
Raclette – a Franco Swiss Favorite For 400 Years
Natives living in the French Savoie region or in the Swiss Alps will argue ’til the cows come home over who first invented raclette, but everyone who tries this traditional cheese/potato dish agrees it’s great. Raclette is thought to be at least 400 years old and remains popular today. For centuries, herders in Europe’s mountainous […]

How International Women’s Day, Title IX and Sterling Basketball Tie Together
Today, March 8, 2025, is International Women’s Day! Coincidentally, the United Nations began celebrating International Women’s Day as part of the International Women’s Year in 1975. That same year the Title IX (June 23,1972) Amendment stipulated full compliance with the law. Title IX transformed education for women. After centuries of discrimination, the landmark civil rights […]

Another Birthday, A Promising Path.
Yeah! I made it. Another birthday. Another year. But it is getting harder to hang in there. I am falling behind in the race to survive. I want to walk as far as my feet will carry me, sing as loud as my voice will rise and write as fast as I can before I […]

Hometown Teams Unite Us in Divisive Times
While Americans fear for our future during this time of national turmoil, the Sterling Golden Warriors basketball team unites us and gives us something to cheer about. Sisters of the past (and brothers who battled with them) remember the struggle. From the suffragettes to civil rights, from Wade vs. Roe to Title IX, we must […]
I am X-Pat, a feisty globetrotter. Teacher, writer, coach, speaker, and trailblazer with the down-to-earth, open-armed persona of The Heartland and a European twist. I have lived in four different countries, speak three languages and raised two bi-cultural kids with one très bon Frenchman. My passion is inspiring courage, breaking barriers, and creating connections.
Down and out? Hopeless and helpless? No matter where you are in your journey, my stories can help pick up your spirits, make transitions, gain new perspectives or just escape the daily grind.
If you deny a woman’s history, you erase her identity. I reveal the athlete’s untold story, from the passage of Title IX through forty years of social change. What makes it different from other sport biographies is the voice of a woman who walks the talk, who dribbled the ball and tells the story. Learn more by clicking here