When I saw Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft in The Miracle Worker on Broadway in 1962 (I was 15), I could not stop thinking about Helen Keller. I still remember the scene where Annie Sullivan persistently held one of Helen’s little hands under a water pump and wrote out the word “water” in the other, as she tried to teach the child the meaning of the word. When Helen, left deaf and blind by a childhood illness, grasped what Annie was doing, and slowly started to utter “wah,” my heart felt as if it would leap from my chest.

People like Annie Sullivan are the greatest people in the world. Wonderful teachers are inspiring. Those who choose to teach under extreme circumstances are in a class by themselves. Their patience, persistence and passion are humbling.

My FOF friend, Mary Brooks, is involved with Clausen House in Oakland, CA, which helps people with developmental disabilities to live, work and serve in the community. Choreographer and Cal State professor, Eric Kupers, through his program Dance for All Bodies and Abilities, teaches modern dance and improvisation to many in the Clausen House community. Participants learn self-expression and communication; it also promotes psychological healing.

Mary sent me a DVD of a performance. It was beautiful.  One of the dancers was in a wheel chair and reminded me of a character in the hit TV show, Glee.

Only this was for real.

Helen Mirren will be beautiful at 150

I am sick and tired of seeing photos and articles celebrating the looks of FOF actresses. Why shouldn’t they look great? Do they turn into beasts when the clock strikes fifty? Do they lose their style and talent (assuming they have either)? Do they shrivel up and die?

FOF women all look great, whoever and wherever we are and whatever we’re doing—doctoring, teaching, sitting on the Supreme Court, painting, writing, selling, managing, building houses, building companies or taking care of our families.

It takes a lot of work to keep up those perky breasts, tone those arms, flatten that stomach and smooth that skin, but it takes a great deal more to have soul, strength, stamina and style. FOF women the world over have all that, and more.

It’s painful to see our vacuous media continue to define us by how we look on the outside.  I am thrilled when women like Kathy Bates and Helen Mirren bare their less-than-glam butts and breasts.

When a reporter asked Helen Mirren if she felt that people were upset because she’s willing to flaunt her body at an age beyond the Hollywood norm, she quietly replied, “Well, too bad,” cracked a knowing smile and started to laugh.

We love you, Helen!

Aldous Huxley

“Habit converts luxurious enjoyments into dull and daily necessities.” –Aldous Huxley

Uncle Normie and aunt Helen dined at the same restaurant every single night for years; my sister Shelley and her husband, Rusty, spent their anniversary weekend at the same hotel for a decade; my husband, David, wouldn’t stop using the same tailoring shop to make his custom sports jackets, even when a new owner took over who did dreadful work, and my former mother-in-law, Gerry, wore her hair in exactly the same style (pulled off her face in a bun at the nape of neck) her entire adult life.

I love traditions, but habits can be, well, habit forming. Traditions are warm, reassuring, comfortable and usually loving. I get it that change can be disquieting, filled with anxiety and maybe even paralyzing. But breaking habits–even those that aren’t toxic, like smoking and drinking four martinis every night–can be refreshing, releasing and rewarding.

“Where are you going on vacation this summer?” I asked the handsome young man from Zurich who was applying permanent makeup to my lips and eyes.

“To Calabria, Italy, and Monaco,” he replied. “We go to the same places every year.”

“Where do you stay?”

“At different hotels every time we go. We research places we think we’ll like and if we don’t like them when we get there, we leave and go somewhere else.”  His philosophy? Variety is the spice of life. “If we love a hotel, we think we could love another one even more,” he told me. What a cool attitude.

I’m proud of myself for kicking some pretty bad habits (inhaling two packs plus of cigarettes a day, for example) and I’d like to kick some more (eating the icing off cupcakes in the middle of the night). But like my friend from Zurich, I try not to make a habit of too many habits, even nice habits.

So when I walk Rigby I take a different route every day.

Who painted this?

A former producer at a local New York news station has filed an age discrimination suit, claiming the station wanted to replace experienced anchor people with cheaper, younger talent. Notice I said cheaper and younger, because TV executives apparently believe “prettier” people are more appealing to audiences, and younger equals prettier.

Someone needs to tell these geniuses that the reason no one is watching the local news has less to do with who’s delivering it than with how they’re delivering it–and what exactly they’re delivering. As TV advertising revenue has declined and staffs are sliced, diced and chopped all over the place–from writers and camera crews to producers–the medium has lost imagination, not to mention urgency and relevance.

Tired and old are not the same thing. TV news is tired. Even if Angelina Jolie, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio tag teamed to deliver it, it would still be  old.

Think about this: Larry King’s ratings are dropping, not because Larry’s old but because his style and substance are tired. Betty White’s style and substance, on the other hand, never got tired. When someone asked Andy Rooney recently when he’s retiring, he answered, “Ask me when I’m dying.”

Life is about energy, enthusiasm, passion, new ideas and new challenges.  Fresh, young faces are irresistible, but without the rest, they start to look tired pretty quickly.

* Grandma Moses