What I Learned from Having a Hammer

Lesson 2: Tools Make a Woman Sexy

My friend Patty is like the cobbler who has no shoes. She builds sets all day as the creative director for a television show, but she rarely has time for projects of her own. Still, it's Patty who inspired my desire to learn how to use a power drill. She also showed me, through example, that knowing your way around Home Depot can be powerful, in an Aretha Franklin-Annie Lennox, "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves" kind of way.

"I work with an assortment of guys," Patty says. "And when a new one comes in and I start to show him the ropes, I can tell he's thinking, Wow!, when I first pick up a 12-volt drill. It's an interesting reversal of the sexes when you're a woman teaching a guy carpentry. But after you prove yourself, nobody gives it a second thought."

It certainly doesn't hurt that Patty is a six-foot-tall former model with gorgeous red hair. But could it be that a power drill is as sexy an accessory as four-inch Louboutins?