80-year-old widower Charles lives in my hometown of Irvington, New York. His wife Catherine died in 2005 from cancer and emphysema. He has been listening to her voice on their answering machine since she died. "The Whitings aren't home," Catherine's message says. I picture his wizened hands slowly dialing his own number, his mouth a grim, horizontal line as he listens to the last concrete piece of his wife on this earth. And guess what suckers? Verizon lost the recording when Charles had the service upgraded. After waiting on hold with Verizon for a couple hours, a customer service representative told Charles he "couldn't get the message back" and that "would just have to record a new one," according to NBC's New York affiliate.

But there's a happy ending. Today NBC reported that Verizon was able to reinstate Catherine's message. A kindly Verizon contractor found the old recording for Whiting. "I'm very happy," said Charles.

First Wives[New Yorker]
The Customer Is Very Nearly Always Totally Screwed [WNBC via Maggie Shnayerson]
Recording Of Dead Wife's Voice Recovered [WNBC]

As the head of the the Eagle Forum, a self-proclaimed "leading pro-family organization," Schlafly and Co. put out a press release condemning the U.S. government's "endorsement" of International Women's Day, because "IWD serves to advance radical feminism in the form of promoting pro-abortion and pro-gay rights legislation, ratification of ERA, affirmative action for women, Title IX, government babysitting services, and government wage control, commonly camouflaged as 'pay equity' or 'comparable worth.'" Oh man, all the lesbian bonerkillers are certainly making so much progress in the Bush Administration with their commie agendas. Schlafly should be worried!

The agenda promoted by IWD is especiallly relevant in places like Saudi Arabia, where, despite plans to lift the ban in the future, women are still not allowed to drive without a male accompanying them. Wajiha Huwaidar, an activist who has been agitating for the right to drive, posted this video on YouTube on Friday, showing herself riding nonchalantly though the Saudi countryside in honor of International Women's Day. (Any readers out there who speak Arabic and can translate her dialogue, drop us a line!).

And Saudi Arabia isn't the only country where the status of women is often in peril. The Toronto Star named the ten worst countries for women, and in addition to Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Nepal, the Sudan, Somalia and Mali also made the list. The best countries for women include Iceland, Norway, Australia, Canada, Japan and Sweden. Anyone have any ideas as to why the U.S. wasn't on that list?

[Image via Global Center for Woman's Politics.]

IWD Ignored By News [WIMNs Voices]
Talking Politics, Power On Intl. Women's Day [NPR]
International Women's Day: Code for 'Advancing Radical Feminism Around the Globe' [Earth Times]
Wajeha Al-Huwaider For Women's Day 2008 [Youtube]
Saudi Woman Defies Driving Ban To Mark Women's Day [Breitbart]
Ten Worst Countries For Women [Toronto Star via Jules Crittenden]

You could maybe buy some music. Thanks to Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, Leona Lewis and Kate Nash, female artists are on the rise in the UK. And Entertainment Weekly has compiled a list of female singer-songwriters, including that chick who sings "I'm a new soul/I came to this strange world..." on the Mac Air commercial.

Or you could just educate yourself: The Independent claims that maternal ill-health is one of the globe's biggest crises. Women around the world still die during pregnancy or childbirth; one million pregnant women die every year from largely avoidable causes. We may have come a long way since 1908, but Martha Nussbaum, the author of Sex and Social Justice, warns the paper: "In most nations of the world, women face unequal education and employment opportunities, and have unequal political power. Whether another century of striving for equality will finally hand victory to women remains to be seen."

What Girls Day Means To Me And My Girls [Time]
Treasure Hunt: Women's Day Presents [Moscow Times]
The rise of British Girl Power [News.com.au]
Female Singer-Songwriters: The New Wave [Entertainment Weekly]
100 Years Of Struggling To Win Justice For Women [Independent]

• Oscar winner Marion Cotillard has conspiracy theories! She questions the attack on the World Trade Center towers: "We see other towers of the same kind being hit by planes. There was a tower, I believe it was in Spain, which burned for 24 hours. It never collapsed. None of these towers collapsed. And there (in New York), in a few minutes, the whole thing collapsed." Plus! She doubts Neil Armstrong! "Did a man really walk on the moon? I saw plenty of documentaries on it, and I really wondered," she says. "I don't believe all they tell me, that's for sure." [Variety]
  
• Are Britney and Adnan Ghalin dunzo? Did she throw his iPhone into the pool after finding "saucy" texts from another woman? [The Sun]
  
