No Wonder

As Americans, we are obese and unhealthy. This is an interesting experiment.

The realities of feeding oneself on just $1 per day illustrates a vicious cycle: If you're too poor to afford fresh fruits and vegetables on a regular basis, there's absolutely no way you'll be able to maintain your health.

Affordable, fresh food. We ship it in from every other country and ship out our own produce.

Salmon caught in the U.S. is processed in China before it hops a flight back to end up in your neighborhood supermarket.

Our food supply had just turned wrong-wrong-wrong. Wasteful, inefficient and wrong.

You, Sarah Palin, are No Tina Fey

Much has been made of Sarah Palin's presentation, specifically, her glammed-up look... and what she calls her "librarian glasses."

Since seventh grade, I've worn eyeglasses. And as family photos prove, in various forms: my own frames have ranged from super-sized 80s goggles rendered in mauve plastic to my favorite current pair of rectangular ones by Face A Face, tortoise fronts with oversized striped temples.

Those rimless frames, I do not understand. They strike me as frames for people who don't want to look like they're wearing glasses - but I know some stylish people who have interesting versions.

But for styles like Sara Palin's, I just think they look strange in photographs and on TV, with that floating temple hanging off the ears, and a bridge suspended mid-air, balanced over the nose.

A full frame is more in keeping with the librarian theme - the kind that are actually sported by Tina Fey.

[And now I'm kicking off my heels and climbing up onto the soapbox:]
Can we please stop it, already, with all these comparisons of Sarah Palin to Tina Fey?

How lame are the Daily Show dudes - whose Democratic and Republican convention coverage was otherwise spectacularly funny - when they mash up the words brunette and glasses and decide that makes the two women doppelgangers?!

There's just no comparison.

Aside from the outspoken Democrat position, not only does Tina Fey not have the same temperament - political or otherwise - as Ms. Palin (um, hello? Tina supported Hillary), I'd also like to point out that she wears real eyeglasses.

Brooching the Subject

Often when I see women sporting brooches, the look is kind of old-school, school-marmish, or a throwback to the late 80s linebacker-shouldered power-suit days.

Or they're little itty-bitty things, like barely a commitment to wearing jewelry.

But Michelle Obama's brooches during the Democratic National Convention gave a nod to fashion, a certain kind of style sense, one that I can't quite put my finger on.

The starburst speech on her teal dress added to her radiance during her speech. Brooches lined the neck of her fuchsia and black Thakoon dress on the night Barack gave his address.

Clearly, whether she's styling herself, or someone else is providing advice, keeping the fancy framing her face is a great tactic; every closeup shot of her applauding caught site of the sparkle, which was just enough, very chic and not at all over the top.

She's like her own assemblage of a Thousand Points of Light with those brooches, turning heads and laying claim to a style all her own.