Ladies - wriggle into your Spanx, tighten the ankle straps on your Louboutins and prepare to march in celebration of women's accomplishments!
But ... don't get too cocky. Offered below is a Forbes list of the wealthiest women on the planet and of more interest how they got that way.
Christy Walton $36.7 billion Widow of one of Sam Walton's sons
Lillianne Bettancourt, France $34.5 billion Daddy founded L'Oréal (OTC hair dye, guys)
Jacqueline Badger Mars $20.3 billion Grandpa founded Mars Candies as in Mars Bars and (high end) Ethel M boxed chocolates.
Gina Rinehart, Australia $17.7 Daddy, an iron ore magnate.
Suzanne Klatter $17.7 billion Daddy is BMW
Abigail Johnson $17.3 billion Johnson and Johnson, the Band-Aids family
Lauren Powell Jobs $14.1 billion " That's 'Mrs. Jobs' to you."
Miucci Prada $11.1 billion Grandpa's knitting business
Charlene de Carvalho Heineken $10.4 billion Daddy Heineken
Elaine Marshall $8.8 billion Husband, who owned a great deal of Koch Industries
Every single one of them inherited from a husband or male relative. These "accomplishments" you're bragging about? What were they again? Better you should fluff it up and go sit in a bar on an Oh so-casual manhunt.
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
Blips on the News;But Nothing Earthshaking
UPDATE: The San Pedro day care that was trashed by four children ages 7 to 11 - three of the children were siblings; none attended the facility. Damages went up to $30,000 not the estimated $25,000 previously mentioned. The day care caters to six weeks to five years old kids.
GET UP, OUT AND VOTE IN REDONDO BEACH
It is expected that few will. We only have three items on the ballot - a measure to spiffy up our waterfront by means of over development, more vehicular traffic; the 4th District candidates for City Council person and a new Mayor of all of the glory that is Redondo Beach.
NEW KID-FOCUSED MUSEUM
You'll have to motor stately up to Santa Barbara to see it, but the MOXI, the Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation is a 17,000 sq. ft., tri-floored facility with exhibits that include walking into a giant guitar to see how sound works, many inter-active displays including making a sound track to accompany short clips of films. Visit them from home at moxi.org.
FUN WITH WRITING
I am putting together a compilation of previous columns in book form and having a ball doing it. The selection process has been somewhat marred in that I am rolling through, looking for a specific column and I run across all of the others and frequently say, ( to myself, I work alone;) "Oh, yeah! Gotta have that one! I'd forgotten about that!" So far, I have the cover art, dedication, front-of-the-book quote, 22 chapters and some 13,000 words.
THE TRANSGENDER ZEALOTS
"The Adventures of Toni the Tampon" is a coloring book starring a tampon. The author is Cass Clemmer, who says that menstruation is not gender specific and that men have periods, too. She is referring to transgender men who went from male to female which I think is cheating.
She said , "I'd rather help just one genderqueer or trans menstruator feel like they were seen than sell 1,000 copies." That statement proves to me that the lady is batshit crazy. One writes a book for the money.
But more especially this is what has me seeing red (deliberate) and that is this: The trans population is estimated to be 1.4 million adults which is a minute 0.6 per cent of all of us straights put together. In looking over old columns (going back to 2009) I was struck by the number of columns about gender transformation, unisex bathrooms, laws for and against and on and on. How did the last half inch of the dog's tail come to wag all of the rest of the Great Dane?
Marshall your arguments and we will debate this the 12th of Never. It's not safe. The Transgenders would arm themselves with their new spike heels and construction boots and clobber us unmercifully. No thanks. I do not want my obit to read "killed by a size 12 Manalo Blahnick."
Article source: weaselzippers.com The Comments are worth a read.
GET UP, OUT AND VOTE IN REDONDO BEACH
It is expected that few will. We only have three items on the ballot - a measure to spiffy up our waterfront by means of over development, more vehicular traffic; the 4th District candidates for City Council person and a new Mayor of all of the glory that is Redondo Beach.
