How to Run a Disorderly House in 1890 Early New York was littered with prostitution in the late 1800’s. On the streets and in the Bawdy or Disorderly Houses as the cops designated them, prostitution was a booming business. The brothel business abounded not merely because of lust and lawlessness, but because it was [ Read More ]
A snapshot can do it… a store window reflection… a chance remark by a friend. It’s the moment you realize you’re not young anymore. You’re not old either, thank the Lord, just – you know, not young. You don’t feel any different on the inside. But your inside doesn’t match your outside the way it [ Read More ]
My friends are reaching birthday numbers they thought they’d never have to cope with, taking up Causes or Yoga, planning retirement, talking about their portfolios, their golf game and their cholesterol. They’re also burying their parents, becoming rich and Republican, having grandchildren and heart attacks – and oddest of all, they’re calling themselves Seniors. How [ Read More ]
I recently spent a hilarious afternoon at the hairdresser, as all the women there and the witty, astute owner of the place, shared our strategies for never really seeing ourselves in the mirror again… except, of course, when we’re at the hairdresser and look our absolute best. We each had our own mid-life mirror-avoidance technique [ Read More ]
“Some people, no matter how old they get, never lose their beauty. They merely move it from their faces into their hearts.” -Martin Buxbaum Somebody sent me this quote and my first thought was ‘But it would really be nice to keep it in both places, wouldn’t it?’ Our generation is famous for wanting [ Read More ]
I’ve been having an imaginary conversation with my heart lately. Not the physical heart exactly, although I admire its pluck and constancy enormously. But the metaphoric heart of me that loves, not necessarily wisely, but pretty well, and that has taken a lot of hits over the years. It occurred to me one day, while [ Read More ]
I confess to feeling slightly foolish blogging about Titanic, but the phenomenon of Dakota and her pals going to see it in Imax 3-D – for their 34th lifetime viewing – set me to pondering what on earth could have precipitated that kind of devotion to a movie. OK. In the interest of full disclosure, [ Read More ]
I’ve blogged so much about Dakota you probably already feel you know her, but maybe you don’t know her work yet, so I’d like to introduce you on the cusp of her graduation from Parsons. Of course, Colleges of Art are not quite like any others… Dakota’s cap and gown were fire engine red and [ Read More ]
When I was a child, I thought of my mother’s sister Mary as the Dowager Empress of the World. She was tall and stately and would sit on her chair like a queen on a throne, her adoring daughters dancing attendance on her as if she thoroughly deserved it. In truth, she probably did, as [ Read More ]
“Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” The proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution That’s it. That’s all of it. 24 words. It says nothing about having to endure dual-sex toilets or the draft. It pretty [ Read More ]