- Dear Margo: When You Think You've Heard Everything ... You Haven't
- Liz Smith: The Apocalypse Arrives – Is It '2012' the Movie or Is It … Sarah Palin in 2012?
- Dear Margo: When Dad/Gramps Just Ain't Interested
- What's your viewpoint on a one-term presidency for Obama, no matter the reason?
- Political Cover Stars? Spare Me! by Mr. wOw
- Liz Smith: In a Concert Hall Far, Far Away
- Could Mammograms Fall Victim to Obamacare? by Liz Peek
- Liz Smith: Sharon Stone, Steve Tyrell, Sarah (You Know Who), Glamour, Lesley Gore – and More!
- Has your mother's style influenced your own? In what way?
- Queen Martha, by Cynthia McFadden
- Dear Margo: When Dad/Gramps Just Ain't Interested
- Did You Ever See a Book Cry? by Sheila Nevins
- Liz Smith: In a Concert Hall Far, Far Away
- Dear Margo: When You Think You've Heard Everything ... You Haven't
- LIZ SMITH FLASH! The Kennedy Conspiracy and the Mafia
- Liz Smith: Sharon Stone, Steve Tyrell, Sarah (You Know Who), Glamour, Lesley Gore – and More!
- Liz Smith: The Apocalypse Arrives – Is It '2012' the Movie or Is It … Sarah Palin in 2012?
- What's the Best Business Advice You've Ever Received? (Contest)
- What's your viewpoint on a one-term presidency for Obama, no matter the reason?
- Joan Ganz Cooney Has Never Shaken It Off
- What's your viewpoint on a one-term presidency for Obama, no matter the reason?
- Liz Smith: The Apocalypse Arrives – Is It '2012' the Movie or Is It … Sarah Palin in 2012?
- Political Cover Stars? Spare Me! by Mr. wOw
- Could Mammograms Fall Victim to Obamacare? by Liz Peek
- Dear Margo: When You Think You've Heard Everything ... You Haven't
- Dear Margo: When Dad/Gramps Just Ain't Interested
- Did You Ever See a Book Cry? by Sheila Nevins
- Has your mother's style influenced your own? In what way?
- Remember shopping pre-Internet? What era/memory in the evolution of shopping do you think of most fondly?
- LIZ SMITH FLASH! The Kennedy Conspiracy and the Mafia































My Comments (430 so far…)
Could Mammograms Fall Victim to Obamacare? by Liz Peek
Liz Peek, your headline equating President Obama with the current questioning of timing for mamograms is clearly meant to incite those who are against any kind of health reform. And I have to believe all those against health reform must be in the increasingly small minority. I’ll bet there are a lot of women who would bless the day they got coverage for ANY mamogram, because currently they have no ability to get insurance at all and they certainly cannot afford to pay out of their own pocket.
This study is injecting factual analysis of real results. That is something our current health system has too little of and as a result our health outcomes are much lower than many other countries in the world. I do not understand why there is such an emotional over reaction to the thought of some level of basic health coverage given to any US citizen. Talk about the haves and have nots. I am certain that if we do not pass reform there will be many more have nots. And whatever happens, it is not because of Obama. It is congress that has to pass it, however I only observe Senators and Representatives willing to play politics rather than watch out for the good of their country as a whole.
Dear Margo: When You Think You've Heard Everything ... You Haven't
Liz Smith: In a Concert Hall Far, Far Away
What was your favorite book (or books) as a child?
What was your favorite book (or books) as a child?
Dear Margo: Marrying a Guy in the Mormon Closet. Oy.
LW #1: She is 30. Old enough to make her own decisions. Perhaps she makes bad decisions because everyone thinks she is too immature and so have made decisions for her in life. She now has a chance to do something on her own that she knows no one is telling her to do.
If they are good friends and she doesn’t have another relationship, it may feel like a way to deepen and make permanent that friendship. I would just caution her about safe sex because if he has other sexual interests, it could come back to haunt her in a big way.
B Is for ... Best 'Sesame Street' Moments of All Time, Presented by Founder Joan Ganz Cooney (Video)
The milkman cometh back! Do you remember a time when he delivered your milk?
We had a milk man when I was growing up. We had the little milk chute in the side of our house next to the door. A door on the outside for the milk man to put the milk, eggs, bread in and one on the inside for us to take it out. We had to remember to get the milk before we left for school in the winter, otherwise it would freeze and crack the glass bottles. The bottles had little cardboard stoppers in them, covered with a pleated paper cap. If we wanted something different (their absolutely yummy chocolate milk for a rare treat, perhaps) we left a note in the neck of one of the bottles we were returning.
