WHAT DOES THE rear pocket of your jeans have to do with your butt cheek? To find out, you’ll have to read LittleBird Janet Kelly’s guide to the perfect pair of jeans. Then proceed accordingly.
In other news, the tropics are coming to get us. And as we from the industrialized world frolic in lush greenery and limpid waters, we may be returning home with mosquito- and tick-borne illnesses that can baffle our hometown docs. As Well-Being columnist Mary Carpenter reported last week, declaring our travels, not to Customs but to our doctors, should be top of mind when illness occurs. Of course, the CDC’s Dr. Anthony Fauci was felled by West Nile virus probably in his own DC backyard, as West Nile travels northward. So, to repeat, as our weather gets warmer, the tropics are coming to get us.
Weather isn’t the only thing that’s changing: Our hair changes with age. It goes gray and sometimes it gets thin or goes away entirely. And sometimes it just gets . . . weird. How Not to F*ck Up Your Face columnist Val Monroe took seriously the plight of a reader who is at her wits’ frizzy ends, producing an expert with a genius solution. It may not apply to all, but it’s good to keep in the back pocket of those jeans, just in case.
September in the garden requires doing a two-step, or maybe a three-step dance. In any case, Green Acre columnist Stephanie Cavanaugh offered help by sorting through the pansy versus spring bulb versus peak annual bloom conundrum. Oh, and mums? Just don’t. She also reported on baby budgie Kamala (born in a coconut shell, hence the name), who is now eating on her own, much to Mom Cooper’s delight (and Dad Goldie’s frustration—you’ll see).
Our Friday offering was from Tatiana Pollard, daughter of Kitchen Detail columnist Nancy Pollard. Tatiana has lived in Italy with her Italian husband and child for about 20 years now and had some cautionary and some p things to say about extra-virgin olive oil, in case the search for The Best is getting the better of you.
And a bonus piece by me shared the data that show us grownup girls as the deciders in the upcoming election. Not that we vote as one bloc, but man (so to speak), do we vote!
See you again on the other side of Sunday!
—Nancy McKeon