Girls just wanna have guns

The pandemic has changed the view on a lot of things. Some truths, it has obscured. For example, when you look at the destruction of livable Portland, you can still blame it on the coronavirus, at least in part. I'd disagree with you, though. This town's problems dwarf Covid. You'll see.

On the other hand, our altered reality of the past year has also shone a bright light on some other things, which were always there but easy to miss until now.

One of the latter category came to light this weekend, with the depressing story of the second-class treatment that the women college basketball players were handed by the suits who run the national collegiate athletics machine. At their national tournament in San Antonio, the women got far crappier facilities, and worse food, than the men did at their show in Indianapolis. And with both national tournaments being operated in parallel "bubbles," the contrasts were quite obvious.

In a normal year, I would bet the individual colleges would control a lot of the accommodation choices in the cities to which they are assigned. In that setup, inequities would be harder to ferret out and pin on any one culprit. But this year, the NCAA called those shots, because of Covid. And their attitude couldn't have been clearer: The women deserved less than the men.

The women players let their displeasure be known on social media, and it immediately went viral. Within hours, corporate providers of athletic equipment were jumping up volunteering to set up a proper weight room. The NCAA apologized, and within a day or so, the women had a decent place to work out.

But there was swag bag discrimination, too. The men participants apparently got classy gifts you would actually want, whereas the women got items of lesser value, and fewer of them. I'm not sure what, if anything, was done about that. Or about the food.

Anyway, the flap about the persistent tone-deafness of the NCAA suits on matters of gender marred what was a truly entertaining first round of the men's tournament. Day 2 had more than its share of thrilling moments, and some delightful upsets.

But the thing with the women, sheesh.