My sister moved from California to the Caribbean when her husband was transferred and where they stayed in a luxury hotel (gratis his company) while fixing up their new beachfront rental. She was in the rental on hands and knees reaching behind things to clean and ensure the place was absolutely pristine before she moved in. She returned to the hotel hot, sweaty and rather disheveled, and checked at the front desk for mail. The clerk looked up at her and gasped. Upstairs in her hotel room she looked in the mirror and saw why. There was a large cockroach smashed against her face. The ick factor was pretty high.

Loved the piece too. It was a singular era. Halston was also responsible for Jackie’s iconic pillbox hat even though Oleg Cassini was her designer of record at the time. A sidebar on Oleg. I went to a girl’s priory school where the Sister who was also the art teacher was in charge of dress and deportment. In her art room was a small pix of the pope, a slightly larger one of Jesus and a poster of Jackie. She was in fact running a secret cult of Jackie. We even wore Oleg Cassini designed uniforms with smart little berets and pearl necklaces tucked in. (I used this as a subplot element in my novel today.) We were children but we loved Jackie and that whole NYC scene, including Diana Vreeland on whom Kay Thompson’s (actress and also author of Eloise series) character was based in “Funny Face” starring Audrey Hepburn. There was manners, flair, wit and real chic. We wanted to jump horses, speak French and paint watercolors like Jackie. We knew not to walk loudly on our heels because Diana Vreeland said she’d fire anyone at Vogue who did so. Now who do girls emulate? Paris, Brittany. Fashion is important because it reflects the time, but it can also lead them….as Jackie proved. Two million Parisians were out in the streets screaming Viva Jacqui and waving US flags on her 1961 trip there. After only three months in the White House she became the light at the top of the world in part because of her fashion sense. People behave better when they are well dressed. Audrey Hepburn said that because she had no film training, costumes allowed her to act the parts. And her mother said that Funny Face was the film most like her because she was more about fashion than she was about film, or dancing. Even a contemporary Gap Commercial is simply a clip of Audrey Hepburn dancing from the 1957 Funny Face…over a half century old and still fresh. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Di5XPllM18 Today’s designers like Cynthia Rowley still look to Audrey and Jackie for inspiration. So yes, more pieces like this please.

Before the media and the movies it was the world’s people on February 15, 2003 in the largest organized protest in world history on that caused the New York Times to identify them as the world’s other super-power: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_the_2003_Iraq_war

Liz Smith is 85?!! Fabulous!! Best wishes for many more…and same for the birthdays too!

Silda Spitzer is not responsible for another adult’s behavior. My response to seeing her next to him was that she just created an image that will live in perpetuity. I would have stayed home and called the divorce lawyers and changed the locks. She deserves better than serial betrayal by a husband who demanded unprotected sex with prostitutes and who dragged her before the world’s cameras shocked, humiliated and unprotected all over again.

My wonderful son lives in Europe while I’m nursing my newly broken foot in San Francisco, so we won’t be together for Easter as I would prefer. But I’ll have a productive weekend redoing my blog http://web.mac.com/myfrenchheart and sending out a mailing of query letters to literary agents. With the weather so gorgeous I took a doctor-forbidden walk along the Bay. The air was so fresh and clean and a group of about 15 joggers flew past. An inspiring image when I’m missing my daily 5-6+ mile power walks. I’ve acquired renewed appreciation for mobility and also for the kindness of strangers when they see a lady hobbling by on crutches and in a cast! All good wishes for a delightful Spring to everyone from the City of Saint Francis.