Rien a voir Joan but I just read your interview with Carla Bruni in March Vogue & it is soooo good, la Pucelle really knows how to write. Congrats!!!

Only in Palm Beach???? Oh boy, it happens everywhere!!

I don’t think it unusual. My most important “cougar” experience was in a Buddhist country in Asia & before “doing it”, I had to be introduced to my potential mother in law (she was a widow) who after the usual niceties & exchange of presents (I had to improvise, as I did not know the custom of the country I hadn’t bought a present for her so one of my beautiful heirloom pearl necklaces went to her) looked me straight in the eye & said in faltering but well rehearsed English: ” I hope you are going to be real nice to my child” I almost had a heart attack!!! So, my Spanish blood came to my rescue & looked her back straight in her eyes & with my best smile I said: I understand you consider S….a child but he is a man to me, he makes his own decisions bringing me here from the other side of the world, that was the work of a real man & I respect him as such. I`m a good person & promise to be good to him. And that was the end of it. We respected each other, but according to custom whenever we were leaving on a trip, we would go to her and ask permission or her blessing or whatever we may call it, out of respect.

Pls Suzanne tell me because you seem to know Mrs Clinton so well, why is it that I don’t remember her during her years as Senator for New York having an outstanding performance in Foreign Relations as, for instance, Mr Biden had. Is my appreciation right or I’m mistaken. I’d like to know. Thank you. Love to learn.

You are right she was an excellent lawyer, that doesn`t mean she is an expert in Foreign Relations. Quite a different field of expertise

Pls forgive my intruding in this domestic affair, I happen to be opinionated & a foreigner. Mrs Clinton as Secretary of State is a huge mistake. Women whose power is inherited from husbands or parents are bound to fail. Think Imelda/Evita/Benazir/Indira & then think Golda Meir/Thatcher or Bachelet. I don’t want to mention my closest experience, that is the president of Argentina, whose husband -the former President Kirchner- is pulling her strings in plain view & her administration is ruining a once rich & powerful country. Former presidents should not mingle in the following administrations when their wives are in power.Their rather dark & destructive influence -or plain male envy- seem to poison everything they do. So, beware. Mrs Clinton might prove a big failure.

Ladies, pls let your hair down, this is for fun. If you need miracles, do go to Lourdes -I’m not kidding here, I’m no Woody Allen, but visiting the sanctuary -as many other holy sites in the world- is quite an experience. Addendum: In case no love interest of mine read this & provide my desired diamond, anybody looking like the Jesus the Madge found in Rio will be very welcome in my place. Oh the joys of cougardom!!!!

At this particular moment of my life a big diamond would be just lovely…..

Thank you Marlo for this article. You made me cry from beginning to end, the enormity of crimes against women in so many parts of the world is impossible to understand with our smug western minds. Just to think we get depressed because we are older or poorer because our investments went down. I feel ashamed & a coward. And thanks again because being cynical is an easy option in these convoluted times, these Congo ladies have no other way to go but forward & have the guts to make the journey worthwhile. What a lesson!!!!

As a Roman Catholic by birth & education, I am so utterly ashamed by their position on euthanasia & their hypocritical opinion on the issue. In my family, even though it is a Roman Catholic one, my parents signed a sort of affidavit stating that they don’t want to have their lives artificially extended when in a vegetative condition. My mother died of Alzheimer at a very young age (59)-same as Rita Hayworth’s case-, it was devastating for the family, but we stood our ground, we kept her at home till she died & we did not allow any “medical interference” when we knew the end was near. Now, my father is over 90 & he wrote a sort of document allowing me, his only child, to be free to decide his time of death if such a situation should arise. I know it won’t be easy to fight the medical establishment, but I know our common will shall prevail. I deeply feel that our highest right as human beings is to decide how to die. Death being our biggest challenge as living beings.

Joan you certainly got it right. His books were so well written but the kind of sex he wrote about was plain depressing. Suburban dull, boring & toxic. Certainly, there was no “joie de vivre” in those shenanigans. I read most of his books, enjoyed the stories & the style but when finished I had this wish to tell them: just let yourself go, have fun!!!!

Sure, what could replace the touch & sight of our own old books, permeated with so many special memories. There is something reassuring just to look at them, like the smiling faces of old friends, right????

I would establish a difference: there are those books you love to keep in your library, as food for thought ,delight or simple “furnishing” & there are thousands others that you might like or not, in those cases digital books are the thing. I’ve been reading ebooks since they were available & like to wander thru Google books in different languages just for the fun, who knows what treasure could I find there in a flash of serendipity……

I agree, she is a fantastic diplomat with one of the sharpest minds on global politics. A female warrior of sorts in search of peace.