• Jennifer Lopez has indeed, as previously reported, named her twins Max and Emme. A reader points out that those were the names of the kids in the cartoon Dragon Tales. WTF? [CNN, YouTube]
  
• Colin Farrell is hooked on Russian steam baths. "There's something very basic about rubbing honey on your skin and going steaming with a bunch of strange Russian men," he says. Well, it's healthier than drugs and alcohol, for sure. [UPI]

• Jamie Lynn Spears' unborn kid is prolly a boy. Hopefully we won't be named Casey Lynn. [MSNBC]
• A new photography show features the tattoos of Lindsay Lohan. Highbrow! [Page Six]
• Family drama! Atonement star James McAvoy hasn't spoken to his father, James McAvoy Senior, in 21 years. And his 18-year-old half-brother, Donald, is in the clink for stabbing a man eight times. [Daily Mail]
• Simon Cowell doesn't believe in marriage, for financial reasons. "The truth is that you get married and in a year or two they clean you out! We have contracts with artists that are 120 pages long and last five years. Then you go into marriage with no contract and the laws are a thousand years old." [Mirror]
• Oh, and Simon was offered a million dollar deal to be the "face" of Viagra. His response: "Sorry, but that has to be a fucking insult." [The Sun]
• What??? A plot to kill Mick Jagger??? Oh... In 1969. [USA Today]
• Aussie model Gemma Ward, who was linked to Heath Ledger, says, "He told me to always be a punk and 'stand up for yourself.'" [Sydney Morning Herald]
• One of Paris Hilton's dogs is "mating" with the Yorkie of Johnson & Johnson heiress Casey Johnson. [Gatecrasher]
• While filming The Other Boleyn Girl, Scarlett Johansson was voted the world's sexiest woman by a men's mag. Some of the crew said she looked more like a grungy teenager; Scarlett heard and "lost her temper." Who could blame her? [UPI]
• Meanwhile, Scarlett is offering herself up on eBay; a night with her is being auctioned off for Oxfam. [Mirror]
• Paris Hilton has been seen hanging out with a "bearded guru." [Mirror]
• The spirit guide blessed a necklace Paris was wearing and then advised her to give it away, so some chick at Urth Cafe was the lucky recipient. [TMZ]
• Blind item! "Which single-ish A-list actor is back to his old ways since splitting with his wife? He was seen handing off a suspicious-looking vial to a hard-partying TV thesp who is about to hit the big screen." [Gatecrasher]
• Fall Out Boy Pete Wentz is opening a punk-themed unisex beauty parlor in his native Chicago, so everyone can be flatironed into oblivion. Joy! [Rush & Molloy]
• Jason Davis, brother of Mischa Barton's ex, Brandon Davis, was arrested for cocaine possession over the weekend. [TMZ]
• Mark Ronson is DJing Suri Cruises' 2nd birthday party? Seriously? [TMZ]
• Sophie Monk has released a statement: "Benji Madden did not leave me for Paris Hilton." Hmm, we never thought that, but whatever. Also: Paris has a new ring on her "engagement finger," is it from Benji? [People]
• Now that the writers' strike is over, Eva Longoria-Parker is getting back in shape, because apparently the pregnancy rumors stemmed from her gaining weight. Except she is plenty thin! What is wrong with people? [People]
• Prince Harry, back home from Afghanistan: "I wouldn't say I'm a hero. here were two injured guys who came back on the plane with us who were essentially comatose throughout the whole way. One had lost two limbs — a left arm and a right leg — and another guy who was saved by his mate's body being in the way but took shrapnel to the neck. Those are the heroes. Those were guys who had been blown up by a mine that they had no idea about, serving their country, doing a normal patrol." [People]
• Rapper Juvenile is "shocked and devastated" after learning that his 4-year-old daughter, her mother and another child were shot dead in their home in Lawrenceville, GA. [MTV News]
• Miley Cyrus and her dad are on the cover of a magazine called Cowboys & Indians. [ONTD]
• A judge dismissed part of actress Hunter Tylo's lawsuit against her late son's therapist. Her 19-year-old son drowned last October and Tylo sued the therapist, who had counseled the family. [UPI]
• Vanessa Williams and ex-husband Rick Fox were making the rounds Saturday, helping their daughter sell Girl Scout Cookies. [Concrete Loop]
• American Idol reject Robbie Carrico swears his hair is not a wig or weave. "I've been growing this hair for a very long time," Carrico says. Perhaps it's time to cut it off? [People]
• Mariah Carey on the cover of Allure! [The.Life Files]
• Will Ferrell's new flick was a dud at the box office, making a mere $15.3 million. [Reuters]