Wave If You Dig Surfing

As you know, surfing is a topic I love to write about. [Click the blue banners to read my blogs: "My Philadelphian Cousin is a Hawaiian Surfer" and"Diana Vreeland: A Surfer Wannabe."

But before we go further out, click here (and turn up the volume). Taste the brine. Feel the sea spray. Flick the sand from your imagination.

I caught up with Jonah Kogen, a bronco when it comes to catching waves. Here he is on a recent surfing trip to the Mentawaii's in West Sumatra, Indonesia:

So what's it like to ride a wave? Is it as swell as surfers say it is?

"It's an incredible feeling," Jonah wrote. "Every wave you catch or miss makes you a better, more tuned in, experienced surfer. Your mind and body has to adjust for years to put the pieces together.  Knowing how to get yourself in the right position, paddling as hard as possible to match the speed of the wave. Taking off on an elevator 

                                                        d

                                                            r

                                                             o

                                                               p, focusing down the line on the wave instead of the razor sharp reef below you in a single-foot deep of disappearing water as it sucks up the face. Remembering that if you get clipped, it's like being tackled by a football team and getting dragged across a mine field while holding your breath. 

"When you make a wave like this, and get the full experience, it is unbelievable. There are few things in life that compare. Being in the water has the ability to clear your mind of everything else in the world and just be present in the moment ... one with the ocean and nature and realize just how amazing life is and can be."

I dig.

Post-Partum Winter Storm Juno

What to do when snowed in for two days? Did a lot of people take naps? Will their cabin-fever romps impact our country in the future? Will a new generation be born from the storm?

Fast-forward nine months and maternity wards in the northeast will be booming with a new crop of kids conceived during this epic blizzard. A popular moniker will likely be "Baby Juno."

Do you ever wonder if your parents named you after a hurricane or blizzard?

Winter Storm Juno Forecasted to be Epic + Historic

This doozy of a blizzard is pummeling the Northeast with white-out conditions and high winds. Travel bans are in place, 7,000 flights have been cancelled, subway and bus service suspended and Hudson River crossings closed. Standing in line at the hardware store for hurricane lamp oil and wicks this morning was well worth the time. 

I am grateful for having shelter, heat, water, electricity, chocolate, two good books and that my son is safe at his home.

My daughter is grateful that she lives in Hawaii.

Be safe. If the town snow plow goes by, turn your front lights on and off to show your appreciation for all they are doing to keep the roads clear. 

Skating Figure 8s à la 1948

I'm going to a winter ice skating party in Bryant Park, behind New York Library, on Sunday afternoon. Thought I would bone up on skating etiquette in one of my favorite books, Miss Behavior -- Popularity, Poise and Personality for the Teen-Age Girl (By Bernice Bryant; illustrated by Jean Baker; copyright 1948.)  (Other books by Bryant include Future Perfect: A Guide to Personality and Popularity for the Junior Miss.)

Here's the dish in the skating "chapter":

SKATE
     Skate well and you'll have the men falling for you. Don't skate well and you'll be falling at their feet. They'll have to pick you up then.
     Go to the pond, rink or down to the old mill stream and cut a neat figure eight. Someone is bound to ask you how you did it. And there's nothing wrong in answering a civil question. And there's nothing wrong in answering another and and another. There you are! It's as easy as falling on the ice.
     Of course, you're not going to talk to just anybody. But there's nothing wrong in talking to a boy you know goes to your school, church, club or even one who lives in the same town you do. If possible, try to wangle an introduciton somehow before the game of questions and answers begins.


Is this book a precursor to "Prom Salon"? (See below.)

Prom-ishing

High heels, gowns, and big hair. It's all there on this strangely girl-ish app called "Prom Salon."

As I walked into the locker room at the gym, I noticed two 6-year old BFFs, sitting on a bench, intent on their iPads, waiting for a sibling to finish swimming lessons. The girls dragged tiaras, dresses and necklaces from the right margin onto the cyber-figures which are touted as "3 models from different continents." 

I asked the girls what they were playing and in unison they looked up at me and responded, "Prom Salon."

"You change their outfits?" I asked.

"You can even change their earrings," one of the girls said.

