A Lesson from Ashley Dupre
January 28, 2010
Just call me your psychic friend.
When the Eliot Spitzer scandal broke, I wrote a column called, “Here’s How It’s Gonna Happen” (March 27, 2008), where I predicted that despite Client 9’s “activities” while he represented us, he would be welcomed back somewhere. That place may be as New York state comptroller.
I also saw a future with the face and words of Ashley Dupre splashed all over it in the form of an album, memoir or made-for-TV movie. I think getting her own weekly advice column in a major daily newspaper comes pretty close. [Read more]
Back to Basics
December 31, 2009
We’re a decade into the millennium. How’s that workin’ out for ya?
Since 2000, social networking is our new way to reach out and communicate. Devices such as the iPhone have lightened our load by placing in the palm of our hands a phone, camera, computer and various applications, all at once. And we made history by electing the first black president. [Read more]
Economy Size Me
November 19, 2009
I came. I saw. I Costco-ed.
This famed membership warehouse club has descended upon Manhattan at East 116th Street and the FDR Drive. Dedicated to bringing its members the best possible prices on quality brand-name merchandise, Costco sells everyday items in bulk.
I’d never been to a Costco, so before I went, I checked out the website, where the chain offers everything from cradle to grave. Literally, you can buy your baby’s crib and your grandpa’s casket—yes, you read casket—and everything in between.
I was grateful not to find this breadth of products at the store (I wasn’t in a coffin mood), but they do carry a lot. In fact, this place takes one-stop shopping to a rather bizarre extreme. Steps away from the glass case housing the $50,000 diamond ring was the glass case displaying the fresh fish fillets; around the bend from the Burberry handbags, I found the 200-pack of plastic tall kitchen bags; and no sooner did I say, “Wow, look at those flat panel TVs,” was I face-to-face with a 32-package of toilet paper.
Since so many of the offerings are giant-size, it’s easy to feel like a Lilliputian in Gulliver’s pantry. Even the shopping carts are huge—at least three times the size of the ones at the supermarket. The place may be spacious and the aisles extra wide, but maneuvering the carts has a bumper car quality to it. The words “excuse me” and “sorry” were heard quite frequently. I must say, the people who work there are also very polite and helpful.
And just so you know, you aren’t even allowed inside the airplane hangar, I mean store, without a Costco Card. So if you want in, you need to buy a year’s membership that costs $50 (you get a $10 gift card for signing up.)
Now, let’s talk about what’s really important: Do you save? Yes. I think it’s fair to say you get twice as much as what you’d get in a supermarket at half the price.
That having been said, though, Costco isn’t for everyone. When I was single and lived in a Tudor City studio that my husband, then boyfriend, used to refer to as “Tudor Closet,” I would never have had room for anything in the space-hogging economy size. Also, when I lived alone, chances are the oversized portions of the food products would have ended up going to waste. Now though, with a family and room for many a 30-pack, it seems like a sensible place to shop. There’s even a fleet of cabs readily available to help schlep it all home.
Still, I have mixed feelings about Costco.
I see it as a microcosm of New York City—it has everything, but in the case of the store, I really don’t know if that is a good thing. While it does employ what appears to be a Ben Hur-like cast of thousands, it might put out of business many smaller businesses. Also, the beauty of living in this city is the array of stores and neighborhoods in which all the different goods and services are offered. This gets people out and about, exploring the town.
After I got home and stored my mutant groceries, I went somewhere else that counts me as a member: The Guggenheim, for the Kandinsky exhibit. The artist in bulk, if you will. I left with some items procured with the member discount—just like at Costco—except no one pointed at me, as they did when I was carrying 169 ounces of olive oil.
Lorraine Duffy Merkl’s debut novel, Fat Chick, by The Vineyard Press, is coming soon.
Checking in with Hollywood
November 5, 2009
Once again, my life as a New York City mother has been portrayed on the silver screen. This time it is called Motherhood. I feel that I owe it to myself to see movies about women who live in Manhattan so that I can gauge how I am being portrayed to the world. [Read more]
Talk Ain’t Cheap
October 23, 2009
Let there be peace on earth. If only saying it made it so. But just saying it can get you a Nobel Prize.
A lot of people are still up in arms because President Obama was rewarded, not for accomplishing peace, but for simply talking about how he’d really like to make that happen. I think many of the disgruntled probably don’t live here, because in New York, talking up (as opposed to actually accomplishing) your agenda is a common way of getting recognition.
Take for example, our Real Housewives, who will return soon—God help us—to represent New York City to the rest of America. [Read more]
A ‘Fame’ Face Off
October 9, 2009
Baby, remember my name…when people ask who that lone person was who preferred Fame 2009 to the original movie from 1980.
I have now seen both and have also read the reviews. I believe that the producers of the updated version will probably wish I were a critic instead of a columnist.
I will not argue that the first one is a cinematic tour de force—better written, directed, acted and choreographed; rightly lauded with Academy Awards for its gritty portrayal of the students who attend one of our city’s most prestigious public high schools, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts (where apparently now, as back then, no one is actually allowed to dance on the tables in the cafeteria). [Read more]
No Props for the Eco Girl
September 23, 2009
It’s not easy bein’ green.
I must confess, I am not an environmentalist by nature. But after careful consideration I figured I would give ecology a go, beyond the mandatory bottle and can recycling demands of my co-op.
When I go grocery shopping, I’ve started using my many free cloth bags that I’ve accumulated from various street fairs, my husband’s job and a couple of clothing stores that encourage the demise of the plastic menace. I am also making a conscious effort to remember to fold one up and carry it in my handbag, in case I make an impromptu Gristede’s pit stop for milk or bread. Sure I want to help maintain the planet, but I’m also in it for the acclaim, which I thought came with the territory. [Read more]
What Would Anna Do?
September 10, 2009
The “Devil” made me do it.
Since reading that book and seeing the movie version, I’ve based my opinion of Anna Wintour on fiction, as well as what I now deem biased reports in the press. So I ventured to the theater to see The September Issue, a documentary about Vogue, whose offices loom large over Times Square. [Read more]
Hos, Hags and Skanks, Oh My!
August 26, 2009
This headline-making, cyber-turned-street feud between some model and a blogger is the latest in how people in New York waste their time. We live in the city that never sleeps, remember? There is something to do and somewhere to go every second—even if it’s simply to Central Park to hang out on the grass. Yet talkin’ smack over the Internet, then having the scorned party track down the offender, seems to be how some of our denizens choose to while away their hours. [Read more]
In Defense of Ruth
July 29, 2009
I feel sorry for Ruth Madoff. There, I’ve said it.
Her husband Bernie is a bad guy. If you hate him, join the club. If you think he deserved every day of his 150-year sentence, who’s arguing? If you’re glad he’s going to die in jail, here here. [Read more]