NEW KID-FOCUSED MUSEUM
You'll have to motor stately up to Santa Barbara to see it, but the MOXI, the Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation is a 17,000 sq. ft., tri-floored facility with exhibits that include walking into a giant guitar to see how sound works, many inter-active displays including making a sound track to accompany short clips of films. Visit them from home at moxi.org.
FUN WITH WRITING
I am putting together a compilation of previous columns in book form and having a ball doing it. The selection process has been somewhat marred in that I am rolling through, looking for a specific column and I run across all of the others and frequently say, ( to myself, I work alone;) "Oh, yeah! Gotta have that one! I'd forgotten about that!" So far, I have the cover art, dedication, front-of-the-book quote, 22 chapters and some 13,000 words.
THE TRANSGENDER ZEALOTS
"The Adventures of Toni the Tampon" is a coloring book starring a tampon. The author is Cass Clemmer, who says that menstruation is not gender specific and that men have periods, too. She is referring to transgender men who went from male to female which I think is cheating.
She said , "I'd rather help just one genderqueer or trans menstruator feel like they were seen than sell 1,000 copies." That statement proves to me that the lady is batshit crazy. One writes a book for the money.
But more especially this is what has me seeing red (deliberate) and that is this: The trans population is estimated to be 1.4 million adults which is a minute 0.6 per cent of all of us straights put together. In looking over old columns (going back to 2009) I was struck by the number of columns about gender transformation, unisex bathrooms, laws for and against and on and on. How did the last half inch of the dog's tail come to wag all of the rest of the Great Dane?
Marshall your arguments and we will debate this the 12th of Never. It's not safe. The Transgenders would arm themselves with their new spike heels and construction boots and clobber us unmercifully. No thanks. I do not want my obit to read "killed by a size 12 Manalo Blahnick."
Article source: weaselzippers.com The Comments are worth a read.
Monday, March 6, 2017
Red Alert, LA County Dwellers!
According to news reports, Harrison Ford is back in the air again. He was seen pre-flight testing (chin-ups off of the tail rotor are pre-flight?) at Santa Monica airport on Saturday. His eventual destination was either not known or not announced. And "destination" may be a moot point given his recent flying history.
It was an enormous helicopter or so it looked and it was clearly a two-pilot deal because there was ample cockpit room and two seats. An apparently older photo showed him at the controls and a teen-aged looking woman in the copilot's chair for a charity appearance of some sort.
The charity part might be that they evidently landed safely or never took off. One or the other, it could be considered luck and the charity of God Himself to walk away from a Ford flight.
****
While you're sitting around waiting for the inevitable plane crash, you could amuse yourself with a wonderful Website I came across that prints true (?) obituaries - "Jim Bob Jackson, dies at 74 - much longer than he deserved" or "Barbara Ellen Schnafftag - Sampled the entire Haagen-Daas line" Ed. note: "and promptly died of a sugar overdose?" "unfortunate fall after slipping on a pile of empty ice cream cartons"?
What I cannot figure out and what I would welcome opinions on is: did the deceased write these obits about themselves? Did a family member write them? Were said deceased actually dead or not? Is this whole thing an exercise in writing?
Something more to worry about ... while I rewrite my own obit. It's a little cut and dried right now It needs a flair of some sort .... Toying ...
"Despite passing herself off as a writer, Murphy was anything but. Her plagiarism and inability to write anything she hadn't sniffed out in another source was legendary."
"She was charged with intellectual property theft many times, but proudly boasted, "I never did time! So hah!"
"Her life's ambition was to have a champagne named for her; she never did despite numerous bribes to grape pickers in the French champagne region. The pickers happily took her money but never understood a word she said."
This is fun! Write your obit today! But keep an eye on the window - especially if you live on a golf course.
It was an enormous helicopter or so it looked and it was clearly a two-pilot deal because there was ample cockpit room and two seats. An apparently older photo showed him at the controls and a teen-aged looking woman in the copilot's chair for a charity appearance of some sort.
The charity part might be that they evidently landed safely or never took off. One or the other, it could be considered luck and the charity of God Himself to walk away from a Ford flight.
