I have an awesome aunt that likes to send me random stuff in the mail. Lots of times it is just notes, maybe a few articles, sometimes stickers, but whatever it is, its always fun to get ‘real’ mail. Anyways, one of the last envelopes she sent had a bunch of pictures and articles cut out about how to decorate for Halloween and more ideas of what to do with pumpkins instead of just carve them. Loved this.
Amongst the various pictures and such I happened to look at the back of one of the little cutouts and lo and behold, there was the answer to all my problems in life!! According to Woman’s Day magazine they had figured out the three things no woman can live without, perfect! Anyone want to guess what #1 was? That’s right, a husband! Well, not just a husband, but “A very wise husband who always knows the perfect moment to say ‘you’re right honey’”.
Seriously?!?!
Not even taking into account that it is a ‘husband’ we need, and not a partner or wife, but that the most important thing is that the husband knows when to tell us that we’re right?! Obviously implying that the aforementioned husband may not actually think, nor need to think, that I am right, but knows when to say it so as not to induce a fight or discussion? Meaning I have to be humored?
Perhaps if the statement had been ‘A very wise partner who knows just when you need their extra support and comfort, and when you need to scream your head off to get it out of your system, and will stand patiently by in either situation’ I could support it. But this probably wouldn’t jive with Woman’s Day’s target audience. And it wouldn’t have fit in the type space either.
- suse
P.S. I didn’t write down #2 and #3 and I recycled the page already, sorry.
Somehow this post disappeared. We’re not sure how, but we’re bringing it back cause it shouldn’t be lost…
This is a purely anecdotal story but I thought I would share anyways.
I was strolling along 14th Street near Union Square last week when I started to notice tons of flyers scattered all over the ground. I stopped to read one and found that they all said ‘why are you white?’ in big capital letters. I initially thought to myself, ‘Yes indeed, what a relevant question to be posing in this day and age! Why am I white?’
I noticed someone passing the flyers out, so I walked over to get one, still thinking that maybe it was a flyer for a discussion on white privilege, or whiteness, or the history of race in general. I took one. And it was laminated. I thought ‘Wait a second, this isn’t right. Discussions on whiteness don’t usually have the budget for glossy, graphic-artist-designed flyers.’ Sure enough I flipped it over and it was an advertisement for a tanning place.
Anyways, I kept it and have it up at my desk now because I thought it was partially sad, partially funny: sad that whoever designed it didn’t seem to consider the meaning of the question, but funny that this tanning place is paying to have laminated messages spread over the streets of New York that question whiteness (at least when the flyer is picked up by white people).
So I didn’t write this, but I thought it was pretty great. Wish I had found it earlier so as to post it before the election, sigh. Its pretty long, so here we go… (more…)
A few days ago I watched 9-to-5 with Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, the always incredible Lily Tomlin, and lots of big hair. Its a movie about getting back at the boss with some beer, pot and friendship thrown in, too.
See LOTS of big hair
Oh, and Colin Higgins who wrote Harold and Maude also wrote this one, so that’s a good precedent. I really did enjoy the movie. Fonda actually plays an endearing character in a non-annoying way, Parton feels like she’s just being herself (I heart Parton, so ‘being herself’ means good in my book), and Tomlin, well, she brings the awesomeness. But what I found interesting was at the end of the movie when the ladies take control of the office and start implementing their changes. This is the climax of the movie and some of the policies that you see go over their proverbial desk are job sharing/part-time work policies, providing a daycare center for children of employees and giving equal pay to all employees doing the same job (meaning all the ladies be getting raises). Let’s start the discussion with that last one… (more…)
So Good Morning America is doing a whistle stop tour where they’re visiting all 50 states and commenting on the state of the nation or whatever. Anyway, they stopped in the upstate NY town where my parents grew up and where I still have family – Rome, NY. Here is part of the video (uh, I guess wordpress doesn’t let you post videos from abcnews. ugh):
Anyway, even though I think everything they said is true (it is kind of a shithole, in all honesty), residents are understandably kind of pissed because it showed them in such a negative and white-trash-ish light. My mom emailed me a letter that the Chairman of the Board of the Rome Chamber of Commerce (whom my grandmother taught when he was in kindergarten, fyi!) wrote to the show: (more…)
So, my mom is an amazing writer. She submits stuff, wins prizes, but has never pursued it full-time, because of money, raising moi, etc. I wanted to share with you all something that she wrote for a traveling exhibit at the Democratic National Convention in our homecity of Denver in about, oh two minutes. I love it. I reminds me of one of my favorite poets, Nobel laureate Derek Walcott in his piece A Far Cry from Africa when he writes: (more…)
I don’t usually have much patience for long youtube videos, but this one is amazing (and not really that long, only 10 min).
I like one lady’s description of ‘direct action’ near the end. Usually when I hear ‘direct action,’ people are talking about some form of protest (or sometimes destruction), not about the direct action of fixing up an empty house so that people can live in it.
Just a few musings about our little island and those who have occupied it in recent history. Upon deep, personal reflection and myriad cues from Sex and the City, it seems that NYC (read: Manhattan) is a sanctuary for misfits. Take, for example, Edith Bouvier Beale, or “Little Edie,” as we all came to know her.
Madison Avenue Misfit
She was truly at the vanguard as a ‘Madison Avenue Misfit,’ living with her mother in a dilapidated and raccoon-infested manse in East Hampton. Then, along came Emily Brill, the darling daughter of a publishing magnate, who is a self-proclaimed ‘5th Avenue Misfit.’ With less alliteration, and less critical misfit qualities such as, perhaps, wearing a cardigan with a brooch on your head because you have tricotillomania, I think that Edie wins the day. She, in keeping with her Kennedy/Bouvier linage, is classic misfit.
However, this made me wonder. I live on the Island. Am I a misfit? Do I have square wheels? Am I an ostrich-riding cowboy? Have I been to East Hampton? Well, yes and no, I guess. It is very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present. Perhaps I am a Haven Avenue Misfit! Stay tuned, fair denizens, stay tuned…
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