This British dame is the only person to win an Oscar for both acting (for her housekeeper role in 1993’s The Remains of the Day) and for a screenplay (for her 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility). She’s a shapeshifter, for sure, also playing the kooky Sybil Trelawney in the Harry Potter franchise and the cheated-on wife and prime minister’s sister in Love, Actually. She has always struck me as so honest and real—ever more so at 60 (like me). 
the midway
life at midlife
Women + $
My trigger to stop being so secretive about money occurred in a Palm Springs hot tub, while my sister and I were parboiling ourselves under a clump of shaggily glamorous palm trees. She is 61, I’m 59 and we were talking about money for the first time since the days when our “salaries” came in the form of weekly allowance from someone we called Mommy. Which is to say, we were having a meaningful money discussion for the first time in a half century.
“How much do you make?” she asked.
I told her.
I asked her the same question.
She answered it.
“Oh, O.K.,” we said simultaneously.
And then, as if we had walked through a heretofore unseen wall, we started talk openly about all sorts of money matter …
Read more at > http://tuenight.com/2019/04/61-of-women-would-rather-talk-about-their-own-deaths-than-this-topic/
Not a good look for you, J. Crew
Do your colleagues sit in their chairs like this?
I don’t object to wearing leopard-print to work, although I wonder about the word “should.” Should I? Only if I want to to!
The problem is the way this would be person-working-in-an-office is sitting, legs splayed, pubic situation tilted skyward, dreamy gaze into the middle distance. Not a good office look for women or men. Cut that out, J. Crew.
What a doll
What a doll
Mattel meant to honor tennis star Naomi Osaka when it released the lookalike doll. But it compounded the error that’s at heart of the Barbie franchise: plastic Naomi has twiggy arms and ankles. And she’s lighter in both body weight and skin color.
I Am CBD Curious
I wrote a post for CoveyClub, recounting my adventures with CBD products. It’s here and thanks for reading:
https://www.coveyclub.com/current-issue/#about-cbd-products
In which we all just give up
Not a huge fan of diets but somehow we’ve gone from losing weight to not gaining weight. Also, Cosmo, “bra awards?”
Things That Many People Like That I Don’t Really Like All That Much
While I’m making lists (see New Year’s Resolutions for Other People) here’s another one.
- New Year’s Eve—Falls into the category of Holidays We Hate
- Old black and white movies—Why, when there are so many new ones in color?
- The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel—Yes, it’s in color but I still don’t like it and I couldn’t figure out why, given the fabulous clothes and super charming Rachel Brosnahan. Emily Nussbaum nailed it in her New Yorker review entitled (and this says it all) ‘The Cloying Fantasia of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” which she summed up as “tooth-rottingly twee,” even while lamenting it was “so far up my alley it was practically chopping onions in my kitchen.”
- Orchids—On a TV show set they are shorthand for “fancy law office,” and in someone’s house, “this home is for sale.”
- Bob Dylan—Lyrics, great! Voice, not great!
- Honey mustard—I love both honey and mustard but not together
- Beer—But I do like an ice-cold Bud Lite with Lime on a (and I do mean just one) hot summer day
- Facebook—Would it be OK if I just shut it down? It annoys me mightily.
New Year’s Resolutions for Other People
If I write no other posts during a calendar year (and I write very few) there’s always this one, in which helpfully help others make New Year’s Resolutions. You’re welcome!
To: Shampoo & Conditioner Package Designers
There are lots of big words on these bottles relating to ingredients like ADZUKA BEANS and benefits like VOLUMIZING. Much, much smaller—and oftentimes in a less-bold font and color—are the words that help you distinguish the shampoo from the conditioner, a task made harder by the whole no-glasses in a steamed-up shower situation. So I have to guess and I always guess wrong. Suggestion: Make the font for ‘shampoo’ and ‘conditioner’ some combination of large, bold and dark, unless the bottle is dark then make it light. Readability is what we’re after here.
To: Google
So AI probably has some super useful applications. But one of them is not predicting what I’m going to type next. All of this started with gmail suggesting a few responses I could select if I were feeling really lazy—’sounds like a plan!’ and the like. But yesterday I was attaching an edited document to an email with the explanation that revisions were …. and while I was thinking “highlighted in yellow,” that’s what the Google filled in. So specific! So not really guessable! So creepy!
To: People on Crowded Subway Cars With Backpacks On That Practically Knock Me Over When They So Much as Back Up a Bit
Take them off.
To: the Person Who is Watching a Movie on Amazon Prime With Me Right This Very Minute
Stop talking so much.
No company for old men (and women)
I somehow missed an essay called No Country for Old Men (and Women) by Steve Grubbs, about agism in the media, especially as companies seek “synergies and cost savings” after they merge (good-bye Time Inc.!) Chillingly, he writes about running into “a senior executive at a major media company who indicated she ‘had maybe two years left.’ She is in her early 50’s.”
As factors, he cites the pressures imposed by Wall Street when media companies miss their earnings’ mark. But fair enough, as this pressure is a byproduct of being a publicly held company, yeah? More on the mark, specifically for media sellers, is the death of relationship selling, thanks to programmatic ad buying.
N.B.: Ageism is also true on the creative side, per this post.
Sanctuary
And just as we launch ourselves into “the holiday season,” which is almost entirely equated with shopping, here’s a beautiful story about a Dutch church (shared by a friend, how did I miss this?) and its 800-hour service, as a means of protecting a Armenian family from deportation.
Apparently under Dutch law, police officers are not permitted to enter a church while a religious service is taking place, CNN explains. So for more than a month, hundreds of pastors and volunteers have conducted a continuous service, all in support of the family, whose asylum claim was rejected.
Not for nothing, the church is called Bethel Church.
The meaning of Christmas, indeed.
The meaning of Christmas
