News of the World!  Little Missy Picks the Top Three Stories For You

 

 

It's just awful out there right now with Istanbul, my favourite city ever in unrest, and all the usual tedious problems like the government spying on us (o snap)!  Oh and who is this Edward Snowden and why does he have to hide out in Hong Kong?  What did he do that is so bad he has to hide and all those blowhards in DC are going blah blah blah he's a danger to  our country!  Like we didn't know the government was spying on us and Good God do we care?  It's all blah blah blah  24/7 on FaceBook so grow a spine DC and concentrate on important things, which this Snowden probably isn't.  And if he is important and has compromised us, tell us why for heaven's sake!  Syria, North Korea, Pakistan, just throw the dart and there's a really big problem! And right here with all these guns!  Oh please! 

 

 

Will it be Alexandra?

 









So Little Missy seeks to divert and entertain once again with hand picked stories from around the world.  Let's go to the UK, where bookmakers would have us believe that Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge are going to have a girl and call her Alexandra.  Little Missy approves--this is what she named her daughter!  And you can go to a poll and vote for the name Kanye if the Royal couple produces a son!  And Kanye  thinks he is the next Steve Jobs! My kids love Kanye and always quote him.  Kanye is very popular! Who knows, maybe Little Missy will have a grandson named Kanye!  Just as long as I don't have to have a granddaughter named Kim Kardashian!  That would not be good!  But Kanye is in the realm of possibilities for our family.  We already have a Dylan!

 

 

Rupert and Wendi--No Dude, I am going to Hollywood!

 



Now let's go to Australia or wherever that disgusting 82 year old Rupert Murdoch lives.  He is divorcing wife number three, Wendi, aged 44.  He was quoted a few years back as saying that Wendi, the mother of two of his children, was just going to be his interior decorator but Wendi was like "No you stupid old cretin, I'm going to be a movie producer!"  and she produced a couple of respectable pictures and now guess what?  You go girl, you are well out of it!

 

 











Kanye says he is going to spoil his daughter more than Kate and William spoil theirs!

 

Little Missy's idea of a nightmare is Kim Kardashian.  When Kanye got down on his knees at the Met Gala to sing his final number to Kim, Little Missy was not fooled. Kanye, why did you do that?  You are Kanye West, for Goodness Sake!  You bend the knee to No One!  No One, Kanye!  Especially Kim Kardashian, who dresses like Trashian!

 

Well, that's it for Little Missy's Top Three World Stories!  And if any of my readers run into Edward Snowden in Hong Kong, tell him Freddie Aranda and I know a great restaurant hidden in a basement that serves the best chrysanthemum tea.  It's very soothing in this scorch and burn climate that we daily endure.  Carry on, in the moment, float like a butterfly. It's tough but we will get through.

!

 

 

 

 

 

Three Songs From The Sixties--The Power of Fashion

 

Devil With The Blue Dress

Chanel Spring 2013



Wearin' her pearls and her diamond rings
She's got bracelets on her fingers, now, and everything
She's the devil with the blue dress, blue dress, blue dress,
Devil with the blue dress on
Devil with the blue dress, blue dress, blue dress,
Devil with the blue dress on
Wearin' her perfume, Chanel No. 5
Got to be the finest girl alive

 

This brilliant song is by Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels.  Need anything else be said?  Mitch foresaw the prominence of Chanel and of luxury dressing and put it out there for teenagers in 1966. 

 

 

 

 

Like a Queen In Days of Old

Alexander McQueen Haute Couture Spring 2013

Have you seen her all in gold

Like a queen in days of old

She shoots colours all around

Like a sunset going down

Have you seen the lady fairer

She comes in colours everywhere;

She combs her hair

She's like a rainbow

Coming colours in the air

Oh, everywhere

She comes in colours
 

Leave it to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards to capture the moment of the Sixties in the song Like a Rainbow,  when women shot colours all around...and leave it to Sarah Burton to Show us the modern day Lady Fairer 

 

I Hear The Sound Of A Gentle Word

 

Rodarte Spring 2013

I love the colourful clothes she wears

And the way the sunlight plays upon her hair

I hear the sound of a gentle word

On the wind that lifts her perfume through the air

And Little Missy loves the way Brian Wilson envisioned his Dream Woman in Good Vibrations, one of the best Sixties songs ever by the Beach Boys.  Yes, peace and equality for all were the driving themes, but who among us can deny the power of fashion?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