****
While you're sitting around waiting for the inevitable plane crash, you could amuse yourself with a wonderful Website I came across that prints true (?) obituaries - "Jim Bob Jackson, dies at 74 - much longer than he deserved" or "Barbara Ellen Schnafftag - Sampled the entire Haagen-Daas line" Ed. note: "and promptly died of a sugar overdose?" "unfortunate fall after slipping on a pile of empty ice cream cartons"?
What I cannot figure out and what I would welcome opinions on is: did the deceased write these obits about themselves? Did a family member write them? Were said deceased actually dead or not? Is this whole thing an exercise in writing?
Something more to worry about ... while I rewrite my own obit. It's a little cut and dried right now It needs a flair of some sort .... Toying ...
"Despite passing herself off as a writer, Murphy was anything but. Her plagiarism and inability to write anything she hadn't sniffed out in another source was legendary."
"She was charged with intellectual property theft many times, but proudly boasted, "I never did time! So hah!"
"Her life's ambition was to have a champagne named for her; she never did despite numerous bribes to grape pickers in the French champagne region. The pickers happily took her money but never understood a word she said."
This is fun! Write your obit today! But keep an eye on the window - especially if you live on a golf course.
Sunday, March 5, 2017
"The Danish Girl" Gets the Last Laugh
Book: The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff
The movie: The Danish Girl, starring Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander, directed by Tom Hooper
Both depict the lives of a husband and wife, a pair of artists in Denmark and what happens to their lives when the husband recognizes his dream of becoming a woman and what happened during the process to make him one.
"Mixed" couples are no longer as unusual as they were in the late '20s and early '30s, the time this book covers. Today, switching gears, if you will, is apparently as easy as having a hot appendix removed. If not as frequently.
Einer (husband) and Gerda (wife) (This is set in Denmark; they aren't going to be Bob and Judy) are doing well until the fateful day she asks him to pose in the clothing of the opera star she is painting who was unable to keep her appointment with Gerda. The portrait is done except for the feet, legs and drape of the gown. So Gerda asks Einer and he "reluctantly" complies.
Wearing the dress, his first pair of hose, a camisole, flips him out and over the statue of the Little Mermaid and he's never the same again. Literally.
As the story progressed, I became intrigued by something. Not the sex change stuff; many a CEO is wearing a thong under his bespoke business suit or so I have been led to believe. What amazed me is this: Einer's alter-ego, a "woman" named Lili is clearly seen by both husband and wife as a real person. "Do you think Lili would like to go to the artists ball tonight?" she asks him. "I'll ask her," he replies.
The wife is supportive; she taught him how to use make-up, lets him borrow clothing items and buys "her" more ... but nonetheless, Einer/Lili is now determined to have a physical sex change. Previously he saw doctors who tried to x-ray "deviancy" out of him; others who analyzed him, dusted their hands and said, "Split personality."
Hearing of a doctor who would ease "her" of her burden (carried below the waist if you get my drift) Lili will finally emerge as the person she always thought she was. The first surgery is reasonably successful, but only after a very long recuperation in an unwed mothers' home, if you please.
Her doctor advised him that the second surgery, to build the interior plumbing is much more complicated and perhaps least said, soonest mended would be prudent in his case. He refuses.
The surgery takes place. Exploring the man's interior, the surgeon finds a pair of small, aged ovaries. Lili was actually a female from birth.
Sidebar: Richie and I were driving down Catalina, admiring the ocean when I decided to tell him exactly what happens in a sex-change surgery. He flinched visibly - if it had been a noise, he would have screamed - and barely missed clipping a bicyclist, two fat ladies with fatter dogs in the crosswalk and a herd of gulls on the roadway. Proceed with caution if you decide you want a look-see. But it is interesting. Who knew you could that with that?
The movie: The Danish Girl, starring Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander, directed by Tom Hooper
Both depict the lives of a husband and wife, a pair of artists in Denmark and what happens to their lives when the husband recognizes his dream of becoming a woman and what happened during the process to make him one.
"Mixed" couples are no longer as unusual as they were in the late '20s and early '30s, the time this book covers. Today, switching gears, if you will, is apparently as easy as having a hot appendix removed. If not as frequently.
