Having met a few trust fund babies in my time...

Jan. 14, 2011


...I'd like to offer some unsolicited advice to those readers who may wind up having more money than they know what to do with:

Do like Sting, 59, and Trudie Styler, 57, do for their six (count 'em, six) kids and spend it now.

"No one's sitting around waiting for the trust fund to kick in because there isn't one. I told them, 'There's no money left. Forget it.' Wry smile. 'We've spent the fucking lot.'"

--Sting in the February 2011 issue of Harper's Bazaar

Countenance

Nov. 1, 2010


"I've spent a lot of time in Mexico, and in Mexican culture they embrace death," Fonda explains. "On All Saints Day they sit on their ancestors' graves and they drink and they laugh. That's how to do it. To know it's coming, to try to understand. You're shortchanging yourself in life if you don't countenance your mortality."

--Jane Fonda on aging in the November issue of Elle Magazine.

It may be partly that I've got "sexy fill-in-the-blank" fatigue, but I'm starting to think Dia de los Muertos (traditionally celebrated November 1st-2nd) is a much more interesting holiday than Halloween.

Photo credit AlejandroLinaresGarcia

"Ask yourself why nobody is agreeing with you."

Sept. 21, 2010


I recently came across the May 2010 issue of Esquire and was really impressed at the overall quality of writing-- it was far beyond the "lad mag" fare I was expecting from having thumbed through friends' issues of Maxim back in the day.  Lesson: Don't judge a men's magazine by its (very racy) cover!

Whatever your politics, I think it'd be difficult to dislike reading Tom Junod's nuanced and fantastically well-written profile of Hillary Clinton. I especially liked the part where, during a routine State Department meeting, Hillary takes an unexpected (by me, anyway, given Hillary's reputation as a die-hard feminist) stance on an African-American female employee's claims of discrimination:

Most of those involved in the meeting, however, are those who make up the vast majority of the State Department: career foreign-service and civil-service employees. ...A middle-aged woman in a green jacket stands up and says into the microphone, "I'm concerned that I've been here for eleven years and I've never had a good supervisor."

There's some laughter, and there's even more when the Secretary [of State, Hillary Clinton] says, "Well, shall we give equal time to your supervisors?"

But then the woman says, "I've been discriminated against," and the Secretary says, "Well, I think we have procedures inside State you can follow," and the woman says, "Which I have done," and the Secretary says, Well, just because you've spoken to someone, "that doesn't mean they're going to always side with you... ." It's almost as if the Secretary has decided to guest-star in an episode of The Office until suddenly she becomes Hillary Clinton again and says, "I mean, I've had more criticism in my life than probably whole countries have had." Now, that garners some applause, and yet the woman in the green jacket is not going anywhere. She asks, "So what can I do if the union didn't help me and the Office of Civil Rights didn't help me?"

And the Secretary — no, Hillary — says, "Well, I think you need to ask yourself why nobody is agreeing with you."

And you know what? It's beautiful... She was kind to this woman, almost tender. She was diplomatic. And she cut her off at the knees!

"If I'm going to sit down and eat with you, just tell me the truth."

May 30, 2010
New York Magazine published a fantastic interview with Joan Rivers (I'm pretty keen to see the new documentary about her.) It's so great when a comedienne is still fun to listen to when she's being earnest.

I liked a lot of what she said, especially her thoughts on friendship-- I agree that it's so important to really be able to talk to people about more than just the weather. Here, she describes what it was like to spend a lot of time with the high society crowd in New York:

"... It’s all very glamorous at the beginning. Going to the Metropolitan Opera, taking a table here, being on a committee there. Going out all the time all dressed up."

She levels me with a look. "And then I got bored to death. Nobody tells you the truth. I once asked one of the ladies, 'Did you ever have an affair?' And she stared at me like I was crazy. 'Why would I tell you?' she said. Another time, someone had just bought an apartment and I said, 'How much?' And she said, 'That is really none of your business.' And I thought, Fine. Then we are not friends and I don’t want to spend any more time with you. I was friendly with one couple who I no longer see at all. They would always say, 'We're such good friends.' And then I found out that their daughter had a complete nervous breakdown. For a year, I was always told everything is wonderful. Well, then what are we wasting our time here at [Upper East Side restaurants] Elaine's or Mortimer's or Swifty's? I don’t want to sit in Swifty's and not say anything about anything. I just totally stepped away.

... All I want you to do, if we are sitting down and it's after 6 p.m., is tell me the truth. Because we've all lied to each other all day long in business and we've all had these lunches and we've all ass-kissed to the point where I carry Chapstick. If I am going to sit down and eat with you, just tell me the truth and let me say to you, "Things are lousy and I’m sad.'"

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