31 May 2013

You Can't Go Home Again

Little Missy awoke with an epiphany!  Let's Go Home!  Let's leave Silicon Valley! Anything broken can be fixed if I return to where I grew up!  Nestled between my elementary school and my high school lies the house of my dreams, a "Georgian manor" from 1912.  I didn't know it was the house of my dreams until I saw it again this morning.  I have vague (vague, not Vogue) recollections of walking by it on my way to my ballet classes a long time ago.  Today it had a "For Sale" sign by the mailbox and I called my agent. Little Missy is feeling very combative about Silicon Valley, wants to return to childhood.  This Georgian manor is a stone's throw from the house where I grew up (vowing never to return). It isn't blah blah blah about Internet connectivity and it's a shorter commute to San Francisco! In other words, everything I could possibly want this morning!  Already making plans to thin out the jungle in the front to showcase the mature oaks and palms, I learn it has been sold!  99% for certain!  Someone just forgot to take the for sale sign away!  Whoever bought it cannot possibly love it more than I would love it.  But thank goodness they bought it or else I would have and that would have been a big mistake!  Maybe!  Who knows?





Point A to Point B and Somewhere In Between

 

Little Missy has a tip!  When you get down, don't think that moving back in time is going to chase away the blues!  It will probably accelerate them!  We have to live in the moment, even if it means feeling a little sad sometimes.  We have to move forward, even with all our challenges.  So I flirted a little with the past! Now it's done, and I will be having dinner on University Avenue in Palo Alto tonight with a friend and hearing blah blah blah all around us about the same old marvellous high tech that has been rocking our universe for forty years!

 





 Rock your night in Palo Alto in this little Rodarte number and watch the silicon chips slip

 

Well, that's it my friends. Live and love in the moment, forwards, not backwards! The moment!

Little Missy Gets Caught In The Wrong Side Of Town

Menlo Park, CA Is Full Of Red Cameras!

Contrite Little Missy Does an online Traffic School course

 

 

Little Missy Recommends Laugh and Learn Online Traffic School

Did you hear the one about the taxi driver who got nervous when the guy tapped his window?  "I've just started driving a taxi.  For twenty years I drove a hearse".

Not the photo shoot of Little Missy's dreams 

 

 



With jokes like this, Little Missy recommends two things: stay away from Menlo Park, California.  They've been bugging me for over thirty years.  And if you get a moving violation there, take the Laugh and Learn Online driving course.  Endure some bad jokes and get the citation off your record.

 



The enchanting town of Menlo Park, California has a wonderful claim to fame.  Traditionally it was far enough from the Stanford campus that undergrads could go there to drink beer at that quaint and deservedly famous collegiate spot, the Oasis.  Menlo Park is also home to Draeger's, just about the best grocery store ever.  And Jim Draeger is a friend of mine!  But there is no fashion there!  It is just about the most boring place on earth!  And that is why the mind wanders and these little Incidents happen!  Little Missy wishes her readers a Beautiful Weekend!  Drive safely and stay in the moment! And keep your mind on the road!

A Million Splashes!

 

 Little Missy received a compliment at The Cinderella Gala in San Francisco earlier this month.  "You look as though you have been drinking from the Fountain of Youth", an acquaintance remarked. I looked both ways before I realised she was speaking to me. Of course it is very flattering to hear that kind of thing but then of course it got me thinking about the role water has played in my regime for most of my life. In Little Missy's Health and Beauty Tips for Men and Women posted on  March 29th of this year, I suggest swimming as an exercise for fitness and health.  There is something soothing about water, as most of us know.  And swimming promotes a sense of well-being, as well as a smooth and toned body.  Just look at the Olympic swimmers.  Aren't they just about perfect looking?  What about that Missy Franklin, who captured Prince Harry's attention earlier this week?  "I just feel like a dolphin," says Missy Franklin about her swimming. Well, this Missy agrees!  Now go capture the Prince's heart, Missy Franklin, and you will be a Missy after Little Missy's own heart!
 Many years ago when I was fifteen I decided randomly to splash my face thirty times with water each morning and evening and I have not diverted  from this routine since.  Please don't do the math--I have done it for you!  It adds up to over one million splashes since I was fifteen! And no face lifts!  What does that tell you, my friends?  To continue with that trend, in my late twenties, I became sick from high levels of bad bacteria in the drinking water (documented a day after my illness in the much missed Palo Alto Times).  As a marathon trainer (yes, Little Missy was quite the athletic and sporty type for many years) I used to drink tap water by the gallons until my water poisoning.  I switched to Evian water and I have never looked back.  My favourite Evian bottle was the one Christian Lacroix designed, but Lagerfeld, Issey Miyake, Paul Smith and other fashion greats have contributed to the brand.

