If You Can Find It

Introducing the World's Most Complicated Top. If you can't find this blouse exactly, pick up any other equally complicated, strange, well-made tops you can get your hands on. The photos of you in such a top will be solid gold thirty years from now.

Now, on to politics. Yesterday Marshall and I read John Edwards's 2003 book Four Trials cover to cover. A great read.

Explaining the germ of his interest in the law (he's a lawyer), Edwards writes:

There were no lawyers in my extended family. There were millworkers, grocery clerks, ministers, Marines, boxers--but not lawyers. And though I barely knew Doc Smith, who was the only attorney in town, television brought all kinds of dramatic justice, and injustice too, into my small world.

As a boy I was moved, and I was shaken, by The Fugitive, that series where the wrongfully accused Dr. Richard Kimble escapes prison and roams the land in search of his wife's true killer. The show's depiction of "an immocent victim of blind justice" made a powerful impression on me, as it did on my whole family, and I remember my building fury when--week after week--no one ever bothered to take Dr. Kimble's side and make things right for him, or even try. Instead there was that constant grim detective whose only job, bakrolled by some remarkably lush federal budget, I later realized, was to find this one, single man.

Maybe we need a lawyer as our next president. One who has spent at least twenty years getting pissed off on behalf of downtrodden and abused individuals and families.

When we asked some of our friends to donate to the Edwards campaign, one friend replied, via email:

Why don't I just give my money to a chimp or a
rattlesnake?  They're about the equal of a Southern
Politician.  Oh, wait... he's a lawyer too.  Here's
your money, Spanish Wrestler, El Tigre.

So wrong! (Damn Yankees.)

In the New York Times Magazine today, Deborah Solomon interviews "hip-hop guru Russell Simmons."

Q. Are there any presidential candidates who inspire you?
I talk to John Edwards more than I talk to anyone. He has said more things about the conditions we need to think about. He went to yoga with me. He did the whole class, an hour and a half. He sweated like crazy. He's in good shape, but it was hard on him.

Roundup

What's going on at some of our favorite sites this very second?

At Electric Warrior, Raquel Laneri struggles with the frivolity of fashion: is it wrong to write about beautiful clothes, let alone buy them? "But 400 dollars for something you could wear probably every day if you wanted? That would probably last you several years? …I think it might be worth it…"

Evan Thomas announces a charity auction on eBay in support of her friend Megan, who has big medical bills from her cancer treatment. Available items include everything from a Toyota muffler to a denim purse to size-nine pink wedge heels a doll, clothes, and lots and lots of other car parts.

The Old Hag advertises a fun lit event happening tonight at the New School's Tishman Auditorium in NYC.

Garrison Keilor tells a visitor what to do while in Saint Paul.

Daniel Radosh touts The Week, which has its current issue free online.

McSweeney's has begun posting delightful entries from runners-up in its Fitzgerald writing prompt contest.

We like the voice/brain behind Sleeper, who this week sleeps outside and lives to tell all about it.

What are you cooking tonight? For inspiration, visit the Tiny Banquet Committee.

The brilliant ZP over at I Hate The New Yorker cracks up over cartoon descriptions.

The Satorialist, who photographs stylish passersby on city streets, is in Milan this week, where nobody wears jeans.

Carolita Johnson, cartoonist extraordinaire, on her latest cartoon in The New Yorker.

Bun in Oven

Today, wear a marigold yellow dress with fluttery sleeves. Pair with flats or wedges and a new necklace. As our sister reminded us today (via one of those jokey emails of Dave Barry sayings), don't say anything to indicate you think a woman is pregnant unless you actually see the baby coming out of her at that moment. Gentle readers, we know this is not groundbreaking material here. We're warming up.

Coming soon...How to beat the heat, the new "haircut," shopping smart and camping gorgeous

A Few Fashion Predictions

Dear Readers, we have not glanced at a fashion magazine in nearly two months. (We've been busy getting married.) So the following predictions are entirely the product of street observation and a tingly feeling in the back of the neck. If you trust Jeepers's hunches, you should consider doing the following soon:

1. Dye your hair an obviously fake color, like platinum or deep red or blue-black.

2. Start wearing a lot of black. Black-black. Pair with black accessories.

3. Stop spell-checking altogether.

4. Stock up on fun, chunky heels.

5. Start looking messier. (Layered, torn t-shirts, frayed hems, messy hair)

6. Wear black eyeliner, top and bottom.

7. Make a campaign contribution to John Edwards.

8. Replace your purse with a tidy, leather document bag (like an architect's bag).

Well hello there!

Jeepers's mama recently reminisced about how we used to draw rows and rows of women in big necklaces when we were little. So for old times sake...and to get the ball rolling again on this website after our long absence, voila. And how are you?