Kagan exercises

A few weeks ago there was a picture of Elena Kagan, Solicitor General of the United States and U.S. Supreme Court nominee, in The Wall Street Journal playing softball. For some reason, this picture caused quite a stir in the national media, the reasons for which I am not quite sure. Maybe an open stance is a predictor of judicial activism? I'm not even sure that she was playing softball. Since she received a Masters Degree from Oxford, she might have been holding a cricket bat instead of a softball bat, for all I know.

I suspect one of the reasons for her nomination by President Obama is that she comes from a rather unique minority, that of being a Jewish ballplayer. There is already a female Jewish Supreme Court Justice, but to my knowledge Ms. Kagan would be the first Jewish ballplayer on the court. Only Sandy Koufax and Sean Green come to mind as Jewish ballplayers who made it to the big leagues. How convenient that the Supreme Court consists of nine members, as does a softball team. If confirmed she will replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, who at 90 is getting a bit long-in-the-tooth to be sliding into second base.

The WSJ picture had a caption which now escapes me, but it could have been "Kagan at the Bat" or "Kagan Exercises," not to be confused with Kegel Exercises.

According to Wikipedia, a Kegel exercise, named after Dr. Arnold Kegel, consists of contracting and relaxing the muscles that form part of the pelvic floor (which some people now colloquially call the "Kegel muscles"). The aim of Kegel exercises is to improve muscle tone by strengthening the pubococcygeus muscles of the pelvic floor. Kegel is a popular prescribed exercise for pregnant women to prepare the pelvic floor for physiological stresses of the later stages of pregnancy and vaginal childbirth. Kegel exercises are said to be good for treating vaginal prolapse and preventing uterine prolapse in women and for treating prostate pain and swelling resulting from benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and prostatitis in men. Kegel exercises may be beneficial in treating urinary incontinence in both men and women.

But I digress....