I still have my mother’s pink and black original JC Penney card from the 60s or 70s. Even she eventually abandoned them for Kohls,. We also used to shop at Sears, Montgomery Ward, Parisians, Gayfers and Gaylords. Only a recent funeral forced me to the local Dillards for a dress. Otherwise, NOPE.

I was Chandra Levy’s age and came to DC the same summer she did. I didn’t know her, but I definitely remember that “cost.” DC was all rah rah, girl power, but in my internship program there was definitely a difference in job duties between the genders. I got stuck on phone duty while the male interns got plum…

Growing up, the official start of the holiday season was when Penny’s Holiday Wishlist arrived in the mail.  Before the interwebs, it was how I found out about the new lego kits and boardgames and all the rest, and oh so much fun to look through. 

We didn’t have much money growing up and as a result, we always had to do back to school shopping at JCP because my mom had a store credit card there.

BRAVO! Some days it hits me like a ton of bricks that those days when I was a bright young thing and one of the only young women working in IT at my company seems like yesterday. And I had a gay roommate with AIDS and yes I was called a F hag all the time. That it was all 20-25 years ago seems impossible some days.

My sister was at Georgetown in the early ’90s and had friends who interned on the Hill. She told me a story much like this one at the time, that the female staffers had running lists of members you did not want to be alone with. I don’t recall her mentioning Biden (not that that means anything) but she did mention…

I’m in my 50's and it’s very hard to grasp how far we’ve come since I was growing up.
Date rape was not a thing until I was a young woman - even though it had happened to me. I certainly never had the support/language/wherewithal to talk about it.
Things have changed so much for the better - but that doesn’t mean we…

For some of us the ‘90s feel like yesterday, but in fact it’s roughly 30 years ago, and some rules were different. Homosexuals were becoming accepted by many as deserving of basic civil rights, but legally recognized marriages were wishful thinking. AIDS was a fatal disease. Date rape was a thing, but “drunk people…

I’ll just add that one of the charms of The Apple Pan is that it’s just a counter (no tables) and on any given day you’ll find entertainment industry power brokers who rolled over in a Ferrari sitting elbow to elbow with blue collar folks with heavy machinery in the back of their trucks. Eating at the Pan is a shared…

I haven’t been able to articulate it and I think I’m failing now, but I feel like Monica Lewinsky, Chandra Levy, the experience of other female staff in the 90s, with different outcomes, is tied to the same culture of DC.

The Azoffs also own the iconic Beverly Hills deli Nate ‘n Al’s, which was slated to close last month, but has been saved. So good for Irving and Shelli Azoff; these places are beloved West LA institutions (both were endangered by ever-escalating Westside rent) and they’ve managed to keep these old favorites going.

The Apple Pan is owned by entertainment mogul Irving Azoff.

I love the drinks--order a coke and it comes in a little paper cone inside a metal cup holder.  So good.

Yikes, I came to comment about Apple Pan. It’s a West LA institution! The waiters may be old and gruff but you come for the burgers and fries and pie a la mode.

“...some restaurant in Los Angeles called the Apple Pan.” FYI, The Apple Pan is a gem; a landmark West LA burger joint. Unchanged since 1947, it’s the kind of place you’d expect to find a femme fatale straight out of a James M. Cain film noir, like Joan Crawford as Mildred Pierce or Lana Turner in The Postman Always…

Looks like she cut it in the shape of a pacman

I can’t. Jane Goodall is a global treasure.

Added bonus: You’re not generating landfill with all those empty capsules.

Added bonus: You’re not generating landfill with all those empty capsules.

Anyone giving you a hard time for this is an arrogant ass-clown and part of the reason wine has such an intimidating, high barrier to entry for lots of people.