Month: April 2014

Why Running is the Sport That Makes Me Feel Like “Me”

By Jody Jones

When the great geneticist in the sky hands you a pair of legs like mine, you gotta put ’em to work. But how? No, I never played basketball. Nor volleyball. There were no long jump and hurdles for me. I tried those and failed miserably. Just because you’re tall doesn’t mean you can fly. Or play well with others. But, as I emerged on the other side of my awkward teens, I laced up some sneaks and started to think I might have found a decent use for my lanky sticks: running. “Teamwork” could be a team of one, I didn’t have to be that coordinated (good, because I’m not) and I didn’t have to have much gear money at all. All I had to do was run. It felt good, too. The muscles in my legs got stronger. I felt in command of my body, which is something I never felt in my adolescence. And my mind got to dream and wander while I felt increasingly accomplished. Cool. I started running for real when I …

Workout Style That Doesn’t Scream “Hey, I’m Working Out!”

By Susan Linney

We know. There are plenty of cool sports clothes, accessories and gear out there to make you look cute while working out (slimming yoga pants, sexy sports bras, killer running shoes, etc). Gone are the days when uncomfortable leotards and clingy tights were the only options to exercise in. So yes, we are quite blessed. But no matter how sporty-chic these items may be — and even if they’re made by the most high-end and hip of sportswear brands — they all still obviously say: “I’m on my way to exercise!” The following five sportswear items, on the other hand, can be worn as regular pieces of clothing. No one will know that you’re on your way to a work out, and some of them are so cute, you might just want to add them to your regular wardrobe. Biking in Style Riding your bike in a skirt? No way. But yes, way—Iva Jean has made it possible with their Reveal Skirt, $160, which is anything but revealing. The straight, tailored skirt is designed with …

Nature Or Nurture? Two Books On What it Takes to Win

By Bethanne Patrick

The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance by David Epstein might sound like a book about competitors like Usain Bolt and Serena Williams — but a closer read reveals that what Epstein has learned about extreme fitness can tell you a lot about your own athletic prowess. That’s because Epstein goes beyond the idea of genetic blessing and examines what kinds of training — physical and mental — support the natural gifts some athletes gain before birth. In other words, he asks, how do nature and nurture combine to create athletes so heart-stoppingly excellent that they seem like extraterrestrials? Epstein finds answers in places you might expect, like softball fields and golf courses, but he also learns from chess tournaments, virtuoso violinists and Antarctic field experiments. But what I found most scintillating in this deeply researched and engagingly written book was how many different forms of “extraordinary” there are on this earth. We all know big names like Phelps, Williams, Hamm, Jordan and others, but we shouldn’t forget that athletic excellence runs …

I Joined a Rollerderby Team at 46

By Shelly "Splinters" Rabuse

(Photo courtesy Shelly Rabuse) Here’s the thing: Most weekdays I’m a website designer, jewelry crafter and mom with a 13-year-old daughter and a husband who works in finance. And while I live in the suburbs of Philly, I’m not your typical 46-year-old suburban mom. On weekends I like to “jam,” throw “whips” and “booty block.” And by jam, I don’t mean canning up strawberries. This kind of jamming. I’m a brand new member of the Penn Jersey Roller Derby team. How did I get here? My history of roller derby goes something like this: Philadelphia Warrior: One Saturday afternoon, when I was 14-years-old-ish, I happened to be watching roller derby on a black-and-white TV in my room. My dad came in, flipped out and told me “you aren’t supposed to be watching that junk.” Remember, in the ’70s, women’s roller derby was more like pro-wrestling with women really slugging each other. Some of the same people in those leagues — like the Philadelphia Warriors — are now our coaches. It wasn’t like I had any …

Gym #FAIL: Athletic Moments We’d Rather Forget

By Margit Detweiler

Gonna fly now? Teresa and Margit in 1984, gym dance class, Philadelphia. We all have those moments in our athletic careers that we’d like to forget — from that unintended split-fall on the balance beam (ouch!), to the remedial gym class we had to take to graduate college, to yesterday’s yogic fart (also known as “zen wind”). It happens. Here are some of our own memorable Gym #FAILS that we’re still trying to forget. The Cat Ate My Gymsuit In middle school, I discovered a foolproof way to skip gym without technically skipping gym. After our gym teacher took attendance, we were split into groups and either sent to a smaller gym or outside to do something horrible involving cheap plastic balls in varying states of deflation. Those few minutes of chaos created the perfect opportunity for me to slip undetected into the dusty, mustard-colored locker room and spend an hour doing homework (nerd alert!), and read various “advanced” (read: sex-inclusive) Judy Blume books. Did I feel like I was missing out or did I …