 

 

 

 

Christian Lacroix designed Evian bottle 



 

 

 

 

 

My wonderful friend from Istanbul, Sedef, who went to Stanford University with my daughter Lexi, introduced me to Dr. Perricone's Skin & Total Body Vitamins.  I have been faithful to them for nearly a decade now, and I can say that probably they have contributed as much as anything to my immune system staying on track during my blitzes around the world, Europe, the States and so on.  You just can't beat fish oil, and although it sounds a little repellent, it works.  I believe it is also called Omega Three, and that sounds better.  It may have even contributed to my personal "Fountain of Youth".  The key is to become dedicated to a good program.

 

 

 

Dr. Perricone Skin & Total Body Vitamins 

 

Raspberries, blueberries and blackberries

 

 

I think all of us know to eat seasonal fruit, and I am getting excited because my favourite season is fast approaching, and that means berries, plums, peaches and apricots.  Yes, berries and stone fruits!  Don't miss this season because it comes and goes in the blink of an eye, and not only is it food of the Gods it is good for you!

Peonies

 

Try to have fresh flowers around you.  It is always a lift.  Lilac season has already left us but peonies are still in the market and if you have a real green thumb, in your garden!  Little Missy is waiting for her rose tree, which is coming down from Canada next month.  Why it is coming from Canada is a mystery to me, but that is where it is coming from and I must simply be patient and wait for it.

 

Succulents

 

Succulents are great for those of us who have no patience.  They have never been more chic on the table, and you can find them in nurseries and create your own little landscape!

 

 

 

 

Finally, good quality Turkish bath towels are beyond divine.  They are a necessity! At the end of a long day, what better luxury is there in the world than a warm shower or bath and then wrapping one's self in an over sized terry cloth towel?

 



Turkish Bath Towels

 

Well, Little Missy has just shared with you her personal Fountain of Youth regimes and favourites.  Of course some of them go back quite a way.  I really do recommend the thirty splashes morning and night.  It's never too late to turn back the hands of time, and what better time to do it that than now!  Have a wonderful weekend, exercise and see art and be happy.  In the moment as always and embracing the now.



Galarama!



 

 



Kate Mulleavy, Little Missy, Laura Mulleavy, Elle and Dakota Fanning at the Met Gala

 

 

 

What a world wind week it has been! Why can't Galas happen every other month instead of three in four days in three cities on two coasts?  Galarama began for me in San Francisco on May 3rd, when I was still a blond!

 

Blond Little Missy, with Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon and patron of the evening Denise Littlefield Sobel

 

 

What a pleasure to be with my old friend Denise Sobel, who brought Cinderella to San Francisco!  Christopher Wheeldon's spectacular choreography and Julian Couch's production was ethereal and I had to pinch myself several times to realise this was really happening in my city!  It was like a Haute Couture show the way I wish Haute Couture would be.  In other words, I loved it!  I have never seen anything like this!  Congratulations to Christopher, Julian, the San Francisco Ballet and especially to Denise and her family for this magical ballet in our town!  And Riccardo Benavides is certainly the events designer de jour in San Francisco with the most exquisite tented dinner in recent memory.  Topiaries like Julian's production masks!  Chandeliers like the ones on stage!  Over the top! But Little Missy did not stay for the after party!  No, she went home before her carriage turned into a pumpkin, before the stroke of midnight!  It's even OK that a server spilt something on my Rodarte gown during dinner.  Even though Kate Mulleavy once joked (not) that if you spill something on a Rodarte gown, just throw the gown away!  But we accentuate the positive in these Chronicles!  And Little Missy always has spot removal tips!  Which involve sending your gowns to Madame Paulette in New York!  Tips I picked up from Geoffrey Beene, my beloved and America's beloved late "Couturier  of Seventh Avenue", a non sequitor if I ever heard one.  I miss Mr. Beene so much.  But now there's Kate and Laura Mulleavy, so the world still spins for Little Missy.