Einer (husband) and Gerda (wife) (This is set in Denmark; they aren't going to be Bob and Judy) are doing well until the fateful day she asks him to pose in the clothing of the opera star she is painting who was unable to keep her appointment with Gerda. The portrait is done except for the feet, legs and drape of the gown. So Gerda asks Einer and he "reluctantly" complies.
Wearing the dress, his first pair of hose, a camisole, flips him out and over the statue of the Little Mermaid and he's never the same again. Literally.
As the story progressed, I became intrigued by something. Not the sex change stuff; many a CEO is wearing a thong under his bespoke business suit or so I have been led to believe. What amazed me is this: Einer's alter-ego, a "woman" named Lili is clearly seen by both husband and wife as a real person. "Do you think Lili would like to go to the artists ball tonight?" she asks him. "I'll ask her," he replies.
The wife is supportive; she taught him how to use make-up, lets him borrow clothing items and buys "her" more ... but nonetheless, Einer/Lili is now determined to have a physical sex change. Previously he saw doctors who tried to x-ray "deviancy" out of him; others who analyzed him, dusted their hands and said, "Split personality."
Hearing of a doctor who would ease "her" of her burden (carried below the waist if you get my drift) Lili will finally emerge as the person she always thought she was. The first surgery is reasonably successful, but only after a very long recuperation in an unwed mothers' home, if you please.
Her doctor advised him that the second surgery, to build the interior plumbing is much more complicated and perhaps least said, soonest mended would be prudent in his case. He refuses.
The surgery takes place. Exploring the man's interior, the surgeon finds a pair of small, aged ovaries. Lili was actually a female from birth.
Sidebar: Richie and I were driving down Catalina, admiring the ocean when I decided to tell him exactly what happens in a sex-change surgery. He flinched visibly - if it had been a noise, he would have screamed - and barely missed clipping a bicyclist, two fat ladies with fatter dogs in the crosswalk and a herd of gulls on the roadway. Proceed with caution if you decide you want a look-see. But it is interesting. Who knew you could that with that?
Saturday, March 4, 2017
Rumors of War in Palm Springs!
Palm Springs has frequently been referred to with the modifying adjectives "sleepy, old" which I know to be true, having been a visitor for the past 50 years. Of course, old houses get demolished to accommodate new ones; certainly restaurants flip owners and cuisines like a Japanese fan, but basically, PS or "the Springs" has remained largely unchanged in any major way.
One of the biggest additions to the landscape was the Bob Hope house in 1973. The uninitiated have to be shown where it is - atop a mountain on the northern side of Palm Canyon Drive as you head for Cat City (Cathedral City) - but once seen, it's not forgotten because it looks like a giant mushroom. Only the swooping, mountain-colored roof is visible from down below where the peasants (us) congregate.
The house is reached by a private road that skips past a settlement of hill-clinging beige houses, said to be the residences of the last 300 Agua Caliente Indians, the group that still owns every other acre there. At the top are armed guards. Or so I've been told.
We took the Celebrity Tour once some time ago and were lucky enough to have a loquacious guide who had lived there most of his life. He told us that the Hopes used the mountain top estate mainly for entertaining (300 dinner guests at a time out on the spacious patio.) He went on to say, as he shifted gears, that the Hopes actually lived down on the flats. And he showed us a pair of white cottage-y looking unassuming houses. " This is the Hope's house; this is the one they bought for their daughter." The houses backyards adjoined. "The Hopes wanted to be near their grandchildren," he said.
The entertainment house has been on the market for quite some time and is being offered yet again. If you bought it, you would get a 360 degree view of the Coachella Valley from a 22,000 sq.ft. house with six bedrooms, 10 baths and three half-baths. Additional amenities include indoor and outdoor pools, tennis court, putting green and a immense outdoor fireplace. $50 million.
The Hope house sale is not what's got the residents up in arms. AirBnB and others of that ilk have fired the opening salvos.
The AirBnB renters often haven't been vetted by property owners sufficiently for the PS residents taste. One woman reported that she's had to call the PSPD seven times for excessive noise. Curses were also hurled at so-called Millennials who started buying back in '07 to prove to themselves that you could lose your job, but still have a house, a bit of logic that escapes this writer, but what the hey. These people LOVE AirBnB and rent out their homes on a regular basis. Snubbing the "real renters," who have the power and familiarity of long-time residence there. There is a very real Power Group of the oldies there. And they are wily. En garde to the youngsters...
