An illustration of the coronavirus, created for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Courtesy CDC.

Bugged: Trump, the coronavirus and the politics of narrative

March 1, 2020

In the fall of 2009, I was caring for my beloved Aunt Mary, who raised me and who was dying of the effects of her dementia, exacerbated by disastrous hip revision surgery at a local hospital. Around that time, the medical establishment had released new guidelines for breast cancer screening, stating that women who were young and healthy did not have to have a mammogram every year. The reaction was swift and merciless, with women’s groups denouncing the shift as jeopardizing women’s health.

I remember talking then to a nurse who was upset at the public outcry. Didn’t people understand this was a good thing? she wondered. I told her something I’ve often thought about: To win public opinion, you have to get out in front of a story. He who controls the narrative has the power.

Fear itself

February 24, 2020

This is the right moment to talk about fear.

It was fear of the coronavirus spreading in countries like Iran and Italy that sent the Dow Jones Industrials plummeting 1,000 points today, even though the virus has seemed to plateau in China, the country of origin.

It was the Chinese leadership’s fear of losing face, power and money that prevented prompt action on the virus in the first place.

Kate Spade, by any other name

June 6, 2018

In 2013, Tiffany & Co. celebrated Baz Luhrmann’s new film version of “The Great Gatsby” with a day of events that concluded with a Roaring ’20s-style party at the Fifth Avenue flagship. I swanned through the night in a black column dress that was accented mainly by a Kate Spade necklace of green turquoise florets. Throughout the evening, several people stopped me – this was at Tiffany’s, remember – to say what a great necklace it was.

That was the Kate Spade effect. Whether it was with a statement necklace or a book with an inspirational saying or one of her signature vibrant handbags that marked a young woman’s coming of age and defined a generation in the good-times ’90s, Spade had a way of lifting you up. That she could not do the same for herself proved to be her tragedy. …

Modern Medusas: From Barbara Bush to Barbra Streisand

April 21, 2018

Barbara Bush – who died Tuesday at age 92 and was scheduled to be buried today in the presence of four former presidents – has been the subject of many remembrances and reactions this week, most of them admiring of a woman who turned a sharp gaze and an even sharper wit on herself as much as others. So, she no doubt would’ve been amused by The New York Times’ official reflection, whose undercurrent was a motif she often addressed – her appearance. …

Choosing life – and choice

January 21, 2018

With the anti-abortion rally this past Friday and Women’s March Saturday, I thought it was time I address a subject that I have avoided writing about for most of my life – choice.

I have always been pro-life, though not in the way the pro-life movement might think. I’m not only personally anti-abortion but I’m also against the death penalty. Heck, I don’t even like to kill bugs. I feel bad when buildings are taken down, and don’t even get me started on historic buildings. ...

Is Trump mad – or crazy like a fox?

January 10, 2018

With the fire and fury over Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury” comes the question – this one courtesy of The Washington Post – of President Donald J. Trump’s mental stability. Is he insane? Does he have dementia?

I’m not one for armchair psychology or speculation. Nor do I believe in using language imprecisely. Insane people don’t live in the real world. Just because many of us don’t like Trump’s take on reality doesn’t mean he dwells in the realm of unreality. ...

#MeToo: My story (ies) of sexual harassment

October 19, 2017

I once had a movie producer kiss me on the neck.

How’s that for an opening sentence? Pretty good, huh? Got your attention, right?

It was at the end of an interview when, shaking my hand goodbye, he suddenly lurched forward and kissed me on the neck. (It may have been more of a bite than a kiss, but I don’t actually remember and don’t want to overstate what was a pretty bizarre sendoff.)

Afterward, the embarrassed publicist apologized, concerned that I would be writing about this. But I was a young journalist and had, as a woman, been raised to soldier on. So I said, wrote and did nothing about this. And I hadn’t thought about it until Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual harassment of, well, just about every woman on the planet opened the floodgates of ew-ness. ...