 

Then there was the Party of the Year, the Met Gala

Rocking the brunette with Solange, Beyoncé's little sister

 

 

There is very little I can say about this event that hasn't been said, except Gwyneth,  REALLY? You are never coming to another Gala because it is such a hyped over-produced event?  Well, let's all have the pleasure of watching Anna Wintour talk Miss Paltrow into coming to another tedious Met Gala again! Never say never!  A Little Missy tenet!  You should have watched Little Missy rocking it in the front during Kanye West's  performance!  A little trick I learnt a million and a half years ago, growing up quickly during weekends at Fillmore Auditorium in my beloved City by the Bay!  Move to the front fast! Teaching Dakota and Elle Fanning how to rock it at a show and not be all serious!  Mentoring!  Little Missy style!  Plus I got to debut my new look, a dark flapper bob and a gown Vivienne Westwood created for the night.  A tribute to Punk and to The Great Gatsby, the picture of the moment!  A million different things and sensations and people.  And afterwards, a lot of envy, which produces bad feelings...  An invitation to this party is difficult to obtain. So people deride it.  Until they get invited...maybe the Met Gala is like a drug and Gwyneth wants to de-tox.  So, Little Missy wagers that even if Gwyneth, my fellow blogger, skips out next year, she'll be back the year after!  She'll have to!  It's the Party of the Year!  Even Gwyneth isn't above it! 

 

 

 

 

 Photographer Frederic Aranda was a hit with the Fanning sisters 

 

 

My companion for the Gala, Frederic Aranda and I are certainly not above the Met Gala! We had fun!  We had the opportunities to greet our idols, Freddie to greet the incomparable Bill Cunningham and I to greet the well, incomparable Vivienne Westwood. What else are you supposed to do at a Gala?  Stay home if you don't like it!  That is if you are lucky enough to get invited!  Be in the moment, my friends! Because the moments go fast...

 

 

 

 Small world---I sat with this girl at the Met Gala and then at the Hillary Gala in LA two nights later! 











 

Now we are in Los Angeles, and it is a brisk overcast afternoon, and Joni Binder and I are getting our makeup done for the Pacific Council on International Policy Gala, honoring Hillary Clinton!  Joni, my powerhouse friend, is a member!  I am her guest!  Tone it down, Little Missy!  so...I wore a Rodarte gown, to show the California colors!  And a girl I sat next to at the Met Gala sat at my table at this Gala!  How random is that?  Galas galore!  Kind of a small world!  But kind of not!  Hillary was inspiring.  She spoke graciously about Warren Christopher and his career and his impact on her.

 

This is the gown I wore, except this shot is from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Auction

 

 The Council's Warren Christopher Public Service Award went to my beloved Hillary, and who else should it have gone to?  Hello!  No pictures allowed, as it was a Secret Service kind of event.  Very special and very powerful.  I love Los Angeles political events--because LA is such an entertainment town, it makes politics feel special, imbued with a kind of crystalline glamour.  I hope Little Missy isn't rocking the precious language too much here...what I am trying to say is that Los Angeles just knows how to do events.  It's more laid back than New York because of the Weather!  And don't Los Angelenos know it!  Little Missy does not like cold weather, so let the people in LA talk all they want about their  beautiful weather.  Just as long as they keep supporting Hillary Clinton!

 

Well, that's Galarama!  Little Missy will have to work hard to come up with something to top this week!  Galarama all weekend my friends.  Rock it dressy or rock it casual!  But rock it while you can!  In the moment, my friends.  In the moment.



Happy May Day.  It's All About Desire

1 May 2013

 

 

 

Lilies of The Valley

 

 

It's May Day!  The Roman celebration of Flora! Was Botticelli's Flora pregnant?  Do we care?

 



 From Botticelli's Primavera

 

The Cruelest Month is history and now Spring is here for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere.  Let's talk about fashion and the stuff we want to wear this season!  To Igor, who writes in that Little Missy Chronicles are brainless and contribute nothing to society (nothing to society?  What?  Hello, Igor, what planet are you on?) let me just inform you Mr. Igor that Little Missy plans to be at the ground breaking ceremony at Stanford Hospital this afternoon with all the other brain surgeons!  But don't worry,  dear readers, we are not going to be talking about That this morning!  We are going to be talking about who and what inspires us on May Day!

 

 

Kate Moss--is she a Bad Girl?  Do we care?