Margit’s Note: We’ve Got Game

By Margit Detweiler

Ah, gym class. The girl driving down the court for the reverse layup. The girl smoking clove cigarettes behind the bleachers. You might have been one or the other, or a combination of both. We have a love/hate relationship with sports, after all. We love to run, we hate to run, we love the game, we’d rather be reading a book. But thank god we have the option. Here at TueNight HQ we’ve been talking a lot about Title IX — the landmark civil rights law that allowed for (among other things) girls to get a fair shake in athletics. Enacted in 1972, it’s about as old as we are. And many of us — and our children, nieces, sisters — have directly benefitted from it. So this week we’re looking at the subject of Sport, a word that connotes frivolity and leisure as much as it does competition. We like to think we’re good sports. Bethanne Patrick gives us two books that offer what it takes to win in Front to Backlist. We have two stories …

The Beauty We Forgot to Pass Down to Our Daughters

By Jody Jones

While I didn’t always notice it — especially during my ridiculously self-centered teenage years — my mother was quite a striking woman. Mom was what some call “Black Irish,” — dark, wavy hair, brown eyes and a slightly olive complexion. She was medium height — maybe 5’7″? — with beautiful hands, gorgeous “gams” and slender fingers. She carried herself in a way that was almost lyrical. And that smile. You knew she liked you, if not loved you, when you saw that lovely smile. It made you feel good all over. That was what we saw. But then there was what she saw. I remember the phrases she’d utter for each stage of her life: As a child she was: Too skinny… embarrassingly skinny. Tiny boobs. Shapeless legs. Hip bones sticking out. As an adult she was: too heavy. Too heavy to even want to shop for clothes. (She was a size 14 at her largest, I think — what most call “normal” now.) Mom criticized her body constantly in front of me. I’m too big …

Pretty, Unmade-Up You: 17 Women Take It Off

By Margit Detweiler

There’s been much ado about whether we should or shouldn’t wear makeup, and what meaning that decision holds. So we asked our beautiful contributors and colleagues to snap photos of themselves fresh-faced and share their own points of view on how much, how little and when and why they make themselves up.   Teresa Misagal, 46, Photographer and Founder of Dailola Granola “You can totally change how you look with just a little lipstick. And I always wear lip color, especially something deep and dark, preferably with good moisture. When you reach a certain age — or any age for that matter — less is more. Cover up and powder, when it’s used beyond blotting, will make one look more aged. The more natural, the better. Men don’t like a mask — they wanna know what they’re getting into.”   Kim O’Donnel, 47, Cookbook Author “For all of my adult life, lipstick has been my one and only makeup mainstay.  Foundation, blush and all the other doo-dads have remained the stuff of mystery, like a language I’m curious to …

Could You Go Without Wearing Makeup For a Week? A Day?

By Margit Detweiler

A friend of mine was horrified by the Today show and their “No Makeup Monday.” So much so that she texted me regarding her outrage. “They looked downright scary. People need makeup. And as we get older, we absolutely need makeup.” “I disagree,” I texted back, a bit annoyed. “Society has conditioned us to believe that. And there is such a huge double standard. “ “Double standard? Matt Lauer looked like shit too! All I’m saying is would it kill people to run a brush through their hair and slap on some lip gloss?” “Not wearing makeup some days is liberating.” “Liberating?” said my friend. “I say yuck and lazy.” And so goes the dialogue we have with our friends and with ourselves. It’s painful and anything but pretty. Do I wear makeup? Do I look like shit without it? Do I look beautiful in my 40s? Do I need more makeup to cover up these damn wrinkles, no-sleep circles and darkening age spots? WAIT, before we continue, let’s caveat all of this to say …

How Can I Find That Discontinued Beauty Product?

