Glass Ceiling

As a top executive at one of the world's biggest video game publishers, Kathy Vrabeck often completes an entire workday without meeting with another woman. And her employer, Electronic Arts Inc., is less of a boys club than many of its peers. The video game industry is flourishing, especially in California, as sales continue to climb despite a faltering economy. But the hiring has largely bypassed women.

A presidential candidate waging a tough campaign decides to shake up the contest by choosing an obscure female politician as his running mate, hoping that the historic choice will provide an advantage against the other party's all-male ticket. That's a description of Walter F. Mondale's ill-fated choice of Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro in 1984, but it also sums up John McCain's selection Friday of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Of course, that's not the only reason McCain made this surprise choice.

John McCain's surprise choice of first-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate recasts the fall campaign with a candidate who is virtually unknown on the national stage but makes history as the first woman on a Republican ticket. Palin, a 44-year-old mother of five, has solid conservative credentials that drew immediate praise from GOP leaders, but she has only been Alaska's chief executive for about 22 months and has no foreign policy experience, facts that Democrats were quick to criticize.

Philip Glass' Violin Concerto, which finally made it to the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday night, is the concerto that wouldn't die. It was premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1987. Glass had written little for traditional orchestra, and this was the first Minimalist concerto. Reviews, reviling repetition, were scathing.

So far, my search for intelligent chicks in the summer movies is proving to be a bust. Last week, I went on opening day to see "Made of Honor" with my friend Jodie, a recovering romantic-comedy writer. It had been a rough week. We needed our Friday afternoon guilty pleasure -- as I suspect did the almost entirely female audience.

RE "The Gal Pal Gamble" [April 20]: I have often enjoyed Paul Brownfield's writing, but . . . what? He wants to extend and embellish the stereotype of "Women Can't Make Money for Investors," or carry a comedy? "The unwritten rule of Hollywood comedies is like that classic admonition given boxers . . . women weaken legs"? "It seems unusual . . . illegal . . . for two females . . . to have the leads in a buddy comedy." (What about two males . . . like they always succeed?) "[Amy Poehler]

The glass ceiling at many large public companies in California remains unbreakable, but the glass offices of one Los Angeles bank are dominated by women. Nara Bank, a subsidiary of Nara Bancorp Inc. that caters to Korean Americans, ranks No. 1 in the state in terms of the number of women in positions of leadership, a new UC Davis study has found. Women hold five of its six top executive positions, and a woman sits on its seven-member board. Of the bank's 408 employees, about 70% are women.

Re "Democrat in '08! But not her," June 17 There is no candidate, Democrat or Republican, who will have all the attributes one would like a candidate to have. If Democrats reject a candidate because of certain personality considerations, then we are truly doomed to another four years of electing a president on personality traits and appearance. Look at the mess that got us into. MORTON MILLER Los Angeles Your article suggests that the Democratic Party is unprepared to capitalize on the public's distrust of the Republican Party, but it somehow buries the fact that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.

Re "At the top, it's men only," Opinion, March 17 Judith H. Dobrzynski's viewpoint on the need for more women at the corporate boardroom level is to be supported. In Norway, for example, the law requires a certain percentage of women on corporate boards. That said, there is another aspect to this issue. Ninety-five percent of all workplace fatalities happen to men. Simply put, men's lives are in greater danger from the workplace. Everyone is concerned about the "glass ceiling" at the top (where so few of us are)

Now that Peyton Manning has finally won the big game, beating the Patriots in what I consider the "real" Super Bowl, I don't have to watch football on Sundays anymore. In fact, I am going to take my wife out to a pre-Valentine's Day brunch. I already made the reservation -- Sunday, Feb. 4, at 3:25 p.m. MARC POPKIN Brentwood Super Bowl tickets for $3,500 using "online marketing." Call it like it is -- scalping. ALAN MATIS Sherman Oaks Two African American head coaches in the Super Bowl; one of the NFL's most storied franchises, the Pittsburgh Steelers, hires an African American coach; the New York Giants hire an African American as general manager; and the NFL celebrates the erosion of its "glass ceiling."