Wear and Wash

Now, you know that somewhere Martha Stewart has a little black notebook (bound in the finest leather, with hand-stitched pages tinted a lovely pale eggshell using onion skins harvested from her garden) titled "Signs of the Coming Apocalypse."

So when I ran across this article on a suit you can wear in the shower, I knew I needed to write about it, just so the facts of the matter can be enumerated (suggested heading: "These Degenerate Times"). Here are the down-and-dirty deets: The suit is made to be hosed down in your shower and allowed to drip dry. This takes a few hours, but presto! No ironing needed if you hang it properly. (This will cut severely into the profits of Martha's mangle business, I'm thinking.)

A spokesman called the suit "the ideal solution for busy career men and women who want the convenience of easy-care clothes without the cost and hassle of regular dry cleaning." Evidently the suit is a salaryman's dream: there are almost a quarter-million of the suits in Japan!

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Someday, Subway

The New York City Subway system is famous for getting you where you need to go, but as far as looking great while doing it, not so much. The stations are looking a bit peaked these days with scary moldy looking things and scary rusty looking things and multitudes of scary advertising looking things, but wait- what about the gorgeous subway art? No silly, not the illegal and awful looking graftiti tags of years gone by, but the spectacular posters and public art in the subway cars and stations.

We're jonesing for one of Tim Zeltner's Coney Island prints.

Fancy yourself one of the artsy underground? Then heed this call and apply to become one of the artists displaying their work for the bridging the tunnels crowd. View a current list of subway art here.

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Sui Degeneres -- Ellen's the newest Cover Girl

Read all about it! Ellen Degeneres is the new face of Cover Girl. Three reasons why this rocks:

1. Ellen is beautiful. She's also gay, really funny, and a newlywed, but check out that pic. She's gorgeous.
2. Ellen is... FIFTY years old. (That's L in Roman numerals. She actually embodies the L-word! Awesome.)
3. Her contract (a million or more, we hope) means that we'll be buying makeup from a woman we will always be laughing with, not at. (Paris, Linds and company? Take the hint.)

Here's hoping more cosmetics companies line up behind real women with real faces -- and let's toast to more campaigns celebrating an "ordinary" beauty that's so much more captivating than the manufactured, preternaturally-smooth headshots of spreads past.

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Seeing red at the polls?

With 2 months to go before the polls open in November, you've got plenty of time to consider the issues, debate with your family, and cast your vote (historic no matter who wins). But there's one issue the pols keep dancing around -- Liptroversy '08.

Yes, it's all fine and dandy to debate the merits of lipstick on a pig or a pitbull. The real question is: what lipstick goes best with red? or blue? And do green-party voters wear lipstick? (Oh, I kid.) It's a cruel world in which our political leanings are defined so sharply, so imagine our relief to find Stila's Rock the Vote Red lipstick, a gorgeous clear red sure to glam up the most strident of party t-shirts, buttons, or flag-waving gear. (An added bonus: a portion of proceeds goes to Rock the Vote.)

Making the world a better place

There isn't much we can write today that won't seem trite, but we're sure going to try. Much like the last post discussed tattoos which leave indelible marks on our skin, 9/11/01 left indelible marks on our souls and psyches. While we can't change the past - we can change the future.

If the memory of what happened 7 years ago hasn't quite inspired you to want to make the world a better place, perhaps the story about Lori Hall Steele will move you in different ways. Lori is a prolific freelance writer and single mom who is battling ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). While her spirit is vibrant, the disease has eroded her ability to move or work to support her young son. Lori is unable to work and crushing medical debts have left her unable to meet the mortgage payments on her home. Several writers groups nationally have taken up a call to arms to help Lori out. We're asking you to help too.

Give $1.00 or give $1,000.00 but give to help a stranger and know that you're increasing the good in the world on a day that is a sad reminder of just how much evil still exists.

Read more about Lori here: www.savelorishouse.com

Kiss someone you love today.

Tattoo You

I'm not a fan of body art. I'm no prude, it's just that I can barely decide on which socks to wear each day and can't imagine wearing the same socks every day for the rest of my life. When my boyfriend recently came home with a giant outline of something very blue on a part of his body that few people see, I turned green. When his blue outline started turning red and angry looking - I got very, very white, and very very nervous. An inky friend suggested trying Tatoo Goo which is a really clever product that keeps your tat from going flat. I'm still not loving my man's homage to his hometown, but at least I'm not worried that it will get infected.

And if you want street cred even if your skin is as pristine as the day you were born, try carrying a tin around in your purse and looking extremely mysterious when anyone asks what it's for. Tattoo Goo is $5.69 at Drugstore.com


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Meg Ryan's new old look

Is it just me, or does Meg Ryan look ....fabulous?

I've always loved Meg's looks -- eternally perky, yes, but wonderfully real, from "Top Gun" to a slew of late-nineties flicks like "You've Got Mail." And then she had a period of bad "enhancements," including maximal trout pout, that kept her out of films for the last few years. But check out the AP photo at right -- I do believe she's herself again.

Full confession: I have to say that in my heart of hearts I the original 1939 film, with Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Joan Fontaine, and Norma Shearer -- whose "Mary Haines" role is taken this go-round by Meg Ryan. But the new Meg -- back to her better self -- just may pull me into the theater to see the remake.

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Maybe Baby

So we've been on summer hiatus working on all manner of exciting things. We didn't mean to neglect you and we really missed you too.

So here's something we could happily have done without this past month - the endless brouhaha over the presidential candidates. Though it's just about six weeks away, we don't know how we're going to deal with another month and a half of pleas for donations, mass speculation, overblown adulation, promises of ultimate salvation, campaign promise mutation and overnight sensation - we really need another vacation.

So Sarah Palin's daughter is pregnant. Unlike Jamie Lynne, at least she's free of Britney as an older sister and role model and Lynne Spears as a mom.

Some distractions while you debate the debates and calculate the running mates:

Juno: While the dialogue is a bit too precious, it's infinitely better than the Daily Kos.
Gossip Girl: The new season is on, and at least these rumors don't actually hurt anyone.
Choose your favorite Palin child name: Join this Facebook group and cast your vote (we pick Piper Indy and we're not embarrassed to admit a wholly unsuitable crush on the First Dude, and of giggling uncontrollably when we first read the expression VPILF describing S.P.)
Accessorize the Obamas: Because Michelle's pins are making us a wee bit frightful of her fashion sense.
Election Ties: Hillary's out of the running but you can still invest in a Hillaryscope tie to show the world how much you still care.

Kiss this xxx
(visit www.airkisses.com for contests, updates and announcements)