By Susan Linney

Welcome to of our advice column where we try to answer all of your confounding “What The…?” questions. We’ll be getting advice from experts, but we may not always have the best answer. Feel free to share your own advice in the comments below. Q: I’m beyond devastated. My favorite foundation ever — Chanel Pro Lumiere Professional Finish Makeup — has been discontinued. DISCONTINUED! I’m literally in shock. I’ve seen it online and know I can take a chance and get it on eBay or Amazon, but I’m not really one to go rogue for a makeup product. How will I know it’s the real thing? So my question is, what do you do when a product you love is discontinued? I LOVED this foundation — it was the perfect color and texture for my skin. Is there a way to find discontinued products from legit sources? If not, do you have any tips for finding a new foundation that is similar to my beloved Chanel? Any help you can offer would make me — and …

Broken Cinderella: Is Imperfection the Key to True Beauty?

By Amy Barr

I’m sure most people have experienced grade school “Show and Tell,” when you bring something special to class and talk about it. For this activity, my Cinderella figurine was a no-brainer. She was gorgeous and I cherished her in all her porcelain magnificence. Six inches tall, she arrived in a satin-lined lavender box on my eighth birthday, along with a delicate wristwatch, designed for a young girl’s delicate wrist. It had a pale pink leather strap, white face, silver numerals…at that moment in my eyes, the House of Chanel had nothing on the world of Disney watches. On the appointed “Show and Tell” day, I strapped on the watch and packed Cinderella in her hinged case for the walk to school. I held her gingerly, nodding with gravitas to the crossing guard who knew, I was sure, that I was carrying something spectacular. As I walked, I anticipated unveiling this creature before my classmates and hearing them ooh and aah as I did each time I spied her in the regal perch she’d assumed on …

Scented Secrets: How I Used Perfume to Cover Up My Drinking

By Susan Linney

(Photo Credit: Andy Kropa) As a freelance beauty writer, I’ve written a ton of perfume reviews over the years. Except, if you look at my portfolio, you’ll see that….well… really I haven’t. Sure, I’ve written my fair share, and I’m especially proud of this post, but on the whole, I only have a handful of perfume pieces to my name. And I certainly wasn’t cranking these stories out during the summer of 2011, when I claimed I was constantly “researching” new scents in my bedroom. As most of you probably know, perfume contains alcohol. Thankfully, I never got to the point where I actually ingested it to get high, however I did use the cosmetic to aid in my alcoholism, which in a way is sort of the same thing. Perfume allowed me to hide my “pre-game” activities. Hours before my husband and I would leave for a party or dinner, I’d retreat to the bedroom and tell him I was testing fragrances for a story. “So beware, honey,” I’d say, lying in that deceptive …

Margit’s Note: No-Makeup Selfies, A Bikini Road-Test, Finding that Discontinued Lipstick

By Margit Detweiler

Pretty. Oh so Pretty. If “beautiful” is a garden, “pretty” are those roses on the table in the midst of a cluttered apartment. It’s your niece wearing her hair back for the very first time. The extra swipe of flamingo-pink gloss. A delicate detail. But it’s also something unnecessary and extra — an adornment. Even technology has taught us to prettify with Instagram filters; to give that twinkle of awesome that makes you notice our photo just a bit more. This week we’re getting all dolled up — and we’re unadorning. We’re talking about that Valencia filter we put on in the morning, called makeup (actually, I think mine is Nashville) and uncovering the bigger beautiful — our faces, our bodies, our unique flaws. Our stories: Pretty, Unmade-Up You: 17 Women Take It Off: Their makeup, that is. The Beauty We Forgot to Pass Down to Our Daughters: Jody Jones reminds us to teach our daughters well. How Can I Find That Discontinued Beauty Product? Our resident expert Susan Linney gives us the scoop for our advice …

Your Weekend TueDo List: An Easter Egg Hunt, a Home Budgeting App and LUSH’s Carrot Soap

By TueNight Crew

Yes, yes we know — we deliver every Tuesday. Well, sometimes we just can’t wait. To that end, here are a few cool things to check out this weekend. CHEAP The HomeBudget App. Manage your money with ease — and from your phone — with this easy-to-use expense tracker. Our favorite feature? You can photograph and organize your receipts in an instant, getting rid those squished up papers stuffed at the bottom of your wallet. (itunes.apple.com, $5) CHEAP LUSH’s Easter Soap Collection. Stock up on some adorable, limited-edition Easter-themed soaps from LUSH. We love their cute Bunch of Carrots, $13 each, trio of Golden Honey-Toffee Eggs, $9 each, and these colorful, Immaculate Eggception Bath Bombs, $13 each. (lushusa.com) FREE! Easter Egg Hunt. Grab your kids and head over to Sutton Place Park for an Easter egg hunt which will include candy (of course), arts and crafts, games and even a visit from the Easter Bunny. (Saturday, April 19th, Sutton Place and East 57th Street in Sutton Place Park, 10 a.m.–1p.m.)

