You'd Better Shop Around...

...And the award for Most Enchanting New Products goes to...

Fast Away...

Another one, already. Where, as the song says, has the time all gone to?

That Girl, Those Clothes

(Warning: this post is kind of a GIF-fest)

You know what we need right now?  I would never have guessed it myself, but having stumbled on it, I now know what just might be the greatest panacea for tired nerves one can imagine.

Is a Puzzlement

Because there's never a bad reason to get a good look at Yul Brynner,
nearly shirtless. No Puzzlement there...

Over in the FaceBookVerse, dear Cookie has come up with a list of 10 Things He Doesn't Understand, and he's challenged his Gentle Readers to do the same. Some dares I can't resist, so herewith, just that number of cultural phenomena that leave me cold:

Unexpected Changes at the Last Minute

So I'm in San Francisco, and no one could be more surprised than I...

Now We Are Nine

So I was digging around for something a couple of days ago and realized with a start that, as of yesterday, the Café has been around for exactly nine years. Insert profound thought about time flying here. Kay Francis (who has been something of a mascot hereabouts) has stopped in to say hi, looking more glam than one generally thinks of her in the '40s.

Book 'Em

Over in her curious corner of the cyberverse*, the esteemed Mistress MJ has requested a glimpse at her Dear Readers' bookshelves, and I feel compelled to oblige.

No Cure Like Travel

Well, I've been a bad travelogue-er, I know, but what with one thing and another, I've been rather on the go. And, given all that's going on in the world, I'm afraid I've had something of the grim expression of this lovely Matisse lady I ran into last weekend.

Oh, God, I'm Repeating Myself...

Yes, it's travel time again, and once more I will be following in the brave, befuddled shoes of Dr. Howard Bannister and jetting out to San Francisco.

Rainbow High

On what is, at least in Our Nation's Capital, a gray and snowy day, why don't we go Around the World in Something Less than Eighty Ways with that redoubtable all-singin', all-dancin' star... Maureen O'Sullivan?

Of Love and Broccoli, or, How I Spent My Tuesday

So not all that long ago, I was chatting cybernetically with the frenetically cultured, enormously soigné TJB (who really must be encouraged, sternly, to write more for public consumption), and he recommended a specific movie, available on YouTube, that I really must see.  I filed it away.

Or thought I did.

It's Indescribable

Although the celebrations worldwide now spread hither and yon across June and beyond, this weekend - if only because it is so celebrated in our two cultural homelands, New York and San Francisco - is somehow the Most Official Pride Weekend of them all.

Travelogue - Here's Grace (and Oscar, and Oysters and...)

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Octoblog

It's an auspicious day, my dears, and I thought we all deserve a little eye candy. Meet Mr. Mohamed el Bably, who apparently ranks among "8 of Egypt's Top Male Models, at least according to online rag CairoScene.

Deviled by the Details

The Entrance to the Tautira River, Tahiti. Fisherman Spearing a Fish, John La Farge (detail)

So, under the twin thumbs of mandated exercise and my impending return to the grindstone, I decided earlier this week to hie myself downtown to reacquaint myself with the city.

Turkey Trot

A very happy Thanksgiving to all my favorite seasonal fruitcakes...

The Quarter-Millionaire

So, I don't know how much you look around when you visit here, but over there on the right-hand column there's a lot going on.

As If We Never Said Goodbye

Oh, darlings, such good news - I'm almost as happy about it as Sandy, Bing, Pearlie Mae, and Bob!

Bye-Bye, Baby

Tonight is the first of several farewell parties that friends and colleagues are very kindly throwing for us, and I couldn't be dreading them more.

On Finer Newsstands Now!

Accept no substitutes.

Ever since I dug up an issue way back in 2008 (do you believe it?), this classic periodical has gained a certain discerning little following.  Dear Donna Lethal discovered several back numbers over in her droll corner of the cyberverse, and dear Jon has even come across an issue or two over in Blighty (perhaps he found them in some tempting corner of the Portobello Road?).

As with the legendary Flair, though, complete sets are hard to come by, and I do believe we can all live in hope of finding new editions.  Later issues seem to be especially rare - there's no denying dowagers were an endangered species once Mamie Eisenhower left the White House...