Saturday May 17, 2008
Latest Columns 
I want to ride ma bicyclette
Published: Saturday, May 17, 2008 12:00 AM Page L3
Paris is like a bicycle: old-fashioned yet modern, modest but pleasurable, classic and trendy and as clean as it is well-engineered. And like a good bike ride, a holiday in Paris is an instant crowd-pleaser for those who can manage it. The simple fact of doing it can't help but make you smile.
The new word in style: kluge
Published: Saturday, May 10, 2008 12:00 AM Page L3
My two favourite pairs of shoes remind me of my new favourite word: kluge. Definition: (klooj) noun slang; a clumsy or inelegant solution to a problem.In his new book on the same subject, Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind, psychology professor Gary Marcus explores the idea that our brains, while efficient in some ways, are ultimately clumsy in their reasoning - the functional but inefficient result of leftover evolutionary tics.
Waiting lists are for suckers
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Online Edition: Saturday, May 3, 2008 03:09 PM
'The Formula' for nabbing a Birkin
Waiting lists are for suckers
Published: Saturday, May 3, 2008 12:00 AM Page L3
Earlier this year, I had my first-ever celebrity-bag sighting. I was eating lunch alone at an overpriced hotel when a cosmetically altered matron of indeterminate years pulled up a stool beside me, ordered a $22 glass of champagne and placed her black crocodile Birkin bag on the bar for all to see.
A deeply rooted friendship comes to an end
Published: Saturday, April 26, 2008 12:00 AM Page L3
As soon as I saw the tree, I knew I had to have her. She was a beauty - a handsome old lady of the Norway maple variety, brown-barked, thick of trunk and 20 metres high if she was a decametre. Without a second thought, I offered up all the cash I had and then some to become the proud (read: bank indebted) owner of a mature maple tree. The small house behind her on the lot was an extra bonus. Just think: I could live in that house and stare out the window at my tree all day. What an investment!
No, I don't do that for money. But thanks for asking
Published: Saturday, April 19, 2008 12:00 AM Page L3
In high school, I wore fishnet stockings. It wasn't the fetish appeal I was after, but the imaginary punk rock street cred. I loved the image of myself shivering on the corner, ciggy between my knuckles, skinny knees knocking over cherry Docs, conjuring the streetcar.
The unbearable lightness of literary It Girls
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Online Edition: Saturday, April 12, 2008 02:07 PM
There's one thing New York has been spitting out with admirable consistency for well over a century: the It Girl
The unbearable lightness of literary It Girls
Published: Saturday, April 12, 2008 12:00 AM Page L3
Unless you count cupcakes, condos and corporate bankruptcy, not much is manufactured on the island of Manhattan these days. But there is one thing New York has been spitting out with admirable consistency for well over a century: the It Girl.
So apparently no one is reading this newspaper right now
Published: Saturday, April 5, 2008 12:00 AM Page L3
I like a lot of stuff no one else does. This list includes, but is not limited to, reading books, buying the newspaper, cooking food, walking, talking and, ideally, doing all of the above in person with people I like.
Women of flint: This is your moment
Published: Saturday, March 29, 2008 12:00 AM Page L3
Women readers: Do you ever wake up thoroughly irritated to be female? I do. About once a week. Ask me the reason and I'm liable to snap your head off with a cheery non-sequitur like, ''Would it kill you to put your dirty mug in the dishwasher?'' or ''Screw this stupid cheap-ass flatiron!''
