Nelson Mandela — anti-apartheid activist, South Africa’s first black president and a worldwide icon — died yesterday at age 95. In July, on his 95th birthday, I reflected a recent trip to South Africa in a post inspired by my rediscovery of a giant anti-apartheid Keith Haring poster from the mid-1980s. The anti-apartheid college campus…
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James Gandolfini: Funeral at Saint John the Divine
Actor James Gandolfini’s funeral is taking place shortly at one of my favorite places in New York City, the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine. People will be able to pay their last respects to him in a very inspiring place. To read more about Saint John the Divine, click here. To read my…
Unexpected Cut to Black: James Gandolfini, 1961-2013
I watched the pilot episode of The Sopranos when it aired in 1999, and decided it was too violent and the whole mob-boss-goes-to-a-psychiatrist concept was too strange. I didn’t tune in again for years despite all the praise for the series. I’m like that with a lot of shows. They’re critically acclaimed and sweeping the…
A Farewell to Jean Stapleton, Plus the Week in Review
Actress Jean Stapleton, best known for playing Edith Bunker on the iconic ’70s television show All in the Family, died yesterday at age 90. Back in February, I described how much that show affected me. CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT MY ALL IN THE FAMILY MEMORIES. I admired Stapleton for refusing to play an Edith…
The King Is Dead. Long Live the King.
A lot of my jewelry is inspired by royalty, but I focus on females: queens, empresses, queen consorts, princesses. I figure history as it is taught in elementary and high school is basically about men, so I prefer to concentrate on herstory. However, I have a soft spot for one dude: England’s 15th-century Richard III….
A Farewell to Ed Koch, Plus the Week in Review
I felt like an era ended when former New York City mayor Ed Koch died at 88 on Friday. When Koch became New York City’s mayor in 1978, I had just turned 10; his third and final term ended on Dec. 31, 1989, eight days after I turned 22. He was the mayor of my…
With Age Comes Wisdom … and IDGAF Style
I’m amused by the many people on my Twitter timeline who think that old age begins at 30. That doesn’t surprise me; I felt the same way. (Now 30 is the good old days to me. Oh, if only I knew then what I know now, etc.) It’s human nature. In 1827, the almost-49-year-old English…
Nora Ephron: 1941 – 2012
Yesterday, after writer/director Nora Ephron died for the second and final time — in a Mark Twain moment, Ephron’s friend Liz Smith reported her death from leukemia a bit prematurely — I immediately searched for Ephron’s classic 1972 Esquire essay, “A Few Words About Breasts.” At first, I couldn’t find her musings on the pain…
Marion Sandler: 1930 – 2012
Marion Sandler, a groundbreaking businesswoman and philanthropist, died June 1 at the age of 81. Marion was one of the first two women to work in professional jobs on Wall Street. She went on to become one of the first women chief executive officers of a Fortune 500 company: She and her husband Herb Sandler…
RIP, Disco Goddess Donna Summer
Disco diva and five-time Grammy winner Donna Summer has died of cancer at the way-too-young age of 63. In 1979, all the 12-year-olds like me AND our parents were happily singing “Toot toot, ahhhh, beep beep!” along with her song “Bad Girls,” which was about prostitutes. Good clean family fun! My best friend and I…