Molly Ivins' Message

11/24/1998 at 12:00 AM EST

Political pundit Molly Ivins revealed yesterday that she has breast cancer. "I don't need get-well cards," she wrote at the end of her Tuesday column, "but I would like the beloved women readers to do something for me: Go. Get. The. Damn. Mammogram. Done." Ivins characteristically used humor to describe the diagnostic procedure. The Texas-based Ivins quoted a friend, who said, "If you want to prepare a girl for her first mammogram, you should tell her to go lie down on a cold cement slab in the garage and run a tire back and forth across her chest." Ivins admitted the description is true, "but it sure beats a serious cancer."