How he treated both his wives and his lovers will always be a topic for discussion in some circles. Of his four known wives, the one that fascinates me is the third one, Martha Gelhorn.

Daughter of a prominent St. Louis physician, educated at Bryn Mawr, a published writer even when she met E.H., befriended by Eleanor Roosevelt, their marriage separated by conflicting careers as WW11 correspondents- quite a person indeed.

I can appreciate some of E.H.'s "gusto" for life in the "macho" lane, without having to emulate it, as much as I can appreciate songs by the late Jim Morrison or Janis Joplin without having to embrace the drug-crazed world they developed for themselves.

My forebearers taught me to respect women. Doesn't mean I profess to understand them, however!!