Or lipstick, eye color, eye shadow and hair color. Select from the "Makeup Section," "Dress up Section" and ... "Male Partner Chosen Section." Once the perfect girls are finished getting dressed, they can be shared on Facebook or email.

In one of the reviews, someone wrote (sic):  
"I really like playing makeupgames but I play them so much they all look the same, tthis one however is slightly different, but not enough to be awesome. I wish this game was more fun and exciting, I know that this game used to be fun but now I dread playing it since nothin is NEW about it! Over all if u have never played this game I think u should get it but U WILL GET BORED WITH IT TRUST ME!!!!!"

The girls continued dressing the "models." I tried (hard) to think what possibly is the upside of this app. 

January 21 is ... SQUIRREL APPRECIATION DAY!

Is anyone else obsessed with the squirrel species?

Celebrate Squirrel Appreciation Day!  Show the love.


Click here for my Huffington Post.  [This blog went viral. It's comforting to know there are 8.6k other people who love squirrels.]

What a Flu-sy

While diving for ibuprofen in the medicine cabinet, I came across a bag of face masks that were handed out at my son's fraternity at Cornell during the Swine flu outbreak in 2009. (See above.) 

These were designed to wear on the face? They look like sanitary napkins. Is it me in a feverish state or what?  (A friend asked why I had been saving them. Perhaps for an art project? Interesting idea: a rendering that compares the contraceptive effects of wearing a face mask and a sanitary napkin. It's like the versatility of a dickie that can also be worn over the head like a hajib.

Perhaps the face masks were more effective for Swine flu than this year's flu shot, which was mis-targeted and only 23% effective. (I am one of the "lucky" 77%.)

This morning I woke up and was startled to find a small box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal on my bed stand. 

I hate that cereal (too sweet) and wondered:

1. Why is it on my bed stand?
2. How is it that the box is empty? 
3. Why are there so many crumbs in our bed?? 

In my fever last night, my husband recalled that I went downstairs, brought up the cereal and scarfed it down. (Better than barfing it up.) He thought I was acting strangely. (Especially when I mentioned a friend [who is definitely post meno-pause] and commented, "I think they found a way for so-and-so to get pregnant." 

It was then that my beloved asked me if I knew the date and who was the president of the U.S.

The only thing I can remember is watching "Seinfeld" bloopers on my iPad. I think I fell asleep, though, during "The Nairobi Trio" performance on an Ernie Kovacs re-run.

Anyhoo, I am now on day 5 of no wine and I think I found the perfect remedy to stop drinking. The flu.

Right as Rain

Of all the sentences I've written, this is my favorite:

A little drizzle it wasn't.

I was covering a homecoming ... and it rained cats and dogs for hours. And. Hours.

Beauty Is Power

Highlights from a weekend in Manhattan

(Hit the links for more info.)

Cooper Hewitt

Helena Rubinstein: Quelle Powerhouse

Fifth Avenue ground covering

"You Can't Take It With You": Water fountain at the Longacre Theatre

       My beautiful 84-year old mother

HUFFINGTON POST: "My New Year's Resolutions Are Already Old"

My quest for perfection in 2015 was kapoot by noon on January 1.

Here's my new Huffington Post,"My New Year's Resolutions Are Already Old."

Click here. 

Party on.

What was it like on a snowy day in Pound Ridge in the 1930s?

In Pat Marshall Bartram's story, "Barrels of Oil and Blocks of Ice" -- on page 40 of POUND RIDGE PAST: Remembrances of Our Townsfolk -- she recalls, "In wintertime ... the big boys would clean off a  section of the back side of the frozen lake [across from Marshall Oil on Salem Road], drive their cars onto the ice, turn on the radio and ice skate. We used to have real cold winters back then."

She goes on to talk about her parents being "air wardens" during World War II.

"Aunt Amy and my mother used to go to the fire tower in New Canaan (Conn.) to spot planes and call them in. Daddy was an air warden, too. He and this group would drive around all the roads and if your house lights were on, they'd blow their horn for you to turn them off. We knew we had to turn out our lights because it might be an air raid. We weren't afraid that the Germans might attack, though, because our parents made us feel safe in Pound Ridge."

Happy New Year!!

May 2015 be filled with laughter, glee and moonglow.

Happy New Year, darlings!