Recommended Reading and the Week in Review
The New York Times Magazine this weekend has a fascinating story on one man’s search for information on two female blues singers of the 1930s: Elvie Thomas and Geeshie Wiley. There are fewer than 10...
View ArticleBe Specific About What You Wish For
People always say, “Be careful what you wish for.” Having read a lot of fantasy and magic-land-type books as a child, I’ve always thought there should be follow-up warning: “Be specific about what you...
View ArticleNever Is the Next New Thing™: My Bio and Columbia Spectator
If you’ve read my blog for a while — or simply looked at my header — you know that my personal (trademarked!) adage is “Never Is the Next New Thing™.” It started out as a 2010 observation about fashion...
View ArticleThe Weeks in Review
The past two weeks have been wild around here! The big news was the announcement that the Columbia Daily Spectator — the undergraduate newspaper of my alma mater, Columbia University — would focus on...
View ArticleJill Abramson Out at New York Times; Cue My Side-Eye
If you’ve been on Twitter today, you already know it: This afternoon, the New York Times reported that Jill Abramson, its executive editor, “is unexpectedly leaving the position and will be replaced by...
View ArticleHot Earring Trends in the Mainstream Media
Last year, I wrote a Huffington Post story called, “Not So Fast There! The Surprisingly Long Life of Fashion Trends,” in which I observed that fashion trends don’t come and go as quickly as we think...
View ArticleBuying Fine Jewelry Online
Folks often ask me, “Do people REALLY buy fine jewelry online?” And I answer, “Hell, yeah!” As a matter of fact, online sales are what have kept my business going since 2005. For more stories about...
View ArticleA Man and His Cat … and His Birthday
A couple of weeks ago, the New York Times published an amusing piece by Tim Kreider called, “A Man and His Cat.” It’s about being a Crazy Cat Guy, which Kreider was, even if, unlike me, he didn’t post...
View ArticleWendy Brandes Jewelry in the New York Post
If you’re in New York, run to the nearest newsstand and get the New York Post. Today’s edition includes the Post’s Alexa luxury supplement, and my Empress Wu dragon earrings are featured in Alexa! I’m...
View ArticleBeing Ugly at 40?
Several people have pointed this out to me: On September 19, the Washington Post’s PostEverything section had a rather depressing essay by Sonia Greenfield titled, “Being 40 has totally changed how I...
View ArticleRecommended Reading From the Weekend Newspapers
Several newspaper articles this weekend struck a chord with me. In the New York Times magazine, David Amsden wrote about New Orleans-born John Cummings, a white 77-year-old “trial lawyer who has...
View ArticleThings I’ve Read: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Several recent articles have grabbed my attention for various reasons — sometimes, unpleasant reasons. Starting out on the bright side, I enjoyed the Wall Street Journal’s story about how Janis Joplin...
View ArticleRecommended Reading: Ketzel the Composing Cat
I’ve written before that the most beneficial way to read a newspaper is in its print form, even though it’s not always beneficial for newspapers to continue to produce a print edition these days. But...
View ArticleThrowback Thursday: My Big-Hoop-Earring Prediction
Last year, I declared that big hoop earrings were due for a comeback after the fashion-world frenzy for ear cuffs, ear climbers, earring jackets, “front-back” earrings and mismatched studs. About the...
View ArticleYou Might Literally Die If You Miss My Jewelry Sale
If you missed Jessica Bennett’s recent New York Times story on the latest developments in Internet-speak, you better read it if you ever hope to communicate with me again. Srsly, the new jargon is so...
View ArticleRecommended Reading and Week in Review
While sitting in a waiting room early this month, I dug through the pile of old magazines until I found an October Rolling Stone with Keith Richards on the cover. Later that night, at a holiday party,...
View ArticleThrowback Thursday: Daisies and Dave Stewart
Erica M. Blumenthal, writing for the New York Times Thursday Styles section, has declared that this is the year of the daisy: “Expect a floral explosion as spring fashion starts to arrive in stores,...
View ArticleRecommended Reading: “Last Men Standing”
George Michael’s quote in yesterday’s post about “the years when HIV was a killer” reminded me that I’ve been meaning to share the San Francisco Chronicle’s “Last Men Standing” project. The Chronicle...
View ArticleRecommended Reading: Painkillers and Prince
The Los Angeles Times has published a must-read story about how the promotion of OxyContin helped set off the prescription opioid epidemic in the U.S. The investigation by Harriet Ryan, Lisa Girion and...
View ArticleRecommended Reading
Yesterday, the New York Times published a fascinating story by Ellen Barry on young rural women in India who are recruited to move to Bangalore to work in factories. There, the women — some of them...
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