When we were little, if my parents went out and thought they wouldn’t be home before we got home from school, they would lock the doors and leave a key for us kids in the milk chute. Very safe :)
My dad still lives in the same house and the milk chute is still there. Of course, the neighbors are all aghast he has not taken out the milk chute because they think it is a security exposure.
Reports of suicide bombings are now so frequent that we can hardly process them. Have we become immune to these horrors?
With whom – if anyone – do you share the details of your sex life?
No Slacks in the Office: Gail Collins and Lesley Stahl Relive the Birth of Feminism
Facinating. I came of age at the same time period as you two, graduating college in the early 70’s. Young women today have no idea what it was like then. No boys allowed in my dorm above the ground floor and even there the rule was four feet on the floor, only hand holding. Not even kissing! Women had to wear dresses to dinner in the cafeteria and be in by 11:00. The males were allowed to dress as they liked in their dorms and had open hours. No curfew at all.
When I graduated, I went to an employment agency. They had pink application forms for women and blue for men. Every woman had to take a typing test (the men didn’t have to). I told them I wasn’t much of a typist and I was asked what kind of a job did I think I could get without typing skills. I guess my math and economics degree weren’t really what they were looking for.
I got a job with a Fortune 100 company. Women had to wear dresses. Absolutely no pants. I had worked there for about four years and was due my first big promotion. I had exceeded every goal given me, was recognized as a leader, all the men hired when I was had already been promoted. And then I got pregnant. I told my husband I was going to hide it until I got my promotion. I actually waited until I was six months pregnant, got the promotion and then told my boss. He took back the promotion. Said I would have to wait until I came back and worked at least another year to "prove" I was serious about staying because women just wanted to make a few extra bucks to support their kids and then quit to stay at home. And this was very legal at the time.
I shake my head now at young women with their tight skirts, spike heels and spanks (they were called girdles in my day.) I fought long and hard to be able to come to work without all those confining garments.
We have certainly come a long way.
The Truth About Marriage, by Carin Rubenstein
Joan, It sounds like you have a great marriage. I feel fortunate that I do, too. My relationship doesn’t sound at all like Carin’s. I married fairly young. We have two children. I’ve always worked. From the start, we pooled our money. There was no mine or yours. It was all ours. And we always made decisions together (sometimes maddeningly…since when did you care that much about the color of the bathroom towels?) But perhaps I was lucky, or perhaps very smart, when I chose my mate. He does all the grocery shopping and most of the cooking. We share the fretting over who will pick up the kids, who will stay home when one is sick. He’s taken them to the doctor when they are sick as often as I have. He vacuums more often than I do (although I clean the kitchen more often than he does because somehow he just does not see all the crumbs I do.) I’ve always done the laundry because I have more things that I want hand washed or hung to dry or whatever. We both love being outside so we very much share the yard duties. I pay the day-to-day bills but he does most of the banking, making sure I have money in my wallet. He usually puts gas in the cars; I usually get them washed.
We haven’t done this by counting up who does what. It just felt right to us and we both always considered each other equals. We’ve had shared goals and found our path toward them in a way that feels really good to us both.
The Love Goddess: Are We Too Far Gone for Monogamy?
I agree that, sadly, there is a lot more infidelity going on than anyone might realize. And women are entering into these relationships just as often and willingly as men.
But I do not agree that all of this consensual sex is so harmless. Too often I still see young women having affairs with older married colleagues, whether they are in a position of power over them or not, and the young women have this delusional fantasy that the affair has more meaning to the man than it does. "He says his wife doesn’t understand him." "As soon as the kids are older he is going to leave her for me." "He says he has never loved anyone the way he loves me." Sadly, they do not see that sexual mores may have changed, "hookups" may have become more common. But the basic reality has not changed. The man rarely leaves his wife. If the wife finds out, there is usually a tearful remorse on the part of the wayward husband and the commitment to work harder on their relationship. When the wayward husband does split, it is rarely to stay with the girlfriend. Even if he leaves his original wife and marries the girlfriend, how often does that marriage last? If he cheated on Wife #1, will he also cheat on Wife #2? If the young woman thinks it was just fine for him to find comfort outside his marriage, will she do the same in her marriage? The grass always seems greener somewhere else. We’ve made commitments seem so trivial. "Starter marriages" are discussed so casually. The expectation is that everyone cheats. It’s no big deal to sleep around. Let’s have 50 or 100 sexual partners (can you even remember any of their names?)
Love and sex don’t seem to have much importance any more in such a throw away society.
Liz Smith: Roman Polanski and Hollywood's Big 'Oops!'
Wannamaker's, Oldsmobile, Polaroid and PanAm … What defunct brands do you now miss?