Good one-day-away-from-Friday morning (AKA, Thursday).
I have not yet seen Barbie, but given all that I’ve read about it, heard about it, and watched about it, I almost feel like I don’t need to. I don’t have anything against Barbie. Quite the contrary, I was a BIG Barbie fan when I was a kid.
I had the Barbie convertible, a whole suite of Barbie furniture – include a mirror-topped dining table that was very mod – and three or four versions of Barbie herself, along with a slew of outfits and accessories. Some of those were store-bought, but others were tailor-made by my mother or my grandmother, both of whom had learned to sew from my expert tailor grandfather.
I had a Barbie ballgown, which I think my mother made out of scraps of purple organza shot with silver, that had a matching stole. It was simply fabulous. I wish I had kept it.
I didn’t have any Kens. He never really interested me. And I almost did not have, but coveted, the Barbie Dream House, which my neighbor across the street had. We often played together, setting up elaborate Barbie make believe scenarios that lasted hours.
I never wanted to BE Barbie. I think I always knew that her proportions were ridiculous and nowhere near anything that I – a short, dark-haired Jewish girl built more like a gymnast or a swimmer than a long, lithe model-type – would ever come near achieving. (Not that anyone could, actually).
Musing over this got me thinking about role models. I didn’t really have a lot of them while I was growing up. Or rather, there weren’t a lot of women in the world who I wanted to emulate, or who I could picture fashioning myself after.
Now that I’m older, however, while there are a lot of incredible women I admire, there is one in particular who I think has really set the standard when it comes to aging – not gracefully perhaps, but in a bad-ass “I refuse to go quietly” sort of way….
Hear me out here. The woman is an octogenarian and she is flat-out fabulous. She insists that she has had no work done (believe what you will), and attributes her youthful appearance to a combination of green juice, facials, a Pilates habit, and sunblock.
She recently made history as Sports Illustrated‘s oldest swimsuit cover model. And sure, there’s lighting and editing and filters and all the rest of it, but you’ve got to admit it, the woman looked GOOD.
Martha also doesn’t take herself too seriously. Exhibit A: Her longstanding friendship and collaboration with Snoop Dogg.
I actually didn’t know too much about Martha’s life before I started Googling for this post. She grew up in New Jersey, the second of six kids, where she babysat for a number of famous baseball players, including Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra. She got her professional start as a model and also appeared in a few TV ads.
Martha learned to cook and sew from her mother, but it was her grandmother – a Buffalo resident – who taught her to can and preserve, and her grandfather who taught her to garden.
After college – she graduated from Barnard – she dabbled in stockbroking (foreshadowing!), but her real passion was for restoring the old farmhouse that she and her husband, Andrew, purchased in Westport, CT.
That farmhouse became the model for the iconic TV show Martha Stewart Living, and it was there – in the basement – that she started her catering business. She built a veritable home and hospitality empire, and her name became synonymous with a certain kind of upscale-yet-homey-chic entertaining.
She also did a short stint behind bars – not for insider trading, as many people believe – but rather for conspiracy, obstruction of justice and lying to federal investigators in March 2004. The securities fraud charge, which was related to boosting the stock of her own company, was actually dismissed.
Somehow, her brief prison stay did not break Martha, but rather somehow made her? It gave her an edge that she didn’t have before. She even joked about her experience with David Letterman in 2003, chiding him for not visiting her while she was away.
That was 20 years ago now, and she’s still going strong. In fact, today is her 82nd birthday! I hope she’s out there doing something fabulous, as usual. And I only hope to be half as fabulous as she is when I (G-d willing) make it to her age.
It’s going to be warmed today, with temperatures reaching the low 80s, and mostly cloudy skies. There will be a chance of thunderstorms later in the day, again with the chance of small hail and gusty winds. You’ve been forewarned.
In the headlines…
The Biden administration is delaying plans to restock the nation’s emergency oil reserve amid a price hike that has pushed oil above $80 a barrel.
The Energy Department canceled a planned purchase of 6 million barrels for the strategic reserve this week, saying it wants to secure a good deal for taxpayers.
Former president Barack Obama, at a private lunch with President Biden earlier this summer, voiced concern about Trump’s political strengths, underlining his worry that Trump could be a more formidable candidate than many Democrats realize.
During a trip to the White House in June, Obama reportedly made it clear to his former running mate that he was committed to doing whatever it takes to support his re-election.
The plea agreement that blew up last week during Hunter Biden’s court appearance was made public yesterday, revealing new information about the tax and gun charges involving the president’s son.
As Trump raged on social media against his Tuesday indictment, many Republicans in New York and across the nation kept mum — though the former president’s closest allies and some GOP rivals in the 2024 presidential race jumped to interject.
Trump is expected to appear at 4 p.m. today in the U.S. federal courthouse at the foot of Capitol Hill, the site of a yearslong government effort to hold accountable those who tried to subvert democracy.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr warned Republicans to “be careful” of getting caught in Trump’s “carnage,” after the property manager of his Mar-a-Lago resort was added to the classified documents case last week.
Former Vice President Mike Pence blasted Trump in clearer terms than ever before and blamed his ex-boss’ “crackpot lawyers” for concocting a plot to overturn the 2020 election.
