Women's Interests II

Maribeth knows how to make me feel really old. She pointed out a jumper in my closet that I sewed in graduate school and said her mother sewed her one from the same pattern when she was in high school.

I feel sad for all the women who came of age in the era of Lucky. Magazines used to have editorial content beyond pushing the goods of their advertisers.

Salon wrote in an eulogy for Mademoiselle:

After 66 years of continuous publication, Mademoiselle had become little more than a product-pushing, "Sex and the City" fanzine, a far cry from the magazine that launched the careers of writers like Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Joyce Carol Oates, Michael Chabon and Jennifer Egan -- and won O. Henry Awards (43) and a National Magazine Award for Fiction in the process.
Its disappearance from newsstands marked an official departure, but there are those -- editors and readers alike -- who believe that Mademoiselle died, along with a handful of other "women's glossies," when they stopped publishing fiction back in the 1990s. The move was seen by some media analysts to have been financially inevitable, but was interpreted by many in the worlds of media and publishing as a surrender to simplistic marketing instincts and a misinterpretation of readers' interests and aptitude.

Last Monday, I went out on disability because my health problems were taking up so much of my time and energy. On the upside, I have a lot more time to lie around and read. Naturally, I have opinions about what I read and will subject you to them. If I go a week without posting and you are wondering why, call my husband for news.

Women's Interests

After dropping my mom off at LAX, I stopped by Barnes and Noble, hoping to find a pattern for a new spring sweater in one of the magazines. The first rack on the right as you enter the Manhattan Beach store is labeled "Women's Interests". Sadly, women are only interested in wedding planning, fashion, decorating, beauty and their best friends that they have never met in Hollywood. Say it ain't so.

The rack next to it held copies of the Economist, Harper's and Scientific American. I can't remember how they labeled that rack.

Am I the only one who misses the articles about current events, fiction and poetry in the "women's magazines"? To be fair, a recent issue of Elle had a profile about Caitlin Flanagan and the issues she raises in her writing.

Aside again
Her writing disappeared from the Atlantic several years ago and she recently returned with a book of her greatest hits with a few new essays. When she stopped writing, I suspected a health or family issue. Her work was clearly very broadly read and influential (even if she did get alot of hate mail). The Elle piece said that she had breast cancer during her hiatus.

Because this blog is called badmomgoodmom, I should say that Caitlin writes about just that. Even though her definition of a good mom differs from mine, I do find her astute observations about human nature hilarious. She simply states that kids are better off with a parent always around, even if that parent is working at home. It just takes an army to raise twins and work at home. Unlike many of her detractors, I think she does get the irony of her position. It is easier to be a self-styled "at home" mom with nannies, housekeepers and a weekly visit from a professional organizer. ;-)

The profile also said that her husband works down the street from me at Mattel. He was responsible for a couple of the Barbie movies. Unfortunately, they were not the one that I liked, where Barbie saves her kingdom with her prowess as a geologist.

We will talk about Barbie at a later time.

keywords: reading, sociology, magazines

Death Valley II

Because you asked for more photos.

Bird at Furnace Creek Ranch


Badwater was not underwater this year. The shiny surface behind the sign is not water, but salt reflecting the sun. After seeing this phenomena, I am no longer surprised by the strong, predictable breezes that Mark observes out on the test ranges every sunny afternoon.


Another reason to get up for the sunrise at Zabriskie point.


The salt crystals at Devil's Golfcourse sure are hairy.


We did see flowers.


We found the rare lavender spotted something or other. It was next to a tiny plant with impossibly small floweres, each shaped like a slipper orchid. Of course, it did not photograph well.

keywords: travel, California, wild flowers, Death Valley