 

Just keep rocking the Rodarte, Kate

 

 

 

Rock these looks and you will not have any competition.

 

Not that we're competitive. 

 

May is Gala month.  There are so many galas all over the country that Little Missy is having to go back on her health advice to stay away from airports!  But don't count on Little Missy to wear Oscar de la Renta or Marchesa or Carolina Herrera or whoever to these galas.  Having said that, Mr. de la Renta is a gentleman of the highest water, and we love the way Georgina Chapman looks when she wears her Marchesa line.  And of course Carolina is a divine and great lady who gives the best advice!  She says your waist should be the same size as your head! Is that genius or what?  I will feel very comfortable with those brain surgeons this afternoon at Stanford!

 

It is said in Chinese culture that if you save a dragonfly, you will have a long life.

                

 

Little Missy guesses you would save this JAR dragonfly.  Not that we're superficial.  We're uncompromising!

 

Wear on aura tout vu's Cosmic Beetle and you will fry the Brain Surgeons!

 

 Can you imagine wearing on aura tout vu's Cosmic Beetle Body Suit to the Ground Breaking Ceremony at Stanford this afternoon?  It would be so good for all those doctors and administrators and donors!  They could tsk tsk tsk all they wanted to and go crazy with desire!  And what is Spring about if not desire?  



Happy Earth Day!  Little Missy Dreams in Green

22 April 2013

 

Konstantino Green Prasiolite Ring

 

The name Prasiolite is derived from the Greek-- πράσον prason-- meaning "leek" and λίθο--lithos-meaning "stone." This means that "prasiolite" literally means "scallion green-coloured stone."   And don't think for one moment that Little Missy actually knew this off the top of her head!  She looked it up on Google!  But knew a scallion coloured stone when she saw one!  How green it THAT?  Plus I have ordered one for myself, I like it so much!  And Konstantino is Greek!  Full circle!  Full stop!

 

 

A green house in London

 

Who wouldn't want this green house in London?  I mean if you have stuck with Little Missy this far, you probably love London and beautiful architecture too!  And maybe just MAYBE if I got lucky enough to have a green house in London, Doug Aitken could come over from LA and drill a big hole in the floor for an art installation!  Kind of like he did at the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park!  Then I could grow some more plants that don't need light!  Like mushrooms!



 

 

 

Topiaries

 

What can we say about topiaries that hasn't already been said?  Humans way of taming nature, Western Bonzai.



 

Alexander McQueen Taffeta Gown

 

We all know now how important it is to recycle our clothes--vintage is just about the most major sub-industry in fashion.  And how lucky would you have been if you had had the foresight to collect this amazing McQueen green and taffeta gown?  Then you could be wearing it today, proud and green!

 

 

Isis in the Serpentine at Hyde Park, London

 

Isis is more than the beautiful yellow lab of Lord Grantham from Downton Abbey. Isis is the Greek goddess who is worshipped as the ideal mother, wife and protector of children and the dead. There are rings with plaques around this beautiful representation of Isis in Hyde Park and I have one for my children Alexandra and Michael and me.  Mother and children.  The earth.  Our Mother.  Little Missy very misty eyed at the moment.  Our old gardener Cesar is 60 years old today.  Happy birthday, Cesar!  Happy Earth Day Everyone!  Little Missy remembers back in the sixties when certain people in America thought Earth Day was a Communist plot.  How far we have come!  Rejoice and renewal!

 

 





20 April 2013

Let's Gossip!  Belle of the Ball Meets the New Girls in Town!

                                              Where are you Yves?  I miss you so much

This past week I had the pleasure of hearing a great discussion between Randi Zuckerberg and Christine Martinez, two of the most prominent Silicon Valley women I have recently met.  Randi probably needs little introduction--she is the glamorous slightly older sister of Mark.  Believe me, she's not wearing any hoodie.  She thinks people in Palo Alto look homeless!  And of course Little Missy agrees!  Randi and I go to the same hair salon and she admired my Stella McCartney bag so much she got one for her mom, Karen.

                                                        I hope this isn't a Mom Bag!