The Embarrassing and Inventive Ways My Dad Saved Money

By Jody Jones

Dad, eyeing another deal. Dad was a Depression-era baby. My siblings and I always assumed this was the reason for his notoriously thrifty ways. But now that I’ve  considered it further, I’m beginning to believe that it was a result of both nurture AND nature. I think Dad was actually born cheap. While my family had natural financial ups and downs, Dad continued to live as if we were still in the Depression, no matter how flush with cash we might have been. My family ran a small chain of Hallmark stores. Which was ironic since Dad saw the one-time use of greeting cards a foreign and unnecessary concept (we don’t think he planned to resell them, but no one knows for sure.) Every card we received from Dad, since the opening of the stores in the mid 1970s to his death a few years ago, was signed in pencil. After the occasion, he would erase his sentiments, with the intent to reuse the card. My sister Julie calls him “The Original Repurposer.” Hallmark carried …

Here’s Everything Women Could Buy if They Got Paid the Same as Men

By Elizabeth Plank

What would happen if the wage gap finally disappeared? We know women would be making more money, but how much more would they be bringing home? By now, you’ve probably heard depressing statistics like this one: For every dollar a man earns, a woman makes 77 cents. You might even be sick of hearing it. But here’s another way of thinking about it: If you add all those pennies up, the gender gap will cost the average American woman more than $400,000 over the course of her professional life. What could that buy? A lot, as it turns out. With that money, a woman could buy a house, put two kids through college, buy more than 21,000 gallons of gas and feed her family for almost seven years. Care about the gender wage gap now? Now that we know how much pay inequity costs women, let’s look at how it affects men. Thanks to the gender gap, life is 33% cheaper for a full-time, year-round male worker than it is for the average woman. In …

How I’ve Taught My Kids to Give, Save and Spend

By Margit Detweiler

The “Give Save, Spend” system is something many parents use — it’s a great technique for kids (and heck, anyone) to learn the value of money. We ran this piece over on the WhatsYourSystem.com site back in 2010. We thought we’d republish it and check back in with Valerie and her girls to see how things had changed four years later.  2010 Who: Valerie (the mom), Maya and Rachel Gardner Job: Singapore denizens, world travelers. My sister-in-law and nieces. The System: Valerie introduced the concept of “Give, Save, Spend” to her two daughters a few months ago. The idea is that each girl gets an allowance equal to her age (Maya is 8, Rachel is 3) and then they allocate the money in three envelopes – one to give to charity, one to put in “savings” and one to spend. “They can do any allocation they want,” says Valerie, “but at least one dollar has to go into each category per week. So, yes, Rachel then only has one discretionary dollar but it’s just to get her used …

Mad Men & Office Politics: Different Era, Same Drama

By Tamar Anitai

(All images courtesy AMC Networks) Like many of you, I harbor a very real Mad Men addiction. It’s not so dire that I need it in the morning before work (that would be very Mad Men, come to think of it), but it’s extreme enough that I often can’t get through the day without something triggering a knee-jerk Mad Men reflection, or a Mad Men-related Google search that leads me down a rabbit hole of mid-century minutia. I’m not proud to admit the number of times I’ve excitedly interjected the phrase, “That actually reminds of that one scene in Mad Men when…” into a conversation that, well, wasn’t about Mad Men at all. Even though the show is set in an office, Mad Men isn’t really a show about working, in much the same way that The Sopranos wasn’t really a show about the mob. It’s an evolutionary character study that just so happens to be set in a Madison Avenue ad agency. But strip away the intense psychological examination, and the show does realistically highlight the differences between …

