Sunday, November 07, 2010

cool women day

Today has turned out to be cool women day - I'm taking my daughter to tea for her birthday at Lady Mendl's Tea Salon. My daughter is cool, of course, and Lady Mendle, or rather Elsie de Wolfe was quite a character, even getting a shout-out in the song "Anything Goes" although it's at the end and you rarely hear the whole song:
If Sam Goldwyn can with great conviction
Instruct Anna Sten in diction,
Then Anna shows
Anything goes.
When you hear that Lady Mendl standing up
Now turns a handspring landing up-
On her toes,
Anything goes.
Just think of those shocks you've got
And those knocks you've got
And those blues you've got
From that news you've got
And those pains you've got
(If any brains you've got)
From those little radios.
So Missus R., with all her trimmin's,
Can broadcast a bed from Simmons
'Cause Franklin knows
Anything goes.

And on top of that, Katha Pollitt invited me to her place. It's for an abortion-rights fundraiser, but still - I'm going to Katha Pollitt's place - whoohoo!

Katha and I go way back actually - the first time I had contact with her was in 1998, when she emailed me - because I helped set up a web site for an abortion-rights-fundraising group and my email address was on the site. She was interested in learning more about the group.

We've had contact off and on since then, not always in perfect harmony (some of her views of Disney's "The Little Mermaid" annoy me, for one example), but I think she's one of the greatest minds being published today - not only her political essays in The Nation, but also personal essays and poetry. She's right up there with Paul Krugman in my personal pantheon. Expect a report on this blog later in the week on the fabulous fundraiser.