Life is beautiful and surprising, and you never know which of the two descriptives is more abundant in this life.

I remember that early morning of March 8, 1980 and the green face of Sir Mukovsky (nicknamed Sir for his habit of using exclusively champagne as a remedy for hangover) a rock band leader in a well-known (among a close circle) institution called Phystech.
So, listening to early bird chirping, he was gazing with somewhat absent expression on his face through rarely washed dorm window and delivered his philosophical findings toward sleeping band members but mostly to silent streets by constant repeating: Importantly, that it is surprising ….

Despite that trivial fact that Sir Mukovsky and his band Helicopter vanished long ago and without a trace in one black box named NPO Mash-someting-stroy (typa FFKEshcnogo Polusa, no tolko eshio huzhe), his early morning lamentation is still recalled among those who were blessed by a favorable sequence of events (often abbreviated as MA3A) to listen to his philosophical thoughts and technically complex guitar passages.

Yes, certainly those black boxes bring shivering memories, lots of MFTI and MIFI 'jolly good felas', our dear engineering minus physicists folk vanished there for good

... You were nothing and you'll come back as nothing,
but without name, brain power, and place to live ....

Nikem ty byl - v nichto i vozvratishsia,
Bez imeni, bez sechki i ugla...

(from the first poem of 'Bichevannia' , to be edited and published in one copy by famous, among close circles, internet poet Ivan Sovkov living in London).
The New World, the best Russian literary magazine, recently (circa Feb 2007) continued telling stories from Phystechs along the same bichevania lines but now in America.

As matter of fact and quite recently, browsing the Youtube and looking for some renowned classic guitar player (BTW, totally "unknowned" in this hemisphere) called Pepe Romero, I discovered a young, strikingly good-looking, and very moving gal called Ana Vidovic. Comparative observation showed that this Ana beats the old pepper, Pepe, in guitar skills by the same margin as Thermo people regularly assembling Orbitraps with "0.1 micron and better" accuracy beat some obnoxious guys who put hardwood floor in my habitation place with 3 mm gaps (and also irregularly).

Amazingly, that the Ana gal graduated from Baltimore school of music: the very same Baltimore gave us a remarkable ensemble of top TOF and ion trap scientists, unrelated to her.
The city of Baltimore (he was also Sir, by the way) for many is a depressive concoction of dilapidated buildings where totally drunk Edgar Alan Poe once could be found sleeping on the park bench. But look, from time to time, this city can add surprising scientific and musical achievements to its numerous crime reports.

Then - since you have already realized that the following passages will be all about gals achievements - mighty MIT has elected Susan Hockfield as its (or her, since some purists indicate that a University or College similarly to a ship is "she") President.
Then, and also amazing, one female postdoc (and at the age of 26) from Sweden solved one of the Gilbert’s problems a while ago.
And most important of those: Dr. Julia Laskin was elected to one of the top positions on the board of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry.

With the morning sun, here comes the moment where you realize the depth of Sir Mukovsky lamentation. As entertainer filling out the acoustic environment (or polluting, like that noisy but abundant POPsa or like those finger-stretched KSPshnye murzilki), he comprehended the outer world using the right part of his brain based on luck - no luck concept.
Others, less musical people, see the world through a simpler concept: you get what you deserve.

So,
on a remarkable date of March the 8-th, arrives an amazing realization
about our hard-working better halves: after delivering 2-3 kg of food
into deep throats of insatiable males and/or other always hungry
animals sharing space and snoring in a space of their homes,
these
remarkable beings have enough strength to come back to their duties
at Universities and companies and deliver the results
(and surprisingly good ones).

I
am cheering our remarkable ladies and young gals belonging directly or
indirectly to our community of mass spectrometrists in exile,
a society,
which is considered in close circles as the most remarkable one in Left Hemisphere.
I extend my utter respect
to our honorable members Nella and Alla whose legendary enthusiasm and efforts
were pivotal when this group started to function years ago and whose
scientific achievements and soul warmth are still remarkable and unique.

To all our scientifically minded gals and ladies:
we admit we owe you a lot,
but please when you get to the top,
do not forget to notice less energetic
but sometimes white and furry
(also frequently unwashed and unshaved) creatures.