Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
You have met the man of your dreams. Besides being a walking, talking hottie, he’s smart, funny and well-educated. You look at him and can totally imagine making babies with him. Bad news, though. He only thinks of you as a p-a-l; you’ve got a great personality, but he’s not going to be asking you out anytime soon.
Admit it. You’ve fantasized about winning the lottery and what you would do with all that loot. You’d buy homes for your kids, hire a full-time chauffeur for your grandmother, donate to the United Negro College Fund, sail around the world on the QE2, and lose 25 pounds at the Canyon Ranch Spa. You’d be ecstatic 24/7. You’d be dead wrong.
Brooke Shoemaker has a surefire strategy for never appearing in public wearing the same outfit as some other woman: Dress so quirky, so creatively, so out there that there’s no way to duplicate the getup or the xpressions made by passersby as she strolls around, clad in a vintage floral dress, jelly bracelets, fake pearls, way oversize sunglasses and her trusty Van sneakers.
Lara Davidson has never had to change a broken headlight. Nor put together an easy-to-assemble desk. Nor hook up her home entertainment center. She has always found someone to do it for her. What Davidson, 27, learned early on was that with a little negotiating, she could be more successful in her day-to-day maneuvering than her more meek pals, who were too intimidated to ask for special attention.
Margaret Cho has more than a few reasons to be bitter: At 8, Margaret Cho’s classmates dubbed her “Pee Girl.” At 12, she was ostracized by kids at church. At 14, she was raped by a 22-year-old man she met at a party. And at 16, Cho began a year-long relationship with a 26-year-old who tried to convince her to engage in a threesome.
Bulletin to all former bridesmaids: Here’s your chance to give your dress to someone who can appreciate it. Among clothing items collected by the Hyde Park-based Caring Closet are seldom-worn party dresses that can be given to Chicago-area girls who cannot afford a new prom dress.
Two frightened Dalmatian puppies and a beaming baby almost stole the show on the runway Thursday night at the second annual Red Hot Chicago event. But knockout designs by the likes of Tiffani Kim, Jane Hamill and Reginalds made sure that the well-heeled crowd of 900 at Navy Pier’s Grand Ballroom got much more than a dog and pony show.
The pillar of any good relationship, aside from love and all that other jazz, is a willingness to share. Share your feelings, your fears … your clothes?
Anthony Potenzo has one thing to say to about how the men dress on “The Sopranos”: “It’s about time!” A big-time “Sopranos” fan, Potenzo hosts weekly Sunday night parties. In his Gold Coast apartment festooned with photos of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, Potenzo cooks up a pot of homemade soup or pasta, serves wine to his nattily dressed crew and tunes the TV to HBO’s hit mob series, which just began its third season.
“I very rarely see a patient that says she wants to look different than her heritage,” says says Dr. Alan Matarasso. “The goal is to give more definition to the eyelid, but not to make Asian women look Westernized.”