gender relations in bowling (what?)

I would like to thank Lucy for bringing this NYTimes article to my attention. It's about bowling! More specifically, it's about the first female ever to qualify for the PBA Tour. It's an amazing feat (9 games a day for 5 straight days, including a perfect 300 on the last day and an average of 224 over her 45 games), and I admire her for it. The article mentions that men have a slight physiological advantage in the sport (yes, I said sport), which makes her accomplishment that much more impressive. One paragraph particularly bugged me, though:

"Some men bristle at the thought of women bowling on the Tour because the P.B.A. is a historically male organization. Others think it is unfair for a woman to take a spot from a man who may then lose his ability to earn a living."

Um, backwards-thinking much? If she's good enough to compete with the guys, she should be permitted to do so. The financial rewards are much greater than the WPBA tour, and she's earned a shot at the bigger prizes. I'm glad that Fred Schreyer, the commissioner and chief executive of the PBA, agrees with me:

"I still think bowling is a kind of meritocracy. If you're good enough to get out there and do well, I think people respect you for it."

Well said. Well said, indeed. I was shocked to discover that women were not even allowed to try to qualify for the PBA tour until 2004, but I'm glad that they're permitted to do it now and hopefully Kulick will be the first of many to make it.

On a different note, Sam, when I press ctrl-w to end the block quote, it closes the tab in Firefox that contains the Write Post page. Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong?