Men! What are they thinking? We can't always answer that, but we'll be posting our favorite glimpses into their world in this space every Thursday.
* A man goes inside the world of women's fashion and finds that for many women, their wardrobe is "a pastime, a passion, a shared language, a form of self-definition and a temporary escape from the opposite sex, all rolled into one deeply satisfying whole." (Intelligent Life)
* Sir Michael Caine shows off some of his British charm and wit in this thoughtful interview: "I don't get the girl; I get the part." (The Talks)
* Can't wait for Parks and Recreation to come back? Maybe the Ron Swanson Test of Manliness will tide you over. (NBC)
* "I'm not a gay Gandhi. But I hope I've shown that the Internet is a powerful tool. You can use it for porn or you can use it for good." — Dan Savage on his It Gets Better Project (O, The Oprah Magazine)
| Illustration: Thinkstock |
* Sir Michael Caine shows off some of his British charm and wit in this thoughtful interview: "I don't get the girl; I get the part." (The Talks)
* Can't wait for Parks and Recreation to come back? Maybe the Ron Swanson Test of Manliness will tide you over. (NBC)
* "I'm not a gay Gandhi. But I hope I've shown that the Internet is a powerful tool. You can use it for porn or you can use it for good." — Dan Savage on his It Gets Better Project (O, The Oprah Magazine)
| Photo: Thinkstock |
From the file of great daddy-daughter moments comes the five-year-old British girl who made a great archeological discovery while out digging with her father. Emily Baldry uncovered a huge 162 million-year-old fossil of a rienecka odysseus -- that is, a very rare ammonite that lived in the Tethyan ocean. Back when England was an ocean. According to the Gazette and Herald, "Palaeontologist Neville Hollingworth was very excited when he saw what Emily had discovered, saying that he had been looking for the fossil for 25 years and had only ever found three."
Emily herself told The Sun, "I was very happy when I first saw him and now he looks very shiny." The fossil has been thoroughly restored and is now in a museum. Oh, and call it a rienecka odysseus all you want; Emily's named the spiky thing, fittingly enough, Spike.
Hooray for the world of palaeontology, but also, isn't it nice to hear some purely good news? About a little girl, no less?
The Huffington Post has a video with more about Emily's discovery--including the unlikely tool she used to uncover it!
More great daddy-daughter moments:
How one father is raising his daughter via Skype.
What having daughters taught one man about Hello Kitty, lanyards, and life.
"I think I'm becoming a feminist." Life as a Stay-At-Home-Dad.
| Photo: Dr. Andrew Weil Integrative Footwear |
This in-between weather calls for in-between
shoes: flats that cover toes but expose ankles and can be
worn with or without tights. Unfortunately, those of us who rely upon
our podiatrists for style advice know that the prettiest flats don’t often offer enough
arch or lateral support. The clunky flats that tend to look more
appropriate for clogging than ballet.
After dealing with foot problems for half a decade, I’ve found a few pairs of supportive shoes that won’t make my bad feet worse, yet also won’t age me by 30 years. This fall, I’ll be expanding my safe shoe collection with a pair of moccasins by Dr. Andrew Weil. Yes, that Dr. Weil -- the integrative doctor launched a specialty footwear line last year, and the Discovery moccasins are one of the collection's first closed-toe styles. The podiatrist-designed footbed in these gray suede shoes makes them supportive enough that I don’t need to wear my prescription orthotics (but if I did, the footbed is removable). They have some of the most prominent arches outside of St. Louis, as well as a sturdy rubber sole so I don’t feel like I’m pronating, or rolling my ankles inward (which can happen in flimsy shoes).
Best of all, they have the same slouchy charm of regular moccasins, which means I won't need to make my usual excuses for my supportive shoes (“I’m injured,” “My feet hurt,” “I’m getting old”).
After dealing with foot problems for half a decade, I’ve found a few pairs of supportive shoes that won’t make my bad feet worse, yet also won’t age me by 30 years. This fall, I’ll be expanding my safe shoe collection with a pair of moccasins by Dr. Andrew Weil. Yes, that Dr. Weil -- the integrative doctor launched a specialty footwear line last year, and the Discovery moccasins are one of the collection's first closed-toe styles. The podiatrist-designed footbed in these gray suede shoes makes them supportive enough that I don’t need to wear my prescription orthotics (but if I did, the footbed is removable). They have some of the most prominent arches outside of St. Louis, as well as a sturdy rubber sole so I don’t feel like I’m pronating, or rolling my ankles inward (which can happen in flimsy shoes).
Best of all, they have the same slouchy charm of regular moccasins, which means I won't need to make my usual excuses for my supportive shoes (“I’m injured,” “My feet hurt,” “I’m getting old”).
 | Reading was my escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author’s words reverberating in your head. — Paul Auster |  |
Yesterday morning at 5am, I was not only awake but browning three pounds ground beef (cursing, once again, the fact that one can't just dump raw meat into a slow cooker) for spaghetti sauce. It occurred to me that not only was I cooking 11 hours in advance for a dinner, but also 35 hours in advance for the next day's dinner, which would also be spaghetti, just one day old and reheated. It also occurred to me that I had actually started cooking at six pm the night prior, since I had had to take the ground beef out from the freezer in order defrost it. Then, it occurred to me that I had planned this meal five days before taking the meat out, in the aisle of Stop and Save, where I had to calculate, sort and purchase a horrifying $300 of protein to last us the month.
When you do the math, it turns out that I started cooking on Thursday in order to eat leftovers the next Thursday, which we need to eat because on Thursday night, my son has swimming, my husband has his food co-op meeting, and I have an article due (the baby just gets to sit there, limp noodles up his nose, watching us run around). This is the juggling act between 5pm and 8 pm in the average American household, one that requires throwing a ball up (dinner!) one week in advance and keeping it up there in the air by the sheer force of grit, will, and reminder Post-it-notes plastered all over the house—so that you have your two hands free to manage the other five or six balls (job ball, kid ball, volunteer ball, spouse ball, house ball, friend ball, errand ball, the poor neglected goldfish who hovers by his sunken, algae-covered castle, looking ever upward for the possibility of a food flake ball—okay that's 8 balls, but who's counting).
Which is why I found this video on The Daily Dot so inspiring, even though the site had such a different interpretation of Selyna Bogino's talents, focusing on her 967,967 views on YouTube and her rigorous practice routine.
To me she was not only literally doing what so many of us do figuratively, she was adding new ways to do it that I will institute this upcoming Thursday:
How to balancing work and life
Dr Oz's 7 Ways to Reduce stress
Ending the multi-tasking madness
When you do the math, it turns out that I started cooking on Thursday in order to eat leftovers the next Thursday, which we need to eat because on Thursday night, my son has swimming, my husband has his food co-op meeting, and I have an article due (the baby just gets to sit there, limp noodles up his nose, watching us run around). This is the juggling act between 5pm and 8 pm in the average American household, one that requires throwing a ball up (dinner!) one week in advance and keeping it up there in the air by the sheer force of grit, will, and reminder Post-it-notes plastered all over the house—so that you have your two hands free to manage the other five or six balls (job ball, kid ball, volunteer ball, spouse ball, house ball, friend ball, errand ball, the poor neglected goldfish who hovers by his sunken, algae-covered castle, looking ever upward for the possibility of a food flake ball—okay that's 8 balls, but who's counting).
Which is why I found this video on The Daily Dot so inspiring, even though the site had such a different interpretation of Selyna Bogino's talents, focusing on her 967,967 views on YouTube and her rigorous practice routine.
To me she was not only literally doing what so many of us do figuratively, she was adding new ways to do it that I will institute this upcoming Thursday:
- Lie down. Note that she does not attempt to run around while managing all the balls. She rests on bench. I, too, can work, nag the kids and cook from a horizontal position (as long as I get my husband to stir the sauce)
- Go Italian. Prior to managing the 5 balls with her feet and hands, she give herself a long luxurious hair flip of the kind one sees only in Rome. Such a gesture makes you look confident and a little disdainful—qualities that discourage toddlers who scream for ketchup on their old, slightly dried-out spaghetti.
- Remember your perspective. At the end of her act, the camera drops awkwardly, revealing the background of her life—a playroom filled with kiddie foam pads and toy bins. Sure, she can get basketballs to spin like planets in a solar system of her own making, but when it's done, she has to share her practice space and tidy up dirty laundry, just like the rest of us mortal, metaphorical jugglers.
How to balancing work and life
Dr Oz's 7 Ways to Reduce stress
Ending the multi-tasking madness
If you heard that it was National Single and Unmarried Americans week, and the first thing you thought of was a lonely woman crying The Notebook-induced tears into the Ben and Jerry's container she ate her dinner out of (and it probably is, even for the single among us), then the answer might be yes. In a terrific article in The New York Times, Tara Parker-Pope, who wrote about the science behind a good marriage (and how hers turned out not to be one of them) for O, examines new research about the unmarried and finds that—surprise!—there are a lot of misperceptions out there. So even if a week-long single-palooza is not the perfect way to recognize the women (and men) who pay more for health insurance and are just as connected to the community at large as their married friends, maybe we can celebrate this made-up holiday by easing up on the spinster stereotypes—for good.
"In a Married World, Singles Struggle for Attention" (NYTimes.com)
Keep Reading
10 things you should never say to a single woman
How to enjoy the pleasure of your own company
9 great ways to connect with your world
"In a Married World, Singles Struggle for Attention" (NYTimes.com)
Keep Reading
10 things you should never say to a single woman
How to enjoy the pleasure of your own company
9 great ways to connect with your world
How a 200-year-old tree becomes a tourist attraction--and a symbol of survival.
Good news! You have a magical machine in your kitchen that can extend the life of your groceries and your budget.
You know those things you don't wear (and don't even like) hanging in your closet? Here's how to get rid of them.
Bagels, pastrami, and sewer steam: the hilarious new "why didn't I think of that?" scratch-and-sniff guide to New York City.
The Life Lifter: "You give up so much of yourself in order to pursue a job that you love." No matter what your politics are, you'll tear up at this moving video of veterans.
| Photo: Thinkstock |
1. Understand the varieties. You may think cider's too sweet for your taste, but like Riesling, which suffers from a similar image problem, there are dry, "off-dry," and sweet styles. If you're new to the beverage, ask a salesperson to show you a "completely dry" or "extra-dry" option.
2. Don't spend too much. Most good ciders fall between $10 and $25.
3. Buy local, if you can. There are wonderful bottles produced on the West Coast, the Midwest, the East Coast, the Great Lakes region and New England. Two of Itkin's favorites come from New Hampshire (Farnum Hill) and Virginia (Foggy Ridge).
4. Pick up a few bottles. Cider's alcohol content ranges from 2% to 9%--much lower than wine, which is usually 13 or 14%--so you can have a couple of glasses and not feel too woozy.
5. Drink it with anything that you'd eat apples with. The obvious pairing is white meat, especially pork and turkey. Cider is wonderful with cheese, too, especially hard, nutty varieties like aged Asiago, Emmental, Comte or Grana Padano. The offbeat match we love, though, is donuts. The drink's bubbles will scrape excess grease off your tongue (and can you think of a better way to spend a fall afternoon than sipping cider and eating one of these?).
Keep Reading
Tyler Florence's Cranberry-Apple Cider Shandy recipe
9 seasonal fall recipes to savor
A delicious pumpkin muffin
| Courtesy of Lilla P |
When dressing a more boyish frame, the key is to pick pieces with built-in shape. If they fall flat on the hanger, they'll probably look like that on you, too.
For Work
A structured, slim-fitting blazer (no oversize boyfriend jackets!) with light shoulder padding accents the waist; an A-line skirt creates the illusion of a curvier lower half.
On The Weekend
Go for boot-cut jeans rather than straight-leg styles, which emphasize narrow hips. Boatneck and cap-sleeve tops are best for visually widening the shoulders.
Out To Dinner
A feminine surplice wrap dress—like the above style from Lilla P ($134; lillap.com)—forms a V shape in front, playing up the bust and drawing the eye in at the midsection.
Out To Dinner
A feminine surplice wrap dress—like the above style from Lilla P ($134; lillap.com)—forms a V shape in front, playing up the bust and drawing the eye in at the midsection.
Keep Reading
| Photo: MoMA Store |
The weekend is within reach...let these little splurges make getting there more fun.
Floppy Disk Sticky Notes, $10. You may not be able to use those plastic floppy disks leftover from the 90s in your computer anymore, but these paper sticky pads make writing yourself an old fashioned reminder more fun.
Hand Lotion, $4. This container's ergonomic shape is sleek enough to fit into your back pocket or an overstuffed purse.
Banana Split Halloween Costume for Dogs, $10. Shop early and pick up this sweet (and hilarious) ensemble for your furry friend.
Agate Earrings, $3. Classic gold hoops get an upgrade with a vibrant, quartz-like bead dangling from their center.
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