April 2013
1 post
5 tags
Romance Pants
You can call them “Romance Pants”, but I call them the ultimate guy invention. Why waste time setting the mood unless you absolutely know you’re going to need it? And the fact that the pants “trigger” events with the undoing of the zipper instead of a kiss—total guy timing.
Hilarious.
March 2013
3 posts
6 tags
Happily Ever After? A new spin on what happens...
http://mashable.com/2013/03/14/disney-princesses-happily-ever-after/
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Katherine Graham and Mammograms
Getting a mammogram gives new meaning to Mitchell’s threat about getting one’s tit caught in a wringer.
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Women's History Month
For a start, we should probably be calling it Women’s Her-story month.
February 2013
1 post
3 tags
Twitter's photo tweets
Price of images drops below 1,000 words to 147 characters as Twitter amps up its photo and video sharing capabilities. Move follows trend of intertwined video and networking technologies.
December 2012
4 posts
6 tags
Yeah, I still love Christmas
As a child, I had a very strong belief in Santa—so strong that when Sister Grace Miriam announced to our 3rd grade class that there was no such thing as Santa I got into trouble telling her just how wrong she was. Looking back it’s amazing that I held on as long as I did, especially considering that the Christmas Eve I was six I awoke around midnight to a lot of loud, un-Santa-like laughter and...
8 tags
Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas Movies--The...
I became addicted to Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movies during a major snowstorm 3 years ago.
Admit it, you watch them, too. Everyone does!
They’re fabulously narcotic and one day the NSF or someone will fund a study about why these sopoforic films are so habit forming.
This year I’ve noticed a lot of the Hallmark movies seem to riff on themes found in theatrical movies...
November 2012
2 posts
3 tags
Top 5 Signs My Sons Were Home for Thanksgiving
5. I established a beach head in the kitchen on Wednesday night. 4. I am intimately familiar with the BCS standings. 3. We put up the Christmas lights, and a lot of duct tape was involved. 2. I know who Johnny Football is. And the number 1 sign my sons were home this holiday weekend: 1. I found a beer bottle in the dishwasher on Saturday morning!
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Fairy Tale Heroines--in Therapy
For afficionados of fairy tales, “Dysfuntion” is a funny riff on familiar heroines, all at a group therapy session.
October 2012
1 post
5 tags
The boys on the bus and the women under it
Four years ago I split with the Democratic party over their blatantly sexist treatment of Hillary Clinton. From the gerrymandering in Florida and Michigan, to the DNC’s silent, complicit tolerance of the ugly remarks about Clinton in the media, the Dems showed how little they cared about the rights of women.
Four weeks ago I said to another feminist friend of mine, well, I guess I’m...
September 2012
4 posts
Monday Night Raw
Last night I watched WWE’s Monday Night Raw (I think that’s what it’s called) on USA.
More than the sneakers piled by the front door and the 20% increase in the grocery bill, watching WWE—and discussing the narrative plotlines—lets me know that , yes, I do have a son living in my house again:)
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Video: Lean and Mean--and Made to Fit the Medium
What’s the difference between over-produced and under-produced when it comes to your video content?
A production that’s made to fit the medium.
I first saw this animation in 1999 and it fit the then-dominant dial-up medium. Thirteen years later it still holds up, because it was professionally produced and delivered its message in under three minutes.
Plus, it’s funny: ...
13 tags
Getting a girl's vote--a political primer
I know it’s lovely to be a woman (especially a mom-woman), because the Republicans and Democrats have spent the last two weeks showing me—and all the ladies—a lot of love.
The Republicans showed their love by, once again, being very concerned with my vagina and by having Ann Romney give an impromptu shout-out to women, whom she admits to loving.
The Democrats showed their love by, once again,...
August 2012
6 posts
8 tags
My Summer Reading List--Broccoli with Ranch
We have a term for books, TV and films that are good for you—broccoli. As in, you should consume it because it’s good for you, no matter what it tastes like.
My sons were never big broccoli eaters when they were little. Then we met George and he solved that problem by purchasing ranch dressing, which he would put out next to the broccoli, in a dipping bowl. Et, voila as they say in...
7 tags
A Moveable Feast
Thirty-three years ago, in the waning days of summer, I got on a plane and went to France. I flew on a DC-9 and it was the summer they kept blowing up. “Don’t worry,” my father reassured me, “By the time you leave, they’ll be the safest planes around.”
I landed in Paris, solo. The plan—if there was one—was to spend several days hanging out in Paris, finding my way around, before I headed down...
5 tags
Women on the Political Stage and TV Screen
Guest post over on Women & Hollywood: Nature vs. Nuke
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To Essay or not essay. That is the question.
The Snapper has an essay due for an application for a semester abroad program and it’s brought to mind the horror of all those college admission essays—and the irony of the word essay. In French, essayer means to try. But in the case of college admission essays, it means everyone but the student tries. The parent essays to get the student to start drafting the essay, the guidance counselor...
5 tags
Football season
Pre-season football is here and let me just say, anyone who thinks women talk too much has never sat through a six-hour Super Bowl pre-game show!
4 tags
Political Dames
Most of the girls with whom Macy grew up wanted to be a princess or a homecoming queen or Jackie Kennedy. But Marie Cecilia Eleanor Robicheau Poydras (that would be Macy) yearned to be the Senator of Louisiana. If she’d wanted to be a princess, this would be a different story.
Macy wanting to be a Senator came from the fact that her daddy was a Senator and had been for longer than most of the...
July 2012
13 posts
5 tags
The Government should have a garage sale
So, I’m listening to an interview with David Wessel about his book, Red Ink, which is a narrative analysis of how funds were spent by our government in 2011. And I hear the same thing I keep hearing about the astounding percentage of people in this country who do not pay taxes (on both ends of the economic scale) and how this means the government runs short on funds to pay for things.
