When you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.
Vogue’s laying off Sec. of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on her fashion sense. Finally.
How long, o, Lord, how long will we continue to judge powerful women by the threads they wear? And when — d’ya think — will we apply that same standard to, say, V.P. Joe Biden?
Dating Jesus 
I’m one of those few women who feels much more comfortable and feminine in pants than I do in dresses and skirts. And I love HRC for that.
Not all of us are leggy, small-waisted and “hippy” enough to fit well in dresses and pencil skirts, so hopefully fashionistas will live and let live, k?
This really happened to me today: I don’t wear skirts very often because I just don’t, but today I did because I went to talk about “Dating Jesus” at a local college that was at least tangentially at one point attached to the Catholic church. I have a hurt foot and the only shoes that don’t kill me are pretty serious oxfords. For some reason, I wore a skirt and dark hose and so I look like — you got it — a nun only partially removed from my habit. So I get out of my car kind of laughing at myself and hobbling toward the library where I’m supposed to talk, and a nice college student said, “Good afternoon, siser,” and I — what the hell — answered “Good afternoon and God bless!” I mean, wouldn’t you? All day long people have told me the shoes are just wrong with this skirt, like I didn’t know that already, like I brought an auxiliary pair with me just in case. So much for fashionistas. Today? You fashionistas can kiss my big one.
Love,
Susan C.
To make it worse, I have a fashionista for a mom.
In very conservative, highbrow Southern Nigeria, she was a breath of fresh air to all my elementary school classmates. We were around the age where they loved playing in makeup and started reading fashion mags, and everyone wanted my mother as theirs. I said then, and even now “You can have her”.
The woman was like “Wear this, wear that”. Even when I bought my first dress in years a couple of months ago, she wanted to make sure I accessorized the way she wanted. I barely wore what she recommended.
I’m a dark hose wearer myself when the rare skirt comes up. :P Sorry, but shapeless legs + rugby scars + a big fat keloid are not to be seen.
I have a really wicked scar on one knee from reconstructive surgery that didn’t really take too well. I’m actually kind of proud of that scar.
You lived through something! Even better! Is it a little Frankenstein-like? I’ve got a couple ugly ones from my hip surgery (still can see the suture scars, too) but hopefully they’ll fade.
I like having scars where everyone can enjoy them. I’d have a hard time showing ones on my hip, though.
True. They’ll be visible with a bathing suit, but I’d look pretty silly dashing around in one this time of year.
Not if you be sure to wear your fur coat over it!
Ah-ha! Now I don’t have to ponder over what to wear tomorrow!
Drop by and you can borrow my pearls.
Perfect! But no heels! Will flip flops work with that outfit?
Absolutely.
I won’t be borrowing the pearls today. I just remembered the furnace guy and the appliance guy are dropping by to do some work today adn so I’ll go with jeans and a t-shirt. I think we already had a conversation about flirting to get a good deal in those instances and I wouldn’t want to be accused of that since I’m trying hard to become more of a feminist.
Sister Susan – That just cracked me up!
And bless you, my daughter. This is actually a switch for me. Usually, people think I’m a teacher/librarian type. First time I’ve ever been accused of being holy.
neu, I think it’s awesome that you have rugby scars!
I prefer pants to skirts or dresses any day and avoid heels whenever I can.
Lol, Jac. There are some scars that will never fade. Have some from soccer too.
Good to know I’m not alone wearing pants.
Pants are just more comfortable, unless the skirt’s grandma-long.
I’ve got a stiff shoulder – old football injury. My best scars are on my head so my hair, thankfully, covers them. Scars are cool – it means you did something or made the play…or tried to or something like that. Well, they’re just cool in my book.
I like scars too. I’ve always thought I was weird for that. I like Tina Fey’s scar and I LOVE Mary J Blige’s.
Mary J. Blige just wears hers, doesn’t she?
Ditto on Mary J Blige. It reminds of her bravery.
“Sorry, but shapeless legs + rugby scars + a big fat keloid are not to be seen.”
Rugby scars=rugby muscles. Be proud.
And rugy tough. I tried playing precisely once and got my teeth handed to me. And I am not a delicate flower.
LOL at the description of the outfit and the reactions!
I haven’t worn a skirt or a dress in over 4 years, with the exception of a friend’s wedding reception. I frequently have to crawl under a desk to get at someone’s computer, and a dress or a skirt just doesn’t work. I sure hope I’m not still doing this when I’m 72.
When I’m 72 I’m wearing purple mini-skirts and spending my free time throwing rocks at neighborhood children. I actually like children, but I like throwing rocks better.
DJ: “First time I’ve ever been accused of being holy.”
Love this song and thank you.
In the “Take Time to be Holy” video, they sing only selected verses. There’s a verse starting with “Shun evil companions, bad language disdain; God’s name hold in rev’rence, nor take it in vail. Fight manfully onward, dark passions subdue; Look ever to Jesus—he will carry you through.”
I think I learned this song the summer I worked in a Babdist camp on the Connecticut shore, my summer between high school and college. That would have been 1960. Even then, I thought that the song was so Puritanical that it was funny.
Isn’t it? I remember singing that verse, and kind of rolling my eyes. But the harmony is pretty. I used to sing this with my brother.
The first time I glanced at this, I read “Shun evil corporations…”
Are you old enough to remember “backmasking?” It’s in code!
Susan,
Wow, you are truly a Renaissance woman! You are an author, a Pulitzer Prize winner, the Queen of Fear, itself, a Communist…opps I meant columnist…now we discover that you are posing as a nun!
It’s been far too long since my last confession ( I am Republican…so what could I possibly have to confess) so I wondering if you (in your nun outfit) could hear my confession? Trust me there’s nothing too egregious…are thougths of throwing a cream pie at Nancy Pelosi, unplugging Obama’s teleprompter, and calling Robert Gibbs a big, fat liar really all that bad?
I am wearing a different outfit today, but yes, my son. I will listen to your confession — and then I’ll post every stinkin’, gory detail ratchere. (“Right here” in hillbilly.) You big sinner.
AHHHHH…Sister Susan, you seem to have this big ol sinner dead to rights!
Sister Susan, I used to be such a fine and repectable person, then things changed…since Jan 21 of this year I have become cynical, angry, upset, and very concerned about the direction of our once great country! I am thinking this sinner is going to need more than the three to five minute confession time to get this confessional done!
Bring your best and biggest Acts of Contrition book ratchere, I am going to need it!
Well, hell, now I have to go look up Acts of Contrition, being as how I’m new to Catholic nunnery.
Sister Susan,
Are nuns (even fake ones) allowed to say “hell?”
Oh, hell, yeah.
Isn’t it funny how all these fine upstanding, freedom-loving patriots slept through the 8 years of the Bush II regime–while the Ruling Elite invaded 1 countries and raided the US Treasury to line the pockets of their pals–and they only just woke up on 1/20/09 when the Democrats took back the White House and the Congress?
“Hell” is a perfectly good theological word, as well as the name of a small town in Michigan.