Happy Halloween!

Marilyn Monroe Pen

My favorite pen-store is offering the new Marilyn Monroe pen made by Montblanc. It's lipstick-red with curves and a pearl on the clip. A beauty.

$920/$785/$680 for fountain-tip/rollerball/ballpoint

Would you enjoy receiving one as a gift? BTW, when's your birthday?  :-)

Hidden Secrets II

Here's a second in my new series of hidden secrets.

When you buy a nice piece of clothing (e.g., fancy dress, business suit), it often comes with spare buttons and a little square of cloth. The cloth is the same material as the item.

Most people don't know what the cloth is for. Some guess, incorrectly, that it's to use as a patch for rips. No, it's not.

The real purpose of the cloth is to test laundry detergent and other cleaning solvents to see how the material will react to them. That way you won't ruin the entire garment when trying to clean it.

Isn't that clever?

Getting Old

In two weeks, I turn sixty. Damn. Never thought that would happen.

The irony is I feel like I'm getting younger. I'm fitter, more active and more engaged than anytime in the past decade. Sixty is supposed to be the beginning of the end, a threshold for the inexorable slide toward death. And yet I feel the opposite.

Honestly I've decided to reject omphaloskepsis and, instead, continue on my Benjamin Button path. Today I took out my insanely-powerful sportbike for a thrilling ride along the water. I believe age isn't what matters but how you live. What do you believe?

Hidden Secrets

This is the first in a new series of posts. They will teach you stuff. Valuable, practical stuff. You may also find the knowledge amusing and can impress your friends with it.

Product-manufacturers do things to make our lives easier but, sadly, few consumers know about those efforts. They're secrets in a sense.

The first secret has to do with cars. There is something on the dashboard of your car which you've looked at a thousand times without knowing what it means. Or that it even means anything at all. And the knowledge could help you.

When borrowing a friend's car or driving a rental, you often wonder which side of the car the gas-tank is on when pulling into a gas-station. Its location affects the side of the gas-pump you pull up to. Getting out of the car to check this is a pain but there's an easier way. The car is telling you which side the tank is on, but are you listening?

On the dashboard, in the fuel-gauge, there is a symbol of a gas-pump. Next to that symbol is a triangle. What is the triangle for? Does it mean anything?

Yes! It points to the side of the car your gas-tank is on. Really! Now you instantly know, without looking outside, where the tank is and how to pull up to a pump. For example, here's a car whose tank is on the left (driver's) side:

For cars with tanks on the right side, the triangle points the other way.

Isn't this a fun little fact to learn?!

Back In Time

I found an authentic vintage top in my local thrift-store. It's from the 1980's and its exaggerated design appeals to me. Fashion should be fun.

The top was on sale for only five dollars. Or, as we say in New York, fie dollas. To keep this piece from being too overwhelming, I pair it with a plain skirt and simple matching heels.

What do you think?

Cooperstown

Cooperstown is a charming little place in upstate New York. Everything there is devoted to the game of baseball. The national Hall of Fame is surrounded by stores and bars dedicated to baseball. The town has also some very good restaurants and hotels which is unusual for the area.

I enjoyed the weekend there. Here are some pics. Did you have fun this weekend?

I was startled by this tangible reminder of our country's shameful history of racial segregation. An exhibit devoted to "Negro baseball leagues" taught me something new -- in the first decade of modern baseball (1880s), African-Americans played with white players. Only after they were mistreated were they hounded out of professional leagues, forced to start their own leagues which lacked money and respect. It wasn't until Jackie Robinson that they were allowed back in.