Woman's Work

You're leaving your office for lunch and walk past a cluster of female construction workers on their noon break. They're spooning up low-cal yoghurt and reading "Dear Abby" to each other, but as you pass by they look you over and one of them--a large-boned girl wearing construction platforms--whistles and shouts lecherously, "Hi, guy--nice ass ya got there."

In an America that has already weathered a lady umpire, can that scene be far away? We think not. The following pages lend substance to our prediction: they also provide reassuring evidence that, even if women do take over the country's pneumatic drills, some of them will still get pissed when they break a nail.