Meanwhile, when it finally gets warmer down there than here, we will motor stately down for a personal look-see. We'll be at the Vagabond Inn though. We have a house here. I don't need to make beds, etc. down there. Poolside with a good book is preferable.
One of the biggest additions to the landscape was the Bob Hope house in 1973. The uninitiated have to be shown where it is - atop a mountain on the northern side of Palm Canyon Drive as you head for Cat City (Cathedral City) - but once seen, it's not forgotten because it looks like a giant mushroom. Only the swooping, mountain-colored roof is visible from down below where the peasants (us) congregate.
The house is reached by a private road that skips past a settlement of hill-clinging beige houses, said to be the residences of the last 300 Agua Caliente Indians, the group that still owns every other acre there. At the top are armed guards. Or so I've been told.
We took the Celebrity Tour once some time ago and were lucky enough to have a loquacious guide who had lived there most of his life. He told us that the Hopes used the mountain top estate mainly for entertaining (300 dinner guests at a time out on the spacious patio.) He went on to say, as he shifted gears, that the Hopes actually lived down on the flats. And he showed us a pair of white cottage-y looking unassuming houses. " This is the Hope's house; this is the one they bought for their daughter." The houses backyards adjoined. "The Hopes wanted to be near their grandchildren," he said.
The entertainment house has been on the market for quite some time and is being offered yet again. If you bought it, you would get a 360 degree view of the Coachella Valley from a 22,000 sq.ft. house with six bedrooms, 10 baths and three half-baths. Additional amenities include indoor and outdoor pools, tennis court, putting green and a immense outdoor fireplace. $50 million.
The Hope house sale is not what's got the residents up in arms. AirBnB and others of that ilk have fired the opening salvos.
The AirBnB renters often haven't been vetted by property owners sufficiently for the PS residents taste. One woman reported that she's had to call the PSPD seven times for excessive noise. Curses were also hurled at so-called Millennials who started buying back in '07 to prove to themselves that you could lose your job, but still have a house, a bit of logic that escapes this writer, but what the hey. These people LOVE AirBnB and rent out their homes on a regular basis. Snubbing the "real renters," who have the power and familiarity of long-time residence there. There is a very real Power Group of the oldies there. And they are wily. En garde to the youngsters...
Meanwhile, when it finally gets warmer down there than here, we will motor stately down for a personal look-see. We'll be at the Vagabond Inn though. We have a house here. I don't need to make beds, etc. down there. Poolside with a good book is preferable.
Friday, March 3, 2017
From Royals to Vandals
The Secret Language of British Royalty's Handbags
Queen Elizabeth does carry a purse despite having Ladies-in-Waiting to fetch and carry for her. Perhaps it is meant to be more of a signaling device than merely a convenient sack to carry her glasses and case, the odd mint, a handkerchief in. The on dit is that when she shifts her purse from one hand to the other, she's saying, "I'm ready to leave now." When she is nearing the end of an event, she will put the bag down on the nearest piece of furniture for the lady-in-waiting to pick up as a signal that she's done here. If she is in a conversation that is boring or annoying her or who knows what, she will give her wedding ring a slight twist. This is interpreted to mean, "GET ME OUT OF HERE!"
What I want to know is this: why are her stockings always wrinkled at the ankle? Doesn't she have the strength to pull them up taut? Are her maids as aged as she is? Given the amount of money she is said to have ... someone brawny enough to haul hose up could easily be found.
Devil Spawn in San Pedro?
Queen Elizabeth does carry a purse despite having Ladies-in-Waiting to fetch and carry for her. Perhaps it is meant to be more of a signaling device than merely a convenient sack to carry her glasses and case, the odd mint, a handkerchief in. The on dit is that when she shifts her purse from one hand to the other, she's saying, "I'm ready to leave now." When she is nearing the end of an event, she will put the bag down on the nearest piece of furniture for the lady-in-waiting to pick up as a signal that she's done here. If she is in a conversation that is boring or annoying her or who knows what, she will give her wedding ring a slight twist. This is interpreted to mean, "GET ME OUT OF HERE!"
