Ever since the presidential election of 2012, when female voters brought the win home for Barack Obama, Republicans have acknowledged that they might need help on the female sensitivity/language front. (Binders full of women joke goes here.) This week, in preparation for the 2016 election, there was another series of unfortunate incidents concerning language and women.

A film noir for the digital age: a prostitute (a.k.a. "sex worker") was arrested in connection with the death of a Google executive from a heroin overdose after a late-night assignation on his yacht.

While the oldish gray men of the Supreme Court delivered a decision in favor of Hobby Lobby this week that rattled, enraged and felt stifling to millions of independent grown-up women, by contrast, the current marketing zeitgeist for tween and teen girls is full of you-go-girl messages about building confidence and power.

This week, Mattel, Inc. introduced "Entrepreneur Barbie." And as I gazed at the branded blonde one in her box, arrayed in her tight, happening hot-pink dress, miniature statement necklace, and carrying a tiny plastic pink cell phone and tablet, I decided that she pretty much embodies the built-in contradictions in our culture that women continue to have to navigate.

I'm so proud. The kid not only got into Starbucks, in the most competitive college market ever, but he's a tall blond who recently graduated summa cum latte. And he got his B.A. with one pump and extra foam. Okay, enough with the bad puns from the Parent Brag Book of 2020.

Are you ready for some futbol? (Or, as they say in Brazil, futebol?) Or, mere minutes ahead of the 2014 World Cup kickoff, are you already kind of soccered-out? It's not like the run-up has been without controversy.

I swore that I would not read one word about the wedding, nor look at any of the pictures. I was sick of the whole fawning cycle of press coverage for their ginned-up events sold to the highest bidder, sick of the fact that "stars" who are famous for being jackasses, or merely for having sizable asses, could lead the news again.

For this "mid-season ending," I doff my beret, fedora, space helmet, and Pucci-like head scarf to Matt Weiner. Plus, I blink my false eyelashes furiously in his direction. What a finale!!

"The Strategy" opens with Peggy standing in a Burger Chef parking lot. She's invading the window of a station wagon in an attempt to extract nuggets of research wisdom from an annoyed, harried mom and her hungry kids. It ends with Peggy seated inside the Burger Chef, talking, eating, laughing, and enjoying the ease and warmth of her office family.

Jeez, Weiner!! One minute, Betty said she was "checking the Sterno," NOT the sternum. But the next thing we know, we're down one nipple!