Little Missy is always flattered when others like my stuff, especially taste makers like Randi Zuckerberg.  She sure got all the glamour and charisma in that family, and she enjoys pretty clothes, like long black gowns that show off her figure and flowing black hair.  And I know all about her hair because I watch her getting it blown out and I would just like to have a tenth of it. She is stunning and it doesn't really matter what she does as far as I'm concerned because she is doing the most important thing in my neighbourhood, that is to say rocking the good looks and keeping up the standard!  Actually Randi has a social media group called  RtoZ Media and she is coming out with a new book in November.  Plus she has a young son!  Talk about a Virtual Powerhouse!  Then there's Christine Martinez. Believe me,  Little Missy really admires this Virtual Woman!  She is the Queen of Pinterest!  I guess that means she's learned how to make money doing the stuff I do to while the time away!  And she was wearing white and silver sequin trousers and really rocking them!  She has the most followers ever on Pinterest and it's her job to create boards for her followers to enjoy!  Nice work if you can get it!  And these girls are so down to earth!  Kind of!  I mean they didn't strike me as too demanding or nutty or anything. Pretty normal.  They both spend all their time on line and advise not taking a long distance phone plan when travelling so you can be cut off and get back to yourself.  And Randi loves apps.  But Christine doesn't.  But that's because Christine doesn't have kids (yet, she says).  Because Randi says that when your toddler is screaming on the plane, you will do anything to quiet him or her, and that involves buying an app.  In the old days a million years ago in the eighties, we just had to suck it up!  Little Missy is here to say sucking it up is overrated!  Bring on those toddler approved apps!

Of course Little Missy loves these new Virtual Women!  That's because I have BEEN one, since back in the seventies.  Hello!  Imagine Little Missy watched tournaments against Belle, the early computer chess program produced by Bell Labs!  I even had a little pre-laptop chess board for a few nights in my New York apartment!  Now I'm hearing about people playing Scrabble on Facebook. That's not geeky!  That's dorky!  Even though I love my Scrabble friends!  They just didn't know Belle!  Little Missy was into Punk AND Geek!  What a combo!  Still going strong!  Good call someone!  Just lucky to have been in the moment.  YSL, computer chess and the Ramones! Little Missy dreams that Yves Saint Laurent comes back to life as himself in 1975 and he gives me a big hug and tells me everything will be OK.  Because sometimes we just have to wonder!

                                           YSL Tuxedo Look was a Little Missy Moment
Anyway, Randi and Christine are inspirations.  They are doing exactly what they want to be doing, and they are both glowing with a sense of happiness and confidence.  Very Little Missy.  Be in the moment, not of the moment.  Yes, it's true, they may have had some advantages, but Randi and Christine grabbed hold and took off in the moment.  Plus they are super cute, and we love that!  Pinterest and apps!  The social media!  What is not to love!

 Advice from An Older Woman, Taxes and Gluten Free Diets
12 April 2013

                        Of course I know how to dress for a barbecue.  Photograph by Frederic Aranda

Little Missy has been invited to a barbecue in a suburban yet nautical minded town!  Or island.  I have no idea what to wear!  I know that my Margaret Mead around the world safari ensembles (khaki pants,  denim shirt, straw hat and  cardigan wrapped over my shoulders) will not cut it in this venue. So I have turned to the one whose fashion advice I most admire, my mother. This was her response and I think it qualifies as tough love and I quote: "Well, whatever you do, don't overdress.  No Chanel.  Do you have crisp white jeans, a crisp white shirt and a navy pullover?  Deck shoes? I didn't think so!  The idea is to be liked, and no one likes overdressed at a barbecue". Well... I want to be liked, but the fact is I have been going to more couture shows than barbecues over the past few years and my wardrobe is a little thin in the casual department.  So I took my self down to Neiman Marcus in Palo Alto to hunt down white Capri pants (my compromise).  My saleslady, the ultra gorgeous Irina greeted me and said, "How do you do it?  You look like you're about fifteen".  She is my favourite saleslady!  And I value her opinion! Duh! But she was busy with a client, so I found some white Capri style jeans by Elie Tahari. The last pair!  The store is now sold out on white Capri pants!  Spring is here!  I went back home and found a navy cotton long sleeved Valentino pullover with a Chantilly lace yoke and embroidered navy Swiss dots allover the front.  And as far as the deck shoes go, forget it!  Little Missy does not do deck shoes!  Hello!  I will be wearing black Chantilly lace Valentino espadrilles and if the other people don't like me for what I am wearing, well, at least I tried!  But there is the other side of the coin that they may like me no matter what I wear!  Which isn't cutting to chase for a fashion person.
And speaking of torment, what about TAXES?  Isn't that just about the biggest brain fry on earth?  Even though we understand them rationally and that we know it is our duty, Good God!  Did you know that more than a third of the American population Like doing their taxes?  I heard that on Marketplace, my favourite radio show!  Yes!  Little Missy loves Marketplace and loves the host, Kai Ryssdal, and he was the one who said a third of Americans like doing their taxes!  And he says he hates doing his taxes too!
So now for the other current torment, Gluten free!  Who came up with this torture?

