Part One: There is a pretty slick digital TV program called “Smart Girls at the Party” that I encourage you to take a look at. It’s the brainchild of three women, one being the very funny Amy Poehler of Saturday Night Live fame. The concept is to encourage teenage girls not to deny their intelligence, something many girls do in order to be popular.
Part Two: This photo of Ella was taken by a PSCS staff member Scobie Puchtler during last week’s student & staff retreat. Finding it tonight, it made me think of the smart girls website. Take a look at that picture. Right there, there you go. A smart girl.
Part Three: Every Tuesday and Thursday after school, Ella, Melinda and I are going for a short run. Me, with two smart girls. Not a bad party.
Andy Smallman 
Andy,
I would say that “you went running with one smart girl and one smart woman”. I would consider that Melinda is a woman not a girl. That’s an even better party.
One of my mentors told me years ago that if you allow yourself to be referred to as a “girl”, you’ll be treated like a girl. I’m a woman but I was a girl a long time ago.
An excellent point and I pride myself on being honoring of women. I was just playing off the title of the digital program, confident that in this context I would not be offending Melinda.