In Which the Mayoress Uses a Metaphor

Seriously, guys - I don't think anyone knows how to fix Wall Street.  Further, if anyone did know, the system of our elected officials needing to raise a trillion dollars for every election sort of precludes them from reigning in the industry that supplies a huge proportion of that funding, right?  More on that here.

It just occurred to me that my last encounter with a finance guy more or less sums up the past two years in the American economy: after a drunken evening we returned to Goldman Partner's ostentatiously large Tribeca penthouse where he started off promisingly then fell asleep at the wheel.  Next day: dismissive text not acknowledging the fail. 

Indicative, right?

Porn!

I'm watching "Porn: The Business of Pleasure" on CNBC. I guess that's better than just watching porn, because I'm learning something. Wait -- I mean, because it's still polite to watch in my living room when my roommate's home.

They mentioned this thing called The Cambria List -- it's from some 70s court case about which porn goes too far. So I Googled it and OMG it is ridiculous! I can see where they're coming from on a few things, but "no male/male penetration" and no "black man/white woman themes" is more offensive than most of what's wrong with the porn industry to begin with. Check out the full list here.

In related news, I found out at my birthday dinner that even my more conservative friends watch porn regularly, which I think is great. I'm thinking of adjusting my investment portfolio. Sex, after all, always sells.

In other related news, whoever stole my iPhone last Saturday, please do not read my text messages.

Because What's More Political Than Sex?

Fascinating article on a new book about the fascinating Helen Gurley Brown, who I, until now, did not realize was fascinating because I'd deeply buried a disparaging comment from my mom (from at least 15 years ago) in my subconscious. While I can see why a mother would have wanted to keep her teenage daughter far from Cosmo, I must also ask you, dear reader, who wouldn't want HGB for - well, maybe not a mom, but at least that cool aunt that your mom is terrified to let you visit?

At her most radical, Brown was a subversive rather than a revolutionary; a sexual libertarian rather than a liberator; and an unapologetic partisan of free enterprise. (She once called Margaret Thatcher a “Cosmo Girl.”) “How could any woman not be a feminist?” she wondered, in 1985, in an interview on her twentieth anniversary at Cosmopolitan. “The girl I’m editing for wants to be known for herself. If that’s not a feminist message, I don’t know what is.”

I would also like to note that I happen to be wearing practically the same dress as the one in this photo.