And...
6 tags
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Stalling
My just-graduated-but-not-yet-employed- son came into my office the other day and said, “I know why I’m stalling—for the particular gear in configuration, the engine doesn’t have enough torque at the low RPM to overcome its internal forces.”
I said, “That physics degree was totally worth it because that’s the best damn excuse I’ve heard for why you’re dragging your feet looking for a...
5 tags
Elaine,Hillary and their guys
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Girls Night Out
With the German Chancellor (top) and the President of Brazil (bottom)
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Elaine likes Turkey
I am left with several key questions after last night’s Political Animals, not the least of which is, what Elaine will wear on her date with the Turkish minister? And will he give Elaine the night out she needs? Based on the Turkish bath scene, his physique doesn’t seem to inspire delivery, but you never know.
Perhaps she can re-use that red scarf from the engagement party, it was pretty...
5 tags
Elaine and Hill
Elaine Barrish rocks, but she could use some style pointers from HRC.
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Hillary Dreamworlds
USA Network has created the most amazing political storyworld, of which Political Animals is the television component, and if I were Hillary Rodham Clinton, I’d be teaming with USA right now. It’s a politician’s multi-platform dream world.
The lead character in Political Animals is Elaine Barrish, a doppelganger for Hillary, right down to the pantsuits. Elaine has lost the candidacy to a...
8 tags
Jennifer Weiner Takes Times To Task
Jennifer Weiner, whose books have sold more than 11 million copies, tackles the seemingly sexist views of the Times reviewers, and asks, fittingly, why is John Cheever classified as American literature and Jennifer Weiner as chick-lit?
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Eating like Nora Ephron
By all accounts (including her own book, “Heartburn”), Ephron loved to eat.
When I was re-watching the movie last week, I thought, I wish I’d written a book that funny about my own divorce—but I can’t cook.
But I do have a lot of food stories surrounding the men who have been in my life…I had a boyfriend in grad school who made the most amazing peanut butter...
June 2012
10 posts
4 tags
Lessons from Nora Ephron
What I learned from Nora Ephron:
1. Everything really is copy, especially if you can find the humor in it.
2. Divorce is a dish best served with a good recipe.
3. Save the Italian for the next marriage.
4 tags
Spackle Nail Polish
I was standing on top of the sink in the bathroom last night (in my barefeet), spackling all of the cracks that Wally had missed when I asked him to spackle the bathroom over Memorial Day Weekend. He chose two and did a lovely job, but there were at least 12 others he missed.
Now that we’re coming up on July 4th, I wanted to finish the job. And I decided not to wait for his return next week...
6 tags
Ragging, not raging
I used to cut up old T-shirts and make dust rags out of them. Now, I make rag rugs out of them.
This is lovely for the floors in my house, not so much for the furniture or my allergies.
Making the rugs is restful, creative and a total excuse for not doing anything else. And I’m totally addicted. In fact, George refers to the rugs as my ‘crack”.
I’m so into the rugs...
8 tags
Pixar's Princess
Let me get this straight. Pixar finally releases a movie with a strong female protagonist, and all anyone can talk about is her hair???
7 tags
Mommy, can I have a promotion please?
Let me just say, I have been in the workplace awhile.
My first (non-waitressing) job was in between college and grad school, back in 80-81. I took a job as an administrative assistant for two sales managers, one male and one female. On my first day on the job the guy came over to me and plonked his coffee cup on my desk and said, “Cream two sugars.” I pushed my mug back at him and said,...
4 tags
Tongue tied?
Australian Outback
The dingo really did eat her baby.
A Summer Reading Flowchart - too fabulous →
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Teaching women how to say "no"
Angela does it in multiple languages.
4 tags
School's not out for this guy
Whatever the Armenian Foreign Minister is saying, Hillary’s not buying it. Rather, she looks as if she’s waiting for him to finish so she can school him properly.
But what I really like is the expression on her face. It says she has a bigger set of balls than him and, I would venture to say, than every American politician currently in power. And she says all that with a...
May 2012
7 posts
4 tags
Summertime and the living is....
In the summer memories of my youth, the houses were cool, dark stone. Our moms wore pedal pushers and short, dark curly hair, brushed casually off their foreheads. They laughed a lot. There were too many of us to corral—five and six kids to a household on my street—so we swept in and out of houses, mixing messy, red pitchers of Kool-Aid, leaving a trail of ants behind us. There was a summer...
1 tag
Advice to college grads
I’m headed out to Wally’s college graduation this weekend, which is funny because just yesterday he was ten.
Anyway, I’ve been wracking my brain to think of some sage advice to offer my graduate, something other than “plastics”.
Thanksfully, someone much younger than me has written a hilarious advice column, “Congrats new grads! By the way, you don’t...
2 tags
Travels with my mom
There’s an article in the NY Times about a mother-daughter bonding trip to a high end resort in Florida. The daughter is 18 and I’m not sure why the mother wasted the money. The mother wrote about the trip and the daughter wrote a short side-bar, offering tips on traveling with your mother.
My tip would have been, don’t. Not at that age.
I did, however, travel with my mother a few years...
1 tag
Catholic Bishops investigate Girl Scouts
Because, you know, they don’t have enough to keep themselves occupied. And you never know—these girls may growup to use birth control. Story.
7 tags
Happy Mother's Day
I’ve often thought that if I did my job as a mom correctly, my boys would head out into the world, happy and healthy. Now suddenly, that time is here. Wally is graduating from college next week—and no, despite majoring in Physics, he doesn’t have a job.
It’s astounding to me that this time is here already. I remember, clear as a bell, his senior year in high school. I...
