It used to be illegitimacy. Or abortion. Or divorce. Stigma was attached to actions that were overtly or tacitly unacceptable. The consequence was banishment from the fold. Being shunned by those whose approval you wanted. Whose love you needed. Some of the reasons may have shifted, but stigma remains a part of western culture. Children […]
Righteous Recreation of Self-Image?
We revisit self-image over and over…
Is Romance Dead?
Defining and understanding… romance.
Momentary Musings on Lee Remick, Betty Draper, Beauty, and Intimacy
Cool blondes. Very Hitchcock. Last evening I was zapping around on cable and came across 1968’s The Detective, with Frank Sinatra and Lee Remick. I had forgotten the blue of Sinatra’s eyes, and more mesmerizing – Lee Remick, with her girl-next-door appeal, her reserve, and the smoldering sexuality just beneath. I thought immediately of Mad […]
Men and Women. Coming Closer.
Let’s hear it for cable! And for delicious films that we may never have seen when they were released to the theaters. Like Closer – an unexpected treat I enjoyed last night, so effectively constructed that I watched it twice in succession. Closer The characters are stunning. The dialog is smart and raw. Each of […]
The Problem with “Positive Denial” is Denial
Positive attitude is one thing. Denial is something else again…
Numbers Do Not Lie
We’d been at it for several hours, side by side, each of us on our laptops. Spread on the small ottoman pressing against my knees were stacks of old tax forms. On the chair beside me, two more folders with notes and figures. We actually began the process days ago, but I couldn’t continue, and […]
More on the Mystery of Huguette Clark
The plot thickens, in a mystery of monumental proportions.
Mad Men Episode 5: The Chrysanthemum and the Sword
It’s a morality tale, and all about shame. About warfare and its aftermath, honor and its value, private shame according to cultural standards of the times, and personal experiences of shame. In Mad Men‘s Season 4 Episode 5, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, we feel the weight of the 1960s heavily; World Wart II is […]
Shower Shockers, Water Worries
Shower shockers Who doesn’t do some of their best thinking in the shower? And who doesn’t recall the terrifying shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 thriller, Psycho? Janet Leigh is unwinding after a harried day of larceny, an eerie encounter with a creepy character, and is lulled as she finally cleans up, letting her guard […]