OK, this is beneath me but here I go...

Are these two wearing the same dress?  Somebody named Kate Walsh and the always lovely Diane Lane.  Maybe they're just similar?  If there was one restrained jersey column dress on the red carpet there was ten billion so forgive me if I begin to blur.  

And what's with the Tarzan?  I thought that Nancy Reagan effectively killed that look when she put her brittle x-ray of a body into that Galanos number at the 1981 inaugural ball (please, Nancy, learn from always impeccably turned out Helen Mirren, there are some styles more appropriate for a lady of a certain age).  But no, everybody who wasn't in the Strapless Mafia at this year's Academy Awards was sporting one of these toga-esque asymmetrical tubes.  Not to my taste, but at least they were slightly better than the army of strapless gowns, the bodices of which seemed to fall into two categories: overly constructed causing the rigid piece to wear the woman (plus double as a kevlar bullet proof vest!) vs. digging into even the firmest flesh in an attempt to stay up (thus giving its wearer four bosoms like a cow).  Good lord, is there some law against straps?  Must we deny gravity?

Thank heavens for the individuality of Marion Cotillard 

in that equally fun and ravishing mermaid gown that must have been hand crafted right on her body by Jean Paul Gautier.  

The color was luminous on her (why did so many brunettes insist on wearing black which generally did nothing for them?) and the cut was flattering and sexy.  Most surprising of all the dress actually looked soft and comfortable sans the stays, elastic, duct tape and wire involved in so many others.  Leave it to the cute French girl!

Other thoughts on the Oscars and then I won't ever mention anything so trite again, I swear:  Julie Christie should have had that Best Actress award for the haunting Away From Her.  No matter how many times it's said, Clooney is just too fabulous to be true.  Who knew Javier Bardem was so devilishly handsome once he lost that hairdo I had in 8th grade (and he escorted his mother who is lovely and way cool with all that silver jewelry!)?

OK, that's it!  I won't bring any of this up again!

I made Mrs. Beavers blog!

OK, not a big claim to fame but I read and admire a very smart and funny blog written by my good friend who posts under the pseudonym Mrs. Clyde Beavers and she quoted me there so I'm delighted.  Sue me.  I do get happy and excited about things, even small things.  I also get sad about things.   I'm not bland.  I don't have a great deadpan.  I experience and express emotion.  Unlike most young people these days.  Which leads me to the quote in Mrs. Beavers' blog:

As my pal Allison said, "I disliked Juno because I have no interest in young people." Allison thinks that Today's Kids are too cool to be excited about anything, and she blames this on Fonzie. Allison is a smart lady and her Fonzie thesis intrigues me.

Since Mrs. Beavers has been so kind as to give my off hand remark the status of a thesis, I'd like to expand on it.

To be continued...

For only $100. a week you can BORROW one of these hideous handbags!

Yes, folks, I know it seems just too good to be true but, dig, for what might otherwise pass for a mortgage payment on a condo in Austin, this swell company will lend you a perfectly ghastly looking designer pocketbook.  Sure, you have to give it back.  And no, it's not tax deductible.  Well OK, you could sponsor fourteen Ethiopian orphans for the same dough, but hey, what's that when you could walk around swinging one of these monstrosities off of your arm? 

Won't your friends be just green with envy when they see you with a different gawd awful purse every week?  HA!  Well, so what if you have to eat dog food when you're 80?  There's nothing more fun and spunky than spending more on a rented bag than you put in your 401K!