Escapism of various forms always thrives in economic downturns, from the excess of old Hollywood to modern guilty pleasure reality television.

I'm in agreement with you, as I was taught the same thing. The British half of my family just gave it the slight side eye, and the superstitious lot of Sicilians that is my dad's side would jump directly to grave offense/insult at a person's lack of home training for a black dress at a wedding.

What a lovely association, that sounds like a bundle of wonderful memories.

It's a bit of a learning curve, so don't give up.....just keep experimenting as far as amount of moisture/style of brush (some people prefer a disposable spoolie rathe than the toothbrush like brush in most cake compacts).

I prefer Longcils Boncza, but fair warning, it isn't cheap. Fun bonus, it's rumored to have been a favorite of Marilyn Monroe:

Pro tip....if you try it don't over wet the cake. A drop or two to moisten (plain water, rose water eye make up primer, whatever you prefer) and apply in thin layers with the brush. It takes a bit longer to apply than the tube kind, and you'll need a sealer if you want it to be waterproof.

A little bit of Old Bay seasoning on fries is good.

That part of NY has a lot of weird food habits, from what I recall from the brief period I lived upstate.

I loathe ketchup. My parents are both European, so it was never kept in my house growing up. When I finally tried it, I hated it with the sort of fury people usually reserve for kickers of puppies. Mayo, we sometimes had in the house, but I find that gross as well.

Cake mascara is actually awesome. So much control over the amount of coverage/look you want, plus you can use a bit of the cake as bootleg liner in a pinch. I'm glad a few heritage companies still produce it

The impression that I got from that article is that she was a witty, self determined lady who had no fucks to give about the whims of dudes trying to tie her down. I wanted to buy her a coffee and listen to her talk about ALL of the life things, in general.

I'm also team hat for all occasions.....plus a pretty fascinator or pillbox means less hairstyling, so yay!

Aside from my love of floral candy and stationary, apparently I'm also a bit of a grandma about wedding attire. A bunch of my friends got married last summer, and I was giving a lot of people the side eye for basically wearing their Saturday night club dresses.

I'd leave the house two hours late because I would be having too much fun with all of the possibilities, tying and folding all sorts of ways to see how it looked, and being unable to decide which I liked best.

Rolling about in a warm bath with with all of that delicious smelling sandalwood paste, sounds pretty much like the best thing ever.

I would be terrified of end result.

I'm making a 90 minute train ride for some brown/taupe-ish Kevyn Aucoin doing make up on a 90's supermodel lipstick the next Saturday I have free.

This is magic. Thank you for sharing this.

Chicken and Waffles were a birthday gift from a group of my good friends.

Count me in on the Poe love. I usually don't line it at all, but when I do, I use a Rimmel Soft Kohl eyeliner in blue to just out line the lip/keep the lipstick from wandering.