working mom crumpling under the stress of coping with a family—she has a teenage son and five-year-old twin daughters—and a too-demanding job. In a recent “Right Stuff” interview for Ladies’ Home Journal, Lisa, who describes herself as “competitive, determined, ambitious,” talks about trying six times to get into test pilot school. When she finally got in, she had a nine-month-old baby, which “was definitely a challenge.” A friend said about her, “[Lisa] was the epitome of managing a very hectic career, making sacrifices to accommodate her family. All these stresses can conspire to overwhelm…”
Yet her totally aberrant actions seems to me more related to the great letdown that competitive, determined, ambitious people, both men and women, can sometimes experience in the middle of their lives, especially after achieving what they always thought they wanted . Remember St. Teresa’s wise admonition that more tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered.
Lisa finally went up in space last summer after waiting almost ten years for the chance. USA Today reported that she was sick her first few days in space, and that during the mission she was confused by the corridors of the International Space Station where the shuttle spent some time. She also said in interviews she found her job of operating the shuttle and the station’s robotic arm more difficult than in ground training. Although NASA said her performance had been “excellent,” it was likely she would never go up again. After waiting and working all those years, could there be a greater downer?
How does the almost inevitable depression after such an experience affect someone? If you no longer want what you have always wanted, what crazy thing might you think you want instead?
Of course that doesn’t fully explain or condone Lisa’s loony actions. After all, there was a four-inch knife and a steel mallet in the goody bag she was carrying to help facilitate a heart-to-heart talk with her supposed love rival. She will be in serious trouble long after her story fades from the headlines.
Even now, I know Lisa’s travails can be dismissed as part of a “tawdry love triangle,” of little importance, and only of interest to the women readers of the tabs, the women viewers of TV series and late-night comedians. But I think it has so many of us talking because it is really such a sad, and such a human, story.
Who do you think will play the part of Nowak in the movie?
Nowak. Nowak?
Doesn't ring a bell.
I've heard of Anna Nicole Smith, but Nowak? Nope.
“We’re a nation stuck in a war nobody bargained for---Genocide is still underway in Darfur.
Captures the liberal mindset perfectly, bemoaning a war in our national interests and longing for a war that isn't.
I don't think anything that happens in my life would lead me to the point of driving 12 hours in diaper.
Dang...I think that woman in Desperate Housewives...TERRI HATCHER...she'd be a great Nowack.
I don't think anything that happens in my life would lead me to the point of driving 12 hours in diaper.
I'd do it for a cool million.
She would be good.
I agree - 12 hours is a little excessive. ;-)
I nominate the Runaway Bride!
I know she gets mocked for the whold diaper thing, but I'd rather she did that than leave bottles of urine strewn along the highway. I see it often in my travels and it's disgusting.
Obviously published before Anna Nicole died.
And not seeing their own hypocrisy.
I agree with you, these statements that say we all do crazy things, I would have to vehemently disagree with. This stunt is out of my ball park.
Jenny Wilbanks!
wow her 15 minutes of fame were so yesterday
I always suspected a thyroid problem with those bulging eyes
Somehow I can't picture Neil Armstrong driving 900 miles straight while fouling himself in a diaper.
Once upon a time....
I was a young and sweet thang.
I belonged to a singles group...called Parents Without Partners. My daughter's father had died when she was three and this organization was a great help in adjusting to single parenthood.
As you might imagine, there were men and there were women and that twain DID often meet.
I'll admit this now, some thirty years later, but if I didn't do some really dumb things over a guy than my name ain't what my name is.
This one guy, a new member, had a beard, handsome...not all that well endowed but that's another story....
Anyway, I was so enamored of this guy although if you held a gun to my head today I couldn't give you a single reason why. I was young, my female hormones worked and I had bouts of lust.
So this guy, we go to a PWP dance, a fundraiser...and another woman decides SHE wants this fellow. Who was MY date, please remember. All night she keeps asking him to dance and I'm simmering. I was, oh...maybe 30 years old or thereabouts at the time, so I wasn't a child.
Finally I lose my cool. I march right over to these two dancing fools and inform Mr. Petite Penis that he's on his own, that I was outta there. Made quite a scene too.
But do I go home and forget this guy? Nope.
I actually go over to his apartment later that night and BEG him, from outside his door, to forgive me.
He had to be inside and although I cried and begged for hours, he totally ignored me until I finally went away.
There is a happy ending to this story but you'll have to ask me for it.
But hey, I've been dumb and in love. Almost always, later in life, we wonder what the hell were we thinking....
Social pork costs a lot, sweetie.
Genocide is still underway in Darfur.
Wasn't a problem when BJ was president.
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