Three Muggings and a $100 Profit
Learning from having your adrenaline switch tested
By Susan Braudy
Thank goodness muggings are pretty much a thing of my past. Some things are getting better—a lot better—in our town. My first mugging took place at dusk on the University of Pennsylvania campus. A man pushed a wad of dollar bills into my coat pocket after showing me the top $100 bill, then invited me back to his hotel room. When I refused, he pushed me down and kicked me toward an open car door. Read more
Going Topless?
Women shouldn’t give up the mystique and power of their breasts
By Susan Braudy
Let me tell you why the accelerating—and alarming—trend that has women baring their breasts in public places other than locker rooms may turn out to be bad for us. Up until very recently, most women wore transparent fabric that beguiled, teased and almost showed a woman’s breasts.
I see this as smarter than going topless. Read more
Gloria Allred: A Fighting Spirit
The women’s rights lawyer’s autobiography leaves me feeling empowered
By Susan Braudy
I’ll stop cracking my knuckles, gentle reader, to tell you how powerful I feel after reading the inspirational page-turner Fight Back and Win by Gloria Allred, the world-changing women’s rights lawyer from California.
Your diarist is no slouch either; she has corrected history about the notorious and violent Kathy Boudin. I also changed history for six years writing and editing Ms. Magazine. Read more
The Pigeon On The Ledge
How I found a companion in the most common of places
By Susan Braudy
I run down Broadway despite the heat. I left my umbrella in a bus and I am determined to get home before the rain hits. The black cloud overhead is getting blacker. It’s four in the afternoon but it looks like early evening. Birds fly in every direction, as panicked as I am. Water plops on my head and shoulders, seconds before I reach the door of my lobby. Read more
Magic Carpet Ride
Shopping on Ambien reaps unexpected rewards
By Susan Braudy
Gentle reader, I’m a late night shopper. The computer’s a magic carpet that flies me to Osaka, Kyoto and other parts of the faraway country of Japan. I can almost hear Joe Weintraub snoring next to me as I journey. He’s thankfully unable to protest my taste in world-class designs, woven on antique silk kimono fabric. The patterned treasures I look at are “un-picked” from the kimonos by Japanese women who love the forest, Shibori and ocean wave patterns as much as I do. Read more
My Philip Roth
Laughing till I can’t breathe with the great American novelist
By Susan Braudy
Philip Roth is a street treasure. We see him strolling 57th Street and the Upper West Side. The only place to begin a short rumination about him is with a priceless quote from the greatest American novel of the last century:
“She was so deeply imbedded in my consciousness that for the first year of school I seem to have believed that each of my teachers was my mother in disguise. Read more
Thoughts on ‘The English Vice’
New York needs a more European approach when it comes to sexuality
By Susan Braudy
I recently read that Christopher Hitchens’ upcoming memoir tells of his passionate love affairs with boys in boarding school in England. No big deal for the now-married, smart-as-a-whip pundit and gray eminence.
Have we missed the boat? I think so. Read more
Gold Is Beautiful
Musing race complexities in the age of Obama
By Susan Braudy
Years ago, I took the A train to Harlem to speculate about living in a refurbished brownstone with thick walls. But that night I dreamed about losing my long view up Central Park and awoke homesick.
In Harlem, I strolled into the Studio Museum on 125th Street, one of the first to give artists workspaces. I love the hard-edged, locally-made African designs on bark cloth in the museum shop. This street pulsates like no other. Strangers laugh together. Six women teased me into buying a hat with a wire brim that the vendor twisted into every style (honestly). Back home, I couldn’t work the hat’s magic. It sulkily awaits a prince’s kiss to revive its mojo. Read more
Starbucks Sucks
Guns stink. Children kill children. Police kill innocent people who appear to be brandishing guns.
Hooray for Mayor Bloomberg, who urges our president to start enforcing gun laws. I contribute money to the Brady campaign to end gun violence. Google it.
You put guns in people’s hands, they use them. Is this somehow our Wild West fixation? Europeans know we’re crazy when it comes to guns. Why aren’t Second Amendment gun crazies strict constitutionalists when it comes to amendments guaranteeing rights for women and minorities? Read more
Behold the Humble Mutt
Who could begrudge Sadie the scottie her hotdog treat for winning Westminster this year? I think her silky coat and expressive eyebrows are spectacular.
But remember Bill Maher’s question: When will we start shooting bankers? In the same vein, I ask you, gentle reader, when will we start shooting dog breeders? Or regulating their quest for gorgeous glowing coats and facial shapes at the expense of a pup’s health and lifespan? Read more