Spending on Sunny Days: What My Mother’s Diagnosis Taught Me About Money

By Courtney Colwell

Growing up in Pittsburgh during the 1970s, I learned a few things: jobs can go away quickly, chronic unemployment can cause entire towns to wither, and the Steelers, unlike the industry they were named for, were invincible. During those years, steel mills closed one after another, but fortunately my family remained unaffected. My father worked for a nascent Allegheny Airlines, which became USAir, now US American Air (or whatever ultra-patriotic name they’ve now chosen to give it). Still, I remember the beginning of each school year when we’d go around the room and state our names, neighborhoods and other fun facts (like where your father worked). Sadly, the question was never where your mother worked; and for a couple of years, there weren’t many fathers working at all. Given that environment, I grew up with the understanding that money was a limited resource that should be saved, put away for retirement and rainy days. Like, Russell-Crowe-in-an-Ark rainy days.  My parents made it clear early on that my choices for college were to either get a …

What Happened When I Spent One Month Living on Cash

By Terri Trespicio

I have long preferred the simple swipe of plastic to handing over warm bills. (Doesn’t everyone?) Paying for things in cash is physically painful. As it should be. When others have asked, my excuse for avoiding cash transactions has been that using a card means it’s trackable, so I can better account for my spending when I leave a digital footprint. But have I actually tracked my spending? Nope. Sure, I like having the option. But if my money were a dog, it’s been off the leash for a while. So last month, I decided to try the cash challenge. I took out $500 at the start of the month for discretionary spending (meaning rent, insurance and other recurring expenses were excluded) and vowed to try not to spend a cent more. I was actually excited about it. At last! Getting real about money. I’ve been dodgy and defensive about my spending for a while. This was going to keep me honest. Mine was a very low-tech approach: I took the wad of cash and …

Four Money-Friendly Films and One Flat Broke Buster

By Piers Marchant

In which we explore the filmic concerns of a given theme, and find new and novel ways of putting together yet another Internet-based list of movies. The wrinkle here, is our fifth pick will actually serve to prove as the counter argument, the best representation of the direct opposite of our theme. 1. Friends With Money (2006) Director: Nicole Holofcener Gist: Three longtime female friends (Frances McDormand, Joan Cusack and Catherine Keener), all of whom are married and quite wealthy, work to maintain their bonds while the fourth member of this tight-knit group (Jennifer Anniston), a cash-poor woman who used to be a teacher, quits her job and takes work as a maid. Currency: Income, earned or otherwise. The three wealthy women all get their funding from different sources: Franny (Cusack) is a stay-at-home mom sitting on a huge trust fund; Christine (Keener), is a successful TV writer; Jane (McDormand) is a fashion designer. Olivia struggles to make any kind of living whatsoever. Expenditure: Despite the trio’s wealth and success, their respective marriages are fraught with difficulties. Franny’s husband is an …

Margit’s Note: I Need a Dollar; A Dollar Is What I Need.

By Margit Detweiler

Happy Tax Day. I will gladly hand you my hard-earned cash. No, no, you keep it. Enjoy. Make me a smooth paved, pothole-free road and we’ll call it even. This week is all about the green stuff. Cash. Even if you are the kind of person who pays for your latte with a quick scan of the QR code, money is still money. While technology has drastically changed the medium, our relationship to money has certainly not. (And I still find myself occasionally calling ATMs – “Mac Machines” — I know my Philadelphia peeps feel me on that.) We wondered: what have we been we taught to think about money by our parents and how has that changed as we’ve gone off to college, moved into our work lives, paid taxes, created  joint bank accounts (or not), thought about retirement and investments (or not). We can never have too much of it, but we can certainly have too little. It is one of our most intimate companions: it’s that invisible friend we never introduce at …

Your Weekend TueDo List: Eat, Organize and Watch Silicon Valley

By TueNight Crew

Yes, yes we know — we deliver every Tuesday. Well, sometimes we just can’t wait. To that end, here are a few cool things to check out this weekend. INDULGE Smorgasburg. There’s no use to even attempt to be tidy at Smaorgasburg, Brooklyn Flea’s yearly street-food fest. It offers everything from from burgers and brisket to ice cream and S’mores. Make sure you bring plenty of wet wipes. (Sunday, April 13, DUMBO: Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 5, 11am-6pm; WILLIAMSBURG: East River State Park, 90 Kent Ave at N. 7 St, 11am-6pm. Both will be there every Sunday until November, rain or shine.) ORGANIZE Monty Python’s Completely Brilliant Sticky Note Set. Just so you don’t forget to pick up parrot food or hit the cheese shop, this three-booklet set of Python-themed sticky pads should do just the trick. Our favorite is the pad with a finger pointed RIGHT at you — perhaps a