"She's really let herself go." When I hear someone say that about a woman—usually in a pitying or disdainful tone—it gets my hackles up. First of all, how often have you heard this said about a man? And secondly, shouldn't letting yourself go be a good thing? Doesn't it sound wonderfully liberating? Turns out it means she's no longer living up to the stringent standards of female beauty. She doesn't tweeze her eyebrows, wear lipstick, starve her body into submission or dye her hair. She's "showing her age." To be perfectly honest, I'm usually quite careful about the pictures I post of myself, but today I deliberately chose one in which I'm not wearing a speck of makeup and in which, frankly, I look like what I am: a happy 49-year old who doesn't smoke or sunbathe, and who gets Botox a couple of times a year. Yep, full disclosure.
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It's Memorial Day weekend. The start of being outdoors all the time. If only the torrential rains would stop we might start working on our tans. (Not.) Or our gardens. But still, the sun will go down (if it ever comes out at all), and then you may be looking for a way to while away a few evening hours not spent on your porch drinking wine and watching the fireflies. As you may remember, I am addicted to fond of high-quality, commercial-free television drama and I have recently been enjoying two new shows that I can recommend without reservation. The Killing is yet another AMC winner (they also have the incomparable Mad Men and Breaking Bad). Adapted from a Danish show of the same name, it stars the laconic and lovely Mireille Enos (above)—whom you may recognize from Big Love, where she played the much-abused twins at Juniper Creek—as a Seattle detective investigating the murder of a high-school girl.
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