What the World Needs: What is, Women's Wit and Wisdom

When I saw Iliza Shlesinger promoting her books on Celebrity Jeopardy!, I knew that I would read them.  Not only do I love books by comedians, but Shlesinger's first, Girl Logic: The Genius and the Absurdity, has a foreword written by none other than Celebrity Jeopardy! host Mayim Bialik.  So when the husband gave me a copy for Christmas, I was psyched.  

In Girl Logic, Shlesinger shares laugh-out-loud anecdotes showing why we women think and act the way we do and why that both helps and hurts us.  Yet it's Shlesinger's more serious commentary toward the end that most gripped me:

"Point is, from the get-go, it's been excruciatingly difficult for women to be strong and make our way in this world.  We've had to fight hard for everything we've achieved.  And sometimes we've had to fight each other.  We're taught to do it, we're trained to do it, and our most reactive, base-level Girl Logic tells us we HAVE to do it to get what we want." (192)

I read that and thought, oh my goodness, she's right.  Women are taught to fight with each other.  That's where the whole mean girls thing comes in.  And why if you, for whatever reason, lack that killer instinct, then everything from playing musical chairs to competing for the corner office will rip you a new one.  Thankfully, Shlesinger goes on to say that we don't have to play this evolutionarily-rooted and socially-sanctioned game.  (Whew!)  We can be better than our biology and the men who try to control it:

"Though the irregular, sometimes-irrational headphone cord knots of GL might kick into freak-out mode and tell us other women are out to get us, it's on us to choose how to react -- to take the high road and attempt to act from kindness instead of fear or pettiness." (Shlesinger 192)   

Take that, Regina George!  (Not that Regina didn't already learn her lesson, what with getting hit by that bus.)

So yeah, I heart Girl Logic: The Genius and the Absurdity.  Because I'm always here for hard truths sugar-coated in comedy.  

Next stop (at some point!) Shlesinger's, All Things Aside: Absolutely Correct Opinions.

I'm sure it will be absolutely awesome.

Quiz Show Bow: Magnificent Mayim

Jacket: Material Girl, Macy's; Top: A New Day, Target; Skirt: Dolls Kill; Shoes: Shoe Carnival; Bag: Xhilaration, Target; Sunglasses: Amazon

For the last two weeks, I've so enjoyed watching Mayim Bialik guest host Jeopardy!.  From her  prettily professorial garb to her well-timed witticisms to her banter when interviewing contestants, she's the total package and the only guest host to date who reminds me of the late great Alex Trebek.  After all, who but an accomplished actress-slash-neuroscientist could deliver the kind of cerebral star quality worthy of Jeopardy!?  What's more, Bialik's charity of choice for Jeopardy's! donation match of the winnings is the National Alliance on Mental Illness.  Advocacy for mental illness, which affects so many, has never been more important.  There couldn't be a more fitting cause for a show all about braininess.  If Bialik's sitcom Call Me Kat hadn't gotten picked up for a second season, then I'd be keeping my fingers crossed that she be crowned host for keeps.   

That said, what's up with this outfit?  Well, watching Bialik made me think of blazers, which reminded me that I have this cherry-print one and that it had to come out of hiding!  So, one if-not-professorial-then-schoolgirl skirt later, I put together an ensemble including my newest necklace.   

Real Teal Necklace

Strung with stars in a subtle salute to our stellar scene-stealer, this Real Teal Necklace is simpatico with "What is, celestial."

Maybe I'll wear it when I tune in tonight to watch Bialik go out with a bang.

TV Tuesday: Going in With a Bang

My mind is a runaway train of ideas that I (for some reason) feel compelled to chronicle.  And today I got the idea to start a TV Tuesdays column.  Each Tuesday, I'll blog about a TV show.  It may be a general series description, a recap of a new episode, a nostalgic look at a beloved rerun, or even just a tenuously TV-related topic.  I'm keeping the field wide open so as not to stump myself too early on. 

That having been said, let's get started. 

I didn't watch "The Big Bang Theory" when it premiered on CBS five years ago.  I think I thought that it was one of those banal sitcoms that spun on the strength of pitting creepazoids against beautiful women.  (Even now I watch it On Demand instead of in real time.  At 8:00 p.m. on Thursday nights my heart belongs to "Community.")  But when the reruns first aired on TBS this past fall I realized that I'd been too quick to judge, proving once again just how much TBS has enriched my life.  I found offbeat scientists Sheldon, Leonard, Howard, and Raj to be oddly endearing, right down to their social ineptitude, unfashionably colorful clothing, and blend of bathroom and brainy humor.  At the nucleus of the hilarity, of course, is Dr. Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons).  I have a kind of love-hate relationship with him.  His overbearing control-freak ways are anathema to my live and let live sensibilities, but he's just so funny and idiosyncratic (those Emmys don't lie) that I can't help but be charmed by him.  In my estimation, his stock only rose when his equally brilliant and eccentric girlfriend Amy Farrah Fowler (Mayim Bialik) entered his orbit.  

Being in the arts and crafts business, I got a kick out of the episode where Penny (Kaley Cuoco) starts making flower barrettes called Penny Blossoms to sell online.  Her excitement at landing a huge order quickly dissolves when she realizes that she mistakenly promised next-day shipping.  The guys soon exchange their equations for rhinestones, diving into an all-night craft-a-thon.  Surprisingly, it's the acerbic Sheldon, Penny's toughest critic, who encourages her to embrace entrepreneurship when things seem bleakest.  In the end, another comedic calamity explodes, putting the kibosh on the blossoms and sealing Penny's fate as a Cheesecake Factory waitress.  A fitting microcosm of the creative life if ever there was one.             

As for the current season, I'm still an episode behind.  Which means that Stephen Hawking will be joining my next pizza night.