Pence is playing an extraordinary role in a historic criminal case against his onetime benefactor and current rival, whose angry supporters once threatened the former vice president’s life.
Rudy Giuliani is Co-Conspirator 1 (there are six, all told) in the indictment that was filed this week accusing his former client, Trump, of plotting to overturn the 2020 election.
It’s not yet clear if Giuliani will face the music for his role in the alleged scheme to overturn the 2020 election, or alternately might even flip and cooperate against Trump.
Giuliani was caught on audio tape spewing vulgar comments toward a woman who has since accused him of sexual harassment and sexual abuse, according to new transcripts filed in New York Supreme Court by lawyers for his accuser.
Robert Bowers, the gunman who killed 11 worshippers and wounded six others at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 in the deadliest-ever attack on Jewish people in the United States, was unanimously sentenced to death by a federal jury.
The jurors deciding the shooter’s sentence — seven women and five men — deliberated for just over one day.
The massacre, on Oct. 27, 2018, is considered the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history, and the death sentence is the first handed down in federal court during the Biden administration.
Echoing patterns in prior years, coronavirus infections are slowly ticking up in parts of the country, the harbinger of a possible fall and winter wave.
Covid-19 hospitalizations are rising for the first time since the beginning of 2023, but public health experts and the White House appear confident the U.S. is well-positioned to manage the virus heading into the fall.
Nationwide, COVID-related hospitalizations are up 12% in the last week of available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations are rising in New York, prompting the state health commissioner on Wednesday to urge New Yorkers to get tested if they have a runny nose, headache or other symptoms.
Though infection numbers are still low compared to previous COVID-19 surges, the latest state data shows hospital admissions increased 22 percent in the last seven days compared with the previous week, according to the state Department of Health.
Gov. Kathy Hochul and Micron met to discuss local investments to meet present and future childcare needs in Central New York.
Citing new research, state Department of Health officials are urging parents and physicians to start vaccinating children against human papillomavirus at age 9 to prevent HPV-related cancers.
State Sen. Jim Tedisco called on Hochul to initiate a plan to fully reimburse local school districts for any unexpected costs associated with enrolling an influx of children of families seeking asylum in New York.
The New York State Board of Elections approved the use of a controversial touchscreen election voting system, allowing municipalities the option to use the ExpressVote XL machine.
Nearly 1,000 adult migrants have been ordered to leave city homeless shelters to make room for migrant families with children under a new policy that took effect last week, according to a top official in Mayor Eric Adams’ administration.
As migrants sleep on sidewalks outside a Midtown hotel, the city is struggling to avoid a homelessness crisis that resembles Los Angeles’s or San Francisco’s.
Adams is considering a plan to shelter migrants inside tents in Central Park and other major public green spaces — a move that would place the city’s ongoing migrant crisis front and center in the eyes of New Yorkers.
Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom skirted around whether migrant tents would be set up in Central Park, telling reporters that while there is a “constantly refreshing” list of possible sites, the situation is “at a breaking point.”
Almost every Wednesday night for the past eight months Adams has been on 34th Street near Penn Station serving food to homeless and hungry New Yorkers.
Adams declined to commit to the city’s original proposed redesign of Brooklyn’s McGuinness Boulevard at a meeting with Greenpoint parents yesterday, according to the attendees — who urged the mayor not to sacrifice safety on the deadly roadway.
The city paid big bucks for five posh, gas-guzzling new SUVs to take Adams and other top officials around town — even though the bike-boosting mayor once vowed to pedal to work “all the time.”
Tolls on MTA bridges and tunnels are set to go up just after midnight on Sunday — and the percentage amount of the hike is greater than the that planned for subway and bus fares.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined the Queens borough president, Donovan Richards, to chide the Adams administration over enforcement actions against street vendors at the bustling Corona Plaza in Queens.
Two trash cans on wheels – trash “bots” – have been roaming around Downtown Brooklyn’s Albee Square in the early afternoon for the last two weeks, going up to people as they finish their lunch to collect trash.
Beyoncé has paid tribute to the professional dancer stabbed to death at a Brooklyn gas station while voguing to her music in a suspected anti-gay hate crime.
O’Shae Sibley, a man loved for his “positive vibes” whose murder was allegedly carried out by a homophobic teen, will be remembered at a memorial Saturday that will feature voguing — the style of dance he was performing attacked.
Fernando Bustamante, the Colonie resident behind the musical persona H.B. MONTE, earned yeses across the board and an advance to the deliberation round on “America’s Got Talent” after a humorous audition, which aired Aug. 1 on NBC.
The Tri-City ValleyCats are hitting their stride entering the homestretch of their third season in the independent Frontier League, where they intend to stay through 2026.
A National Transportation Safety Board report found that the Cessna 172N that crashed on May 11 tried to take off in a tailwind without using the entire runway at the South Albany Airport.
The Albany County Land Bank is moving closer to breaking ground on a $35 million project that would add more than 100 apartments in the city’s South End.
The historic and decaying Haskell School was being torn down yesterday at a cost of at least $340,000, city officials confirmed.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Gregoire, are separating after 18 years of marriage, nearly half of them spent with him in the country’s top office.
