Untitled

This is as good as it gets! Reading is a highly subjective pastime. I might hate a book you absolutely love, and you might dislike a book I perceived as the second coming. Several decades ago, I realized that I do not have to finish a book once I started reading it if it doesn’t grip me by the first couple of dozen pages. I toss it aside and move on to something more appealing from my…

The other day, a couple of my boomer gal pals and I went to a weekday matinée screening of the much-hyped new movie The Devil Wears Prada II, and, I must confess, it was better than I expected. Of course, with names like Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, Anne Hathaway, and Emily Blunt, it was already on second base. The costumes were stunning, the sets and locations were dramatic and beautiful, and…

What’s wrong with me? The other day, I found myself moaning to a friend that I seem to have no energy at all these days. Boomers accept that aging comes with a certain decline in energy levels, especially those of us on the older end of the age scale. My friend and her husband have always been active, and I must admit I envy their ability to sometimes pack three activities into a single day. They…

Why in the name of the Almighty have clothing designers not realized by now that women have tits? Darts help but we need you to go a step further. We’re bigger in front than men and our shirts and blouses have to be designed to accommodate the extra real estate. In fact, most North American women have more bulk everywhere than the sizing standards used by Asian manufacturers. As I buttoned up a…

Dear Mark Zuckerberg: Now that the State of New Mexico has successfully sued you/Meta for knowingly building predatory and addictive algorithms into your platforms, is there a chance for any kind of restitution for an elderly boomer for the hours upon hours I have wasted doom-scrolling Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. I hopped on that addictive hampster wheel a few years ago and have regretted…

Every so often, we come upon a book that is a total and utter delight to read.  The Secret Diary Of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ Years Old is such a book, and it was a welcome respite from the horrors of what is going on in the world these days. Hendrik Groen is a fictional character who lives in a modest assisted living facility in Amsterdam. He may not be wealthy, but he is wise. Every morning, Groen…

Eric Swalwell recently withdrew from the run for Governor as a Democrat in California when he found himself in deep doo-doo. He’s been accused of harassing several young ladies who came in contact with him recently. Politicians using their power and so-called prestige to seek sexual favours is not a new phenomenon. We’ve all heard the stories about J.F.K., Bill Clinton, and, of course, the United…

This question crops up from time to time, and my response rarely varies. If I could, I would command my 20-year-old self to be confident. The insecurities of youth are soul-destroying, and with the advent of social media and peer pressure for “likes”, young people are constantly under pressure to be better—the assumption being that they are never good enough. They have to keep striving to be one…

It’s been a terrible week, and there are times when it makes us feel better just to vent, to get our anger and nasty thoughts down on “paper”—like in the olden days when we would spill out our venom in a letter, or more recently, an email, then never mail it. That’s what this post is. Let them eat cake! We all remember the $10 million “Let them eat cake” Jeff Bezos wedding circus in Venice. Then,…

With so much death, war, corruption, and disaster in the world these days, it’s a relief to come upon a book that provides a respite from all that. Theo of Golden by Allen Levi is an easy, contemplative story about a sophisticated 86-year-old Portuguese man with a secret past who arrives in a little town called Golden, Georgia in pursuit of quiet pleasures during his final years. Shortly after he…

Sadly, my own brain is incapable of learning to code. Ten years ago, I posted twice about the wisdom of encouraging young people to learn to code, Mothers Make Sure Your Daughters Grow Up To Be Coders, and, Both My Left and Right Brains Say Go For It!   (I encourage you to read these links.) As an example of my commitment to this skill, I even took an all-day Saturday session called “Ladies…

There may not be a better form of reading escapism than a good, old, rootin’, tootin’ story of historical fiction set in the Klondike during the gold rush days in the late 1800s. The Rush by Beth Lewis is a bit different, however, because it’s written from a feminist perspective. Throughout history, there have been strong women whose accomplishments have often exceeded those of men, yet their…

There is a very good explanation for why I like to sleep so much. I was genetically engineered to need above-average amounts of sleep. When I was five years old, my mother had to enroll me in morning kindergarten so I could still nap in the afternoons, and the habit stuck. It was very difficult during my working years to convince my employers that I needed a nap after lunch. They were not the…

After spending the last few days reading Nobody’s Girl, A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting For Justice, by Virginia Giuffre about her life before, during, and after Jeffrey Epstein, I have three comments: It is not an easy read. It is not easy to put down. It is a must read. If you are anything like me, you will feel gutted when you read how a pretty, smart, young girl was used and abused…

As if I don’t have enough insecurities already about my fashion choices, The New York Times columnist Alisha Haridisani Gupta has given me one more thing to keep me awake worrying at night. In her recent piece, Does Your Winter Scarf Make You Look Old? Gupta suggests that our choice of scarf can make or break the world’s perception of our fashion savoir faire. When I was growing up in the 1950s…

Last week, when I stood in the card aisle at the drug store picking out an appropriate Valentine’s Day card for my husband, I acknowledged a new reality in my life. My husband has dementia, and the routines of daily life are now a bit different from when we first came together. This year, I also picked out a Valentine—for myself—from him. Now that he can no longer drive, or shop and handle money…