• Hello, Columbus
    It could be the best brand makeover I've seen since I first discovered Columbus Circle (by mistake.) As teenagers, my friends and I would take the bus from New Jersey into the "city." And if we ever ventured into that weirdly gray, dirty and dangerous end of the world flanking Midtown and the Upper West Side, we'd try to hotfoot it past its decrepit centerpiece, the Coliseum. I never once thought about the marble statue standing atop a 60-foot granite column in the middle of the (once grand?) traffic circle. (Kind of like the old joke, "Who is buried in …
  • The Apple Parallel
    He was a college dropout, obsessed with product design and patenting pocket inventions. A visionary and perfectionist with sophisticated tastes, he lived to invent covetable products that would not only change the world, but were also beautiful to look at and easy-to-use.
  • Here Comes History
    Sisterhood Is Powerful" was the title of a book of feminist essays published in 1970, and the phrase became a theme line, with marching orders, for the women's movement that followed. It meant that anything was possible, and that women could really help each other transform their roles and the culture. Amazingly, 42 years later, after all that feminist politicking -- not wanting to be objectified here, and demanding equal rights there -- who could have predicted that the sisters who are powerful now are the Kardashians?
  • Huh? Man From Hope Is The White-Haired Savior For Both Parties
    Remember The Man from Glad? He was the white-haired guy in the trench coat who, in those old commercials for Glad Plastic Wrap, would descend from the sky by glider or air pontoon, touching down in various suburban American backyards. Then he'd head for a kitchen, to take command of some agitated housewife's food storage problems. Some 45 years later, one of the marvels of this year's presidential election is that both parties are currently looking to the heavens, conjuring up a controversial -- but still-commanding -- white-haired savior to star in their ads: The Man from Hope. Yup, strange …
  • Mitt, Barack And The Persuadables
    People tend to complain about being bombarded with nasty advertising during presidential elections, and fighting dirty has been a staple of the cycle since way before Nixon was the one. But this year's crop of political ads seems to be the grimmest yet. Talk about Mourning Again in America: yes, I'm mourning TV spots that actually contain the spark of an idea (never mind soaring rhetoric and visuals!) and some decent art direction.
  • Helen Gurley Brown: Polarizing Mix Of 'Mad Men''s Peggy And Joan
    Helen Gurley Brown died Monday, at 90, "though parts of her were considerably younger," as "The New York Times" obit snarked. Even in death, she is a polarizing figure who created a huge cultural cleavage, if you will: On the one hand, she's seen as a sexual liberator and trailblazer, who, with "Sex and the Single Girl," changed social mores, championing the idea that single women should enjoy sex and careers without benefit of a wedding ring. On the other, she is scorned for the anti-feminist sensibility that "Cosmopolitan" magazine has wrought.
  • Olympics Bring Out Our Own Brand Of Weird 'Jingoism'
    "I am unable to watch the Olympics due to the blustering jingoism that drenches the event. Has England ever been quite so foul with patriotism?" The outraged quotation sounds as if it came from some 19th-century British dandy, but it was actually written by Morrissey, the Smiths singer and lyricist, who posted it last week to his Web page wall.
  • Coffee Vs. Chicken: Nation Divides Along Culinary Lines
    It was only four years ago to the day -- August 1, 2012 -- that the Great Culture Wars started. Fast-food companies inflamed the passions and imaginations of Americans the way no political party at the time could, bringing far-worse consequences for the country than anyone could have predicted.
  • The Emancipation Of Mimi
    Last Sunday night, at a time when the grim and devastating news of the Colorado shootings was still emerging, the final, two-hour episode of "The Bachelorette" aired, and won the night's ratings for ABC.
  • Sex And Death
    Recently on "The Real Housewives of New York City," (please don't run away -- this is just a hook to allow for a few belated "Mad Men" musings!) the "girls" were filmed on a "getaway" to London. This included the activity (not-at-all-contrived!) of sitting around in their luxury hotel suite, tipsy from wine, answering personal questions about sex as part of a card game. One such query was on the order of "If you could get any wish you wanted granted by sleeping with someone, would you?" It made me think of Joan -- poor, now rich, Joan from "Mad …
« Previous EntriesNext Entries »