Life As We Know It

Why do more men seem to get caught with their pants down then women? And why do their women put up with it?  This is the question of the moment in Weinerville (aka New York City) where Mayoral hopeful and hot dog handful Anthony Weiner is once again deflecting stories about his sexting habit that didn’t seem to stop after he resigned from public office. His wife Huma gamely stood by his side at a press conference vowing her support and assuring us “He’s a good man” (with a dirty little habit!).  Women around the nation cringed and said “Huma, don’t

This week was pure serendipity! I met two authors of top selling breast cancer books that inspired me:  Marisa Acocella Marchetto, author of Cancer Vixen, and Geralyn Lucas, author of Why I Wore Lipstick To My Mastectomy. And I met Susan Seidelman, who directed a delightful movie opening this week called “Hot Flashes” which I highly recommend. The movie’s about a group of middle-aged women in the tiny town of Burning Bush, Texas, who form a basketball team to play against the high school champion Burning Bush Armadillos in a charity competition to raise funds to save the local mobile mammogram clinic from

The Center for Disease Control has reported a sharp rise in women’s deaths from overdose of painkillers.  The rate has quintupled since 1999 with white women affected more than black and older more than young. With more women shouldering the responsibility of providing for their home and their family; and juggling work, parenting, community and other obligations,  women are turning to prescription pain pills to alleviate stress. Quoting from today’s article by Sabrina Tavernise in The New York Times “…women blame the changing nature of American society. The rise of the single-parent household has thrust immense responsibility on women, who

“Women are the greatest untapped natural resource in the world.”– Mama Gena It takes a lot of convincing and the chance to experience something out of the ordinary to keep me in the city on a Summer weekend. With my husband overseas swilling Cretan wine on an all male press junket, I used the time alone to reconnect with some of my girlfriends and with my womanly self. It was pure midsummer pleasure: sunset cocktails at  at the Metropolitan Museum’s rooftop terrace on Friday and rosé at the beach in Bridgehampton on Saturday. So how did I end up in a

Lean  In  “to incline or press into something. You have to lean into the wind when you walk or you will be blown over.” (The Free Dictionary)  I just finished reading Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg’s book, “Lean In,” referred to by some blogs as “a feminist manifesto” to motivate women in business to be assertive, set goals, establish boundaries and speak up and out if they want to crunch the glass ceiling and establish equality between the working sexes.  As a woman and a business owner I found her message compelling based both on my successes and my mistakes. Here’s my interpretation: It takes more than a traditional MBA “Master

Sunday, June 2, is National Cancer Survivors Day. I’ve given lot of thought about the word “survivor” and to what it means to survive cancer in the years since I was diagnosed in 2009. Once you are diagnosed with cancer you ask yourself “When exactly do I become a cancer survivor?” I looked the question up online at several sites and found varying answers: Some say you are survivor from the moment you are diagnosed. Some say you become a survivor five years after diagnosis Some say you are a survivor after five years of being cancer free. Some say

“People call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute” – Rebecca West I am a woman who cannot tolerate being held back, caged in, cornered or abused by anyone or anything in any format. So my skin crawled and my fists clenched this past week as news reports in Cleveland, Ohio, announced that three young women, kidnapped and held captive by a sadistic, skeezy, sexual predator for more than a decade, were finally found and saved. And it all happened in the house next door in the neighborhood where anyone could live, and no one caught

“Do not regret growing older. It is a privilege denied to many”-Unknown This week the actress Laura Linney was on one of the morning shows talking about her final season of “The Big C” where her character is facing the end of her life.  I have never met the actress Linney but she radiated straightforward charm and beauty.  She said portraying a character with cancer facing her own mortality made her understand “the privilege of aging.” The words lingered  in my head. We live in a strange world where a high value is placed on antiques and aged wines and where  in Manhattan

A Teen Idol, A Prep Queen and an Iron Lady Three women died last week who marked different stages of my evolution as a woman. During the 1960s I remember watching Annette Funicello leading the Mickey Mouse Club. After making my stage debut as “Trixie, the No Neck Monster” in Tennessee Williams’ “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof” at the age of five I longed to join the Club, wear mouse ears and perform on TV and film. But I was stuck in Chattanooga attending The Bright School and acting in class plays instead with costumed roles like “The Dancing Icicle” or “The Singing Grape.” When Annette danced with Frankie Avalon in “Beach

As an April Fool’s joke last week Twitter announced it was charging for vowels. This resulted in a barrage of vowel-less chitter. But did it really matter? We live in an world of abbreviation.  Twitter has taught us to communicate in 140 characters. Text messaging forces us to shorten words. Businesses speak in acronyms.   Here is an example: I have an MBA in marketing CPG. My boss needs a PPT report on my SKUS B4 EOD. But my AM is MIA 2day and his AA is OTL. I work my ass off to get the report finished and then find out that the boss will