I want you to want me

Does anybody besides me remember that song from a gazillion years ago — I want you to want me? I caught the tail end of this Cheap Trick hit on the radio and it got me thinking …

Are any of us really, truly, wanted? (more…)

Marry free … or move to New Hampshire?

This piece will appear in the June 17th print issue of Creative Loafing, and they’ve already posted it online at their website. Read it here or at CL (you can post your comments at either site) or just look for it at newsstands on Wednesday (the 17th) if you prefer!

Ah, New Hampshire – that bastion of backwoods, barns, and covered bridges – has given me yet another reason to love it: On June 3, the Granite State legalized marriage between same-sex couples.

I’ve had a major jones for New Hampshire since catching my first glimpse of that state’s motto — “Live Free or Die” – while on a family vacation when I was a teenager. (more…)

Nice girls finish fat?* Oh, I’m SO glad I’m a bitch!

After I left my husband and moved into my own apartment, I had a lot of time for navel-gazing. In my first few months alone, with only copious amounts of take-out pizza and twizzlers to keep me company — I had time to do a lot of thinking about the fact that for WAY too long, I’d been WAY too nice. Played WAY too fair. Given away WAY too much with WAY too little coming back in return.

As my waistline grew bigger and my mood got moodier, I decided to change my nice-girl ways and become a bitch with a capital B. (more…)

Woulda … coulda … shoulda

Today, if I’d stayed married, I would have been married ten years. But I didn’t. Stay married, that is. The only one of my siblings to divorce, yup, that’s me — little black sheep of the family.

I left the man I’d promised to love and stick with through thick and thin. Keeping the first part of that promise was easy: I still loved him — or maybe I still loved the man I’d wanted him to be — the day I left him.

It was the sticking around through thick and thin part I couldn’t stick with. (more…)

MC’s Friday morning musing on romance

I’ve been around too long to believe anymore that a kiss, or that initial first flush of attraction, no matter how much it knocks your socks off, is an indicator of long-term compatibility. I’m old-fashioned enough to believe that attraction – whether short-term lust or long-term love – has to be grounded in shared intellectual, emotional, and social mores. Too driven by logic, I often cast a gimlet eye at what is commonly called romance. And yet … . (more…)

The best damn thing since All the President’s Men

If you do one thing … watch one thing … think about one thing … this Memorial Day weekend … make it worth your while:  watch  State of Play — the BBC miniseries.  It’s the smartest thing you’ll see or hear or think about it in, oh, probably, the last several years, at least.  With no Redford or Hoffman in sight (and certainly no Affleck) — this program gives All the President’s Men a serious run for its money.  And honestly, I think it comes out on top.

I’m serious — if you have even the slightest interest in print journalism — watch State of Play — the BBC miniseries.

You can rent it at Video Renaissance on Bee Ridge in Sarasota; it may be at the library or on Netflix or some such place.  Find it.  Rent it.  Watch it.

Then go out and buy a newspaper.

Live long and prosper!

Hey, the new Star Trek movie comes out today!

I wrote a column in 2006 about my old obsession with all things Vulcan — if you’re interested, you can read it by clicking here: Vulcan Tendencies, and read a brief snippet below:

So deep was my identification with Spock’s mind and approach to life, love, and thinking, that I may well have been the first and possibly only case of a televisional Vulcan mind-meld.

Live long and prosper!

MC’s naked reality

For most of my life, I’ve had a love affair with make-up. Like most women, I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time and money selecting, buying, and smearing goop of various kinds all over my face before letting myself go out in public.

If you’re going for the full monty of make-up, you’ve got mascara, eyeliner, eye shadow, eyebrow pencil, foundation, concealer, blush, powder, lip liner, lipstick and a top coat of gloss. Most women, at a minimum, throw on mascara, concealer and lipstick before heading out any door, especially if she’s going to an office or on a date.

My love affair with make-up ended though, about the same time that I left my ex-husband. (more…)

The world needs columnists … and column-readers!

As a freelance columnist I might be biased, but I’d like to think that while a lot of readers love to hate and hate to love the columnists that appear in their favorite paper’s pages (or dare I hope on their favorite blog sites?!) — columnists ultimately make reading a paper fun, and sometimes give us something meaty to chew on during our lunch breaks besides our stale tuna fish sandwiches. (more…)

Petty thievery

I’ve got a good friend. He’s a great guy. Pretty honest, pretty decent human being.

Recently we were hanging out together … doing our usual nonstop talking. We were having a blast … up until the moment he was showing me photos from his recent trip on his laptop computer.

My friend segued from showing me photographs to showing me some labyrinthine catalog of music he had stored on his laptop. He flipped through music sounding out on a tinny sound system faster than I could recognize what tunes they were. I was impressed with the endless catalog.

I’m a woman who still listens to the radio and thinks CDs are cutting edge. So, I asked my friend, “How’d you get all this music?” — and here’s where it got sticky. He responded with a shrug, “Itunes, friends, some stolen.”

What? Did I hear that correctly? “Some stolen”????? (more…)