So that's how she did it
Fashion designer Donatelli Versace spoke at Oxford University recently (?? I know, but let's move on for now) and she shared this very funny vignette about Elizabeth Taylor, who famously had one of the best jewelry collections in the world (I always figured it was just those violet eyes that made men lavish her with gifts):
Versace also let loose some anecdotes, one of them about fellow jewelry nut Elizabeth Taylor.
Taylor admired Versace’s ring once, and asked if she could try it. Versace obliged, but never managed to get the ring back. Instead, she received a thank you from Taylor: “Hey darling, the ring is so beautiful. Thank you so much!”
Speak to that thing
"Connect with everyone, all the time.
Be genuine about it. Learn to find something you like in each person, and then speak to that thing."
Every single thing on this list of "20 Things I Should Have Known At 20" is absolutely spot on. But number four, which I've pasted above, really hit me.
That's probably because I think it's the only one I was fortunate to have understood well before I turned 20 all those years ago. I credit/blame my mother, who has been everyone's favorite person in whom to confide for as long as I can remember.
Anyway, I honestly do believe it's the key to happiness. And anytime I feel low and/or overwhelmed with life in general, I try and strike up a conversation with whoever happens to be around -- the person in front of me in line at the grocery store, my cab driver, whoever -- and I soon remember what we're all here for.
On habits, and being human
"But there was a pervasive melancholy, the vague sense that something
bright and happy and true was missing from my life—a wonderful friend
and not just a reliable route to comfort and satisfaction.
I suppose
that these are signs of addiction, much as the way you repeatedly reach
for the matches in your pocket when you’re trying to give up smoking. But please remind me: What’s so bad about addiction? I can’t remember.
Isn’t it something about giving up your freedom? Isn’t freedom an
illusion?"
--from an article written by Jeffrey Steingarten in the May 2012 issue of Vogue
Lots of people know Jeffrey Steingarten from his television appearances on the Food Network as well as from his role as food critic for Vogue Magazine (I know, to many that sounds like an oxymoron, just like Ethiopian cuisine -- which of course exists and is delicious.)
I've never gotten into any of his articles as much as I got into "Mr. Clean," which he wrote during and after his experience on The Master Cleanse, a trendy and super strict fast that consists of ingesting lemonade and little else for at least 10 days. The whole piece was super sharp: At times very funny, at times very reflective, at all times very good.
That thump of ambition
A young Anna Quindlen
I've been listening to a fair amount of NPR lately. When driving (which I've been doing to shuttle to interviews for work and whatnot) it's just generally my best option for entertainment. I feel guilty about all the car use when San Francisco has decent public transit, but that's for another post.
Anyway! Earlier this week while driving along, I found myself absorbed in a Terry Gross interview. She was talking with an interesting-sounding woman with some very smart opinions. Only at the very end of it I found out that she was talking with *the* Anna Quindlen, who is apparently promoting a new book.
Below I've pasted the transcript of one part of the interview that really enchanted me. I'm still into my ambitious 20's stage, but I think the state of mind Ms. Quindlen describes will come later on in life is something to really, really look forward to:
GROSS: You write in your book: I wouldn't be 25 again or even 40. Why not?
QUINDLEN: Oh, I think I was still so unsure of myself, particularly at 25. I mean, you know, I talked a good game but there was still that sense of looking over my shoulder all the time in terms of what people expected of me, what I expected of myself, that thump, thump of ambition that's kind of free floating when you're young.
I just feel like with every passing year I've sort of become more myself. I've sort of circled back to that little five year old girl, you know, who was kind of full of herself and didn't take a whole lot of guff and did what she wanted to do and was comfortable in her own skin.
