Current Events and Whatnot

All this nonsense about Barry Bonds and his steroid use!  I have to wonder, first of all, why Congress investigated baseball to begin with.  Surely they had more pressing matters. But there continues to be hand-wringing and lamentation of the women over whether Bonds lied to Congress about his steroid use.  Who cares?

Obviously, the United States is in a bit of a shambles right now.  And the CEOs and other powers that be of Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Countrywide Mortgage, et al., received barely more than a stern glance.  I don’t believe any of them has even been indicted, let alone arrested. Bush and Obama even had people like Larry Summers advising them on economic policy—the fox guarding the hen house, surely.  Where is Congress and the outrage over fair play now?  The financial industry was indeed called on the carpet and questioned by Congress, and the players in the crisis were accused of lying, but then what happened?  Uhh, nothing.  Heavens to Betsy!  Barry Bonds (an overgrown boy who played a game for a living) lied and is now on trial, with the possibility of going to prison.

While I can appreciate how much more fun it is to talk about baseball than it is to talk about mortgage derivatives, the lack of accountability is stunning.  Whether or not he used drugs just doesn’t seem to deserve the energy of our elected officials. Millions of people's  lives have been ruined (by the arrogant, unconscionable, and downright criminal acts of the financial industry)--don't they deserve Congress' energy?  Watch the Oscar-winning documentary Inside Job.  It made me literally gasp and clap my hand over my mouth.  So many of the people who played enormous roles in the crisis are still in place, apparently just biding their time.  Unless something changes, we will go down this road again.

On a lighter note, besides watching a Terribly Important And Topical Movie, I also watched middle-aged woman porn.  Nancy Meyers, the director of both “Something’s Gotta Give” and “It’s Complicated,” certainly understands the concept of MAWP (middle-aged...you get it).  Women with no financial worries!  Who live in beautiful houses! Who are pursued by very desirable men who accept them on their terms!  Excellent clothes!  Fun and lucrative careers!  Trips to Paris!  It’s not exactly the copier repairman’s pants falling off when the hot receptionist’s top falls off, but it is MAWP nonetheless.  And frankly, it’s delightful!

Book Reports #3 and #4

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="186" caption="Cover of A Kiss Before Dying"][/caption]

Well, not really book reports.  Just quickie recommendations this time.  I recently read The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty for the first time.  I saw the movie years and years ago, and I'm afraid I can't remember if it was very different from the book.  It's really a very religious book, dealing a lot with questions of faith and belief.  Quite shocking, quite suspenseful, quite short. Well worth the read.

The second recommendation is a book I just finished that may be one of the best books I've read in I don't know how long.  It is A Kiss Before Dying, written by Ira Levin in 1953.  He also wrote Rosemary's Baby and The Boys From Brazil, among others, both also excellent books.  But A Kiss... takes place in the fifties,  and it involves an ambitious young man, his pregnant girlfriend (probably pretty shocking in 1953) and her demise, her sisters, and how their stories intertwine.  It's suspenseful, exciting, and surprising, with some nice twists.  Again, quite short.  Must be why both these books made such good movies--short books with lots of intense, meaningful action.

Enjoy!

Holy Grail Found!

I've been having this odd sense of foreboding or wariness or something, attributable to, well, nothing.  So when I finally found some t-shirts that are made for grown-up ladies, well it perked me right up!  Over the past few years, have you noticed that t-shirt fabric is getting thinner and thinner?  Manufacturers seem to put them under the label of "layering" t-shirts, which I think is a bunch of hooey.  I think it just means they can sell a ridiculously thin shirt for the same price as a regular thick one used to be.  I used to be devoted to Land's End and their t-shirts.  But now every time I order what I think is the same item, it's a bit different, and a bit clingy and a bit thinner and...and....  Well, it just annoys me a lot.

In addition to being thin and cheap (neither of which describe me personally), these t-shirts seem to be just made for very young women (read: girls) who have no sign of what is known as a "bra roll."  (It was actually painful for me to type those words.) You see, as I get older, I find that my...uh...physical self is...shall we say...rearranging.  The only saving grace is that I can look around and see that I am certainly not the only middle-aged women going through this. Frankly, the very last thing any of us needs is a t-shirt that's too clingy and too sheer, especially in the back (which is why double-thick tees escape me--they are only ever doubled in the front, not the back--why?).  Let's just say that there are quite a lot of undulations on my back view that certainly don't need emphasizing. So I keep buying Land's End tees,  and I've tried Penney's, Victoria's Secret, Target--well, I now have quite a lot of tees that are great to wear for yard work or house cleaning.

But I have, finally, found the holy grail of t-shirts, and I am here to share my information.  L. L. Bean's Double L Rib-Knit Tees are, if I may be so bold, da bomb.  They are thick, which really makes you look thinner because you can't see any lumps and bumps; they are long (even though I don't do low-rise pants, even some pants that are slightly lower-rise than usual can leave you feeling exposed when you crouch or bend over); and they wash really well--no shrinkage. The cap sleeves on the crew-neck style are not super short, so even if you don't have arms like...somebody with really toned arms (oh alright, like Michelle Obama's, even though I'm really pretty tired of hearing about her arms.  Why doesn't anybody talk about her peculiar belt choices??), you won't feel too exposed. The color selection is not huge, but most of the time I'm wearing black or white anyway, so it's not a problem.

So there you have it--holy grail found, information disseminated.