What I want to know is this: why are her stockings always wrinkled at the ankle? Doesn't she have the strength to pull them up taut? Are her maids as aged as she is? Given the amount of money she is said to have ... someone brawny enough to haul hose up could easily be found.
Devil Spawn in San Pedro?
A daycare center in San Pedro, designed to cater to children of Harbor Dept. personnel and to low-income area children has been vandalized to the tune of more than $25,000. Damage came from ink toner and/or dry baby formula, dumped into drawers, sprayed all over the walls, and rugs; obscenities written on the walls. All of the fire extinguishers were emptied of their contents.
The World Tots LA Day-Care Center will be closed for a week while a hazmat team goes in for the clean-up. Teachers will have the week off as will all of the children which caused some concern to the parents of the kids who may have had to scramble to get alternative child care.
The culprits have all been identified and arrested and will be dealt with in Juvenile Court.
Five children were involved - four boys and one girl - aged 7 to 11 years old.
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Bird Voyeurism
Today being March 1st I got curious about what else there might be to celebrate other than St. Patrick's Day as I am never loathe to party. Here's what popped up -
Tuesday, 3/14 National Potato Chip Day As they are not by any means an unknown food item here, will not bother to do anything fancy. I already know to open a bag for guests from the bottom and pour them into a dish - the big ones will be on top and chip dust on the bottom of the bowl.
Wednesday, 3/15 Buzzards Day
Thurs. 3/16 Everything You Do Is Right Today - c'mon, we all know people who think this is a daily holiday; let's not encourage them.
Buzzards Day did intrigue me. Research informed me that in 1810 a man and his nephew were traveling near the settlement (now, of course, a city) of Hinchley, Ohio, when in the distance they spied a flock of vultures lazily circling and then diving down to something presumably on the ground.
Equally curious, they hied themselves to the Big Bend Rocky River where they found a gallows bearing the corpse of a Wyandote Indian squaw who had been hanged as a witch two years earlier.
Tuesday, 3/14 National Potato Chip Day As they are not by any means an unknown food item here, will not bother to do anything fancy. I already know to open a bag for guests from the bottom and pour them into a dish - the big ones will be on top and chip dust on the bottom of the bowl.
Wednesday, 3/15 Buzzards Day
Thurs. 3/16 Everything You Do Is Right Today - c'mon, we all know people who think this is a daily holiday; let's not encourage them.
Buzzards Day did intrigue me. Research informed me that in 1810 a man and his nephew were traveling near the settlement (now, of course, a city) of Hinchley, Ohio, when in the distance they spied a flock of vultures lazily circling and then diving down to something presumably on the ground.
Equally curious, they hied themselves to the Big Bend Rocky River where they found a gallows bearing the corpse of a Wyandote Indian squaw who had been hanged as a witch two years earlier.
Several conclusions popped into mind ... vultures are dainty eaters? A nibble here, there ... or they eat so much that they are satiated and have to fly sluggishly back to their nest to digest... or that was one hella tough squaw.
Now every year on March 15th locals and tourists gather, binoculars in one hand and a fork in the other - Hinchley offers a sausage and pancake breakfast and if you think about it, sausages are particularly appropriate, composed as they are of fat, salt and bone chips ...
Meanwhile, another bird spectacular is taking place that we, here at home, can enjoy. I am referring to the Decorah eagles which lay eggs that then hatch, all these activities carried live by a discreet video feed. The eggs (three this time) have just been laid and both parents take turns sitting on them. In the fullness of time, the eggs begin to show movement and then a beak pops through ... all very dramatic and eagerly watched for by eagle enthusiasts. The Website for all of this breathtaking activity - including the tedium of reports to others such as "She's still sitting on the eggs - Day 35"
decoraheaglecamalerts.com to get in on the action. Right now there are three eggs which were laid around 6 and 7 p.m. in the early evening Darkness hides the eggs from predators?
Don't let my blathering delay you - go "eagling" right now! You might miss something!
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