FRIDAY FROTH...

Dear Mr. Krugman:

I saw you on the Bill Maher show last week with director, John Waters and scandal-plagued politician, Eliot Spitzer. I don’t remember what you were talking about because I was so distracted by you dropping the F-bomb! Bill Maher uses this word so often that it’s not even effective—it disappears into the background like his pale skin and colorless hair. Jon Waters is a very cool movie director and everyone knows that cool movie directors use the F-word as effortlessly as they do cut and action. I’ m betting Mr. Spitzer got a feel for the four letter version of “oh my god I can’t believe I got caught” when he found out about the wiretaps linking him to a prostitution ring. But need I remind you Mr. Krugman, that you graduated from Yale, got a Ph.D. from M.I.T., and you teach at my favorite Ivy League institution, Princeton. Your biography on the New York Times website says that you have written or edited more than 20 books and 200 papers—you should know a lot of words, you don’t need to use the f-word. Not to mention, you are a Nobel Prize winner! You dropping the F-bomb is like George Clooney showing up at your door in polyester pants and having bad breath. Mr. Krugman, I don’t always agree with you; you are a Keynesian economist—I’m more of a supply-side girl, nevertheless, I read your erudite columns loyally. So please, put back on your tweed sport coat, comb your grizzled but distinguished hair and don’t let this kind of thing happen again.

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I love fall. The weather is good and so are the movies. Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut, Whip It, is perfect fare for fall—it’s well written with characters that are less than perfect looking, doing things that are interesting—not clichéd. You don’t have to like roller derby to enjoy this film as it’s more about finding your dream than knocking an opposing skater off course. The real beauty of this film is that the dreams are simple dreams---the ones that can come true for a lot of us. If you grew up it a small Southern town where beauty pageants and football rule, you will relate to this film. Take note of Marcia Gay Harden’s performance—Oscar nod? Maybe!

If you are in the mood to see bigger dreams come true, go see Coco before Chanel. French actress, Audrey Tautou, does a beautiful job portraying a young and determined Coco. The movie starts as a nine year-old Coco and her sister are being dropped off at an orphanage and ends with Coco presiding over her first couture show. Ms Tautou’s dance between gritty independence and manipulative charm brings Coco to life.

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Every few days I log on to my friend, Mary Doan’s blog, A Plethora of Postcards. Mary has been collecting postcards, sent to her by friends or to herself, for over 30 years. I am either reminded of places that I have been, or introduced to places that I want to go. A few weeks ago Mary featured a postcard from Norfork Dam in Arkansas. I grew up water-skiing on Norfork Lake and have great memories of the “big dam”. This week she had a postcard showing a cyclo in old-town Hanoi. I immediately remembered squeezing both of my kids in one of these pedicabs with me (in 100 degree heat!) in the summer of 2001 and riding through Old-Town where the streets are named, appropriately, by the items which are sold there. On Shoe Street all of the shops sell—you guessed it—shoes, and the sidewalks are lined with a superfluity of footwear of every kind. The very tiny shops have very few wares inside; they don’t always have electricity and they need the sunlight for people to be able to see what they are buying. If you are shopping for a destination or just want to dream of getting away, check out Mary’s blog: www.apleathoraofpostcards@blogspot.com

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The Supreme Court has just started their October session. They heard arguments this week of a man convicted of selling videos of dog fighting and other animal cruelty. The man was not involved in the animal cruelty, he only sold videos of it. It seems the man is protected under the First Amendment, which, rightly so, has few exceptions--obscenity and child pornography are two of these exceptions. The court will be reluctant to mess with the First Amendment but I ask you: Is it not obscene to watch videos of women trampling to death small dogs and other animals with their bare feet or high heels? Yes, it’s seems that this is a sexual fetish du jour. This is the way I see it: Like children, dogs and other animals cannot advocate for themselves. Dogs are especially vulnerable; we have domesticated these animals--inviting them to live in our homes and depend on us for food. Like children, they deserve our protection. Let’s hope that the Supreme Court does the right thing.