 

Even Little Missy can whip up a darned good Spaghetti Bolognese

 I cannot imagine a day in my life without carbs!  I know and I understand it doesn't work for some people, but I would rather DIE than not be able to eat pasta.  It's like sex! It can even be great cold!  I saw a great looking man I know recently and he looked very fit.  I asked him his secret and he said "Gluten free".  Oh Lord, I just wanted to burst into tears!  "But do you eat pasta"? I gasped.  "Only infrequently, and it has to be Very Good Pasta. It has to be Home Made".  Between taxes and all this nonsense about Gluten free and my worries about how to dress for a barbecue, I am drowning my sorrows in bites of salted chocolate.  Then I'll go for a walk. It will lift my spirits! I love California in the spring!  And tonight I will be having home made Chicken Mole with rice.  Enjoy your weekends, live, laugh and love!  In the moment, whenever possible!  Little Missy knows it's tough out there.  Be here now.

 

What Is A Bitch and Little Missy's Mail Bag
5 April 2013

Little Missy Stands in front of Gu Wenda's united nations--babel of the millennium, a 1999 installation at SFMOMA made from human hair, rope and glue. Photo by Drew Altizer. And no animals were hurt during this installation.  Does this make me a bitch?  I guess so!


The most exciting thing happened!  Little Missy received an email from an unknown reader with a question regarding something from last week's posting.  I am so thrilled that I almost cannot wait to write about it, but perseverance, patience and that most difficult and often most boring thing of all, self discipline, compel me to save it until the end. 
What is a bitch?  I am so sick of this word, always used to describe awful women, overbearing queens and worst of all, successful women who have opinions and aren't afraid to show their intelligence. "When a man gives his opinion he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion she's a bitch".  Most of us are familiar with this Bette Davis genius quote.  Why is it this way?  I don't know, but it Bette-ah change, because I am praying by that I mean almost literally, that the biggest bitch of us all, the one and only Hillary Clinton, runs for president.  If Hillary does not run for president, this bitch, Yours Truly Little Missy, is...well...I don't know what I would do because the thought of Hillary not running for president and winning is unthinkable.  Bitch is an ugly word unless you a referring to a female dog and it should be struck from our vocabulary.  So we are never using this word again.  We are strong and positive and we stand beside strong and positive people who will then stand beside us.  We are all one.
  

Little Missy may yet find it in herself to like the red white and blue combo

 

Now it's time for Little Missy's Mail Bag.  I swear if one of you jokesters sent this in as a prank, I don't care because you rocked my day!  I received an email from an unknown address.  "Dear Little Missy" it read, "Do Jawbone bracelets count sex as steps in their calculations?"  Goodness gracious!  How would I know?  So I corresponded with the one doctor I know who would be cool enough to know, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, not the esteemed Sanjay Gupta of CNN fame but Sanjay Gupta of Harley Street, London.  He has a practise that is so cognoscenti you practically have to have a code word to get in, and that code word is money.  But I met Dr. Gupta and his lovely wife in a castle in the Himalayas, so I am not surprised.  "Dear Christine", he wrote, "I love the way you cut to the chase, even though we have not corresponded since our splendid New Year's Eve dinner at Kitchener's."  I think by Kitchener's, Sanjay is surely referring to the castle where we met, which was once owned by Lord Kitchener.  Talk about cognoscenti!  "It doesn't surprise me that you would be on to the UP Jawbone bracelet, and Lila and I wear them ourselves.  And we do agree with you Christine, the blue is much more acceptable than the black or the other colours.  But dear Christine, you must tell your correspondent that the UP Jawbone only tracks actual steps, so unless the sex involves walking or running, it will not be tallied into the daily calculation".  So sorry!  You still have to walk or jog or move around quickly to get those 10,000 steps.  So get out there this weekend and smell the air, the flowers and be one with nature.  To move toward the future, you must live in the present.  Hillary can use that one if she wishes!