Friends. I alwalys remember what my father told me when I was young - most of the people called “friends” are merely acquaintances - The true ones stick. The false ones age and become brittle and bitter and refuse to grow. Living well is the best revenge, say the Spanish. I agree,

I feel dumb buying ice tea at McDonald’s just because I have run out at home & not filled my to-go cup as usual. And there are a few online subscriptions I regret & have cancelled. Book clubs (I never follow through). But really, my frugal philosophy is to AVOID spending $ on dumb things and save it for things you need and WANT. That’s the way to afford them!

I wore my Grandmother’s WWI era wedding dress at my first wedding. And At my second (and true one) a long light green linen one, because it was so hot in the NJ backyard we staged the wedding in that anything silk would have disintegrated. My family tradition is NOT to spend $ frivolously on a wedding gown which can only be worn ONCE! I did buy a lace parasol for the garden wedding, tho - cost more than the dress - ditto my jewelry!!

My Athena picture has morphed into Sophia - also a goddess of wisdom, but a bit more all-inclusive…Historically I identify with Elena Duse, the first modern and “method” actress - as well as Garbo, altho I wish she had ended her life better - and, after reading her autobiography, Agatha Christie for being such a workhouse and reinventing herself after a painful divorce past mid-life…Also Queen Elizabeth I, who was learned and wily…But there are so many, and they change as I do…When I was learning to act my idol was Geraldine Page.

When I went to Barnard you could always tell the tony from the suburbanites - they wore suede jackets for all of the 2 weeks of spring & went to the Caribbean for spring break. Still haven’t made it. But I live in S. California & we have a boat, so it makes up for it. As a church musician and singer, I have been busy with the program of music for holy week at Hollywood Lutheran church, directed by my friend Eldon Turner, a fine musician. We are singing Mozart - oh la! And my husband is the percussionist/techie. I am even playing some celtic music on the lap harp for Good Friday. Then we are having dinner with Eldon and friends at the historical Tam O’Shanter in Los Feliz - where it will be gemutlich & I can fantasize about the Highlands my forefathers came from. See my goal is your lives on a budget!

Sadly I was witness to the takeover by Crocker Bank of my father’s finance company (UM&M) which had been successful for years. They then proceeded to dismantle all the ways in which the company had been successful and in several years it was GONE and not too long after it, Crocker Bank, too. The MBAs sought paper profits on balance sheets that looked good for the moment but would eventually turn into losses. My father knew - but he was overruled. That’s the diabolic nature of what has become today’s prevalent number crunching - not to mention that the MBAs never have learned “the business” via hardwon experience…So you get short-term profits for the financial pirates (who are also being paid quite handsomely) and long-term instability…

Yes, I read that the dreaded bedbug is making a re -appearance due to international travel & the ban on DDT. So we have to look out for bugs once more! I like the gambit of taking a roach down to reception and getting compensated for it, tho. But how does one check for bedbugs? I would like to know. I have been fighting urban roaches for years (boric acid is great) but bedbugs?

It’s funny, I never thought such accomplished women would feel the same way about putting on a persona (I have my actress going out one my husband calls “Pamela Monrovia”) And it’s true about the clothes - I write on the net in jeans and t-shirts or sweatshirts, depending upon the season - but then there are my-face-L.A.-here-I-come-clothes! And the character stuff - so I have a LOT of clothes.

I think the meaning of Deneuve’s quote of the Fr. saying is that either you are proud of your figure, your legs, your waistline - and you allow your neck to becomes scrawny (even the aged Audrey Hepburn suffered from that). - or you are proud of your face, and the little extra weight that fills it out will be shared with your derriere. (Also drastic dieting does have bad results on the bod, in the end. Those dieter’s skin always looks grey, somehow….) Me, I side with Deneuve -

Have rarely been fired on theatrical/artistic jobs. Although there were many jobs that didn’t happen or dried up or didn’t go where they should have gone. I used to work as a temp, and they always thought they were firing me, when I just moved on. It was fun to watch, because there were times they really wanted me to SUFFER, and I really didn’t care. The little award-winning magazine I wrote op-ed pieces for went under - and magazine for which I was briefly Cultural Editor decided to fire the woman I worked for and turn in the direction of People (I was writing about museums!) and celeb stuff. But I wasn’t interested in working for the new regime anyway. When I was a 99 seat theatre producer, I had to fire an ingenue because she just couldn’t learn her LINES - and that was torturous, but really…In another instance there was an actor who also was having trouble with his lines - but he was good, and we could fake it, and I suspected it had to do with his treatment for brain cancer - so I let it go. He did get his lines before opening - and I am so glad I kept him on - because he was a nice guy and died within the year. I think our little production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream was his last piece of acting work…How horrible it would have been to fire him from our trivial production…

All I know is that I WOULDN’T - but political marriages are another total kettle of something. I married for love and at our wedding we emphasized gratitude & grace. That doesn’t preclude forgiveness - but it would have to be hardwon and sincere - Would that be possible here? Political spouses are part of the family “business” not just married. But I also had the experience of a damaged man who almost dragged me down with him and I had to just give up with as much love as I could muster - because no one can change anyone else. The person in question must burn to change & be willing to do anything it takes. Has anyone considered that Sptizer may be a sex addict and in need of the 12 Step Program for that? Or otherwise mentally ill - that would be even more difficult - but then if the person in question refuses to participate in treatment, they have to be left to their own karma….

As I recall, after a sort of “wild youth” - Dr. Laura has gone now gone quite far in the opposite direction and is extremely judgemental - an irony, I have always thought, myself. So I really don’t give any of her declarations much weight, as she doesn’t seem to have much of a moral center.

A thorny issue - First we could see that the participating MEN (mostly - the consumers) had as much onus put on them as the providers, for without the consumers, none of it would be necessary. As we see child prostitution and what we used to call “white slavery” abound worldwide, which we must condemn, I don’t see how we can legalize prostitution here without a great degree of hypocrisy! Let’s put the blame squarely on those who have earned it - men and their sense of sexual entitlement. It’s time the males took responsibility for their sexuality instead of continually blaming the females.