According to Slate, American wine consumption averages out to one bottle per person per month. ONE bottle. I mean, ????????????????? I would like to think that all these non-wine drinkers are just drinking whiskey instead, but probably not??

God, no wonder this country is going to hell in a handbasket. 

I have just discovered an awesome historical personage!

I was flipping through the catalog for Swann’s upcoming Autographs sale and lot 83 is a “group of 24 receipts or ledger pages for household expenses” associated with Charles de Eon de Beaumont (1728-1810), who is described as “a French transsexual political adventurer, secret agent of Louis XV in Russia (1755), then minister to England.” 

French transsexual political adventurer!!!

So I did some googling. Apparently the Chavelier d’Eon lived his first 49 years as a man and his/her last 33 years as a woman. He claimed to have been born female (although he was apparently 100% male physically at death) and petitioned Louis XVI for recognition as a woman. The petition was successful and the court actually mandated that Eon de Beaumont dress as a woman—and even granted him government money for a new wardrobe! In the early 1790s he offered to lead an all-female division of soldiers against the Hapsburgs, but sadly this offer was not taken up. 

Why is Barnard hosting faculty lectures at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, and Flom??? 

Barnard @ Work

A series of lectures by distinguished Barnard faculty members, with lunch and followed by conversation

November 8 
WHY PRESIDENTS FAIL
Richard Pious, Professor of Political Science

November 29 
SO HELP ME GOD: RELIGION AND THE PRESIDENCY SINCE JOHN F. KENNEDY
Randall Balmer, Professor of Religion

December 6 
WHITE DRESS, BROKEN GLASS: STARTING ART ALL OVER AGAIN IN THE AGE OF REVOLUTION
Anne Higonnet, Professor of Art History 

All talks take place from 12:00–1:30 PM at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, and Flom, Four Times Square, 44th floor.

Mindy Kaling’s New Yorker postcard thingy on “women in the movies” is funny. I feel like this piece has maybe been written once or twice before, but still, so funny (and true). 

I regard romantic comedies as a subgenre of sci-fi, in which the world operates according to different rules than my regular human world. For me, there is no difference between Ripley from “Alien” and any Katherine Heigl character.

I have never thought about it like this before, but really, this makes sense in many ways! Although I think we can agree that Ripley was more sympathetic than any Katherine Heigl character has ever been.

And naturally I also enjoyed the fact that The Woman Who Works in An Art Gallery is on her list of romantic comedy women who do not exist in real life. Unless I go all metaphysical and question my own existence, I have to kind of quibble with this one, but I do agree that the “posh/smart/classy” part is not wholly reality-based, because in my experience at least 50% of women who work for art galleries are dumb as rocks, and also it is hard to be posh when your salary kind of makes you wonder why you bothered obtaining a college degree. Besides, only British people get to be posh; Americans can only manage fancy.

Was still reeling from my Scarlett Johannssen encounter when I almost walked smack into Maria Shriver! Much more excited about Maria, obvs. 

The deets: 

Scarlett: very polite, hat AND sunglasses, hair is red right now, not nearly as va-va-voom as expected?

Maria: looked…DISPLEASED. Beige shift dress. Daughters in tow. 

At work I receive all of the ILAB (International League of Antiquarian Booksellers) to-the-trade emails and they are the greatest! For example, I have just received the following communication:

We wish to announce that our fax machine (332 9080) is no longer in use. This is unlikely to interest any of our colleagues, as the only faxes received in recent years have been of the “Are You Owed Money” variety.

Alan Grant

Grant & Shaw Ltd
10 Leslie Place
Edinburgh EH4 1NH

Sneaky Chef: How to Cheat on Your Man (in the Kitchen!): Hiding Healthy Foods in Hearty Meals Any Guy Will Love, by Missy Chase Lapine, $2.99.

Recipes include “Macho Meatballs,” “Love Me Tenderloin,” and “Champion Chili.” 

Make Your Own Sex Toys: 50 Quick and Easy Do-It-Yourself Projects, by Matt Pagett, $2.99.

????????????  

My Grandfather’s Son: A Memoir, by Clarence Thomas, $1.99.

This is still waaaaay overpriced IMO.

Jesus, CEO: Using Ancient Wisdom for Visionary Leadership, By Laurie Beth Jones, $4.99.

The reviews are mostly very positive! For example:

Great book! As a Christian marketing consultant, I really enjoyed seeing Jesus as an executive.

Ivy League Stripper, by Heidi Mattson, $2.99.

Sold!

Alaia talks some serious smack about Wintour (again)!

“She runs the business [of Vogue] very well, but not the fashion part. When I see how she is dressed, I don’t believe in her tastes one second. I can say it loudly! She hasn’t photographed my work in years even if I am a best seller in the U.S. and I have 140 square meters at Barneys. American women love me; I don’t need her support at all. Anna Wintour doesn’t deal with pictures; she is just doing PR and business, and she scares everybody. But when she sees me, she is the scared one.[Laughs.] Other people think like me, but don’t say it because they are afraid that Vogue won’t photograph them. Anyway, who will remember Anna Wintour in the history of fashion? No one. Take Diana Vreeland, she is remembered because she was so chic. What she did with the magazine was great.” 

I’m moving to Greenpoint at the end of the month! No more crazy landlord and no more roommates! Yay!

This weekend I was in Boston to go shopping for household items in my parents’ house (the best type of shopping because everything is free and the quality is generally better than Ikea) and I re-discovered my childhood goose lamp, which is definitely going to add that certain something to my new decor! I googled “goose lamp” to look for a pic and found out that it is the “Gladys the Goose lamp, designed by Don Featherstone of Union Products.” Here’s Gladys:

I forgot just how BIG the hair is in this movie! And the eye makeup, OH THE EYE MAKEUP! 

Sigh, Working Girl is THE BEST. The Carly Simon song that plays at the beginning, when Melanie and everyone else is streaming off of the Staten Island ferry and onto the streets of New York, and then also at the end, when Melanie triumphs over Sigourney and gets her own office, is so moving and inspiring! I would be way more OK with having to take the uptown 6 train every morning if this song could also be the soundtrack to MY commute! Here is the music video version, although I swear it sounds slightly different in the movie? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv-0mmVnxPA 

I also had no memory of the fact that Ricki Lake has a cameo as a random wedding guest. Go Ricki!

Also TRUE STORY: I once attended Sigourney’s daughter’s birthday party. It was in the Adirondacks and there was a Hawaiian theme, and there was canoeing, and there were grass skirts and coconut bras, and I think there might even have been a spit-roasted pig? Although it’s possible the pig part might be a figment of my imagination. It was a long time ago; I think I was seven? Anyway, it was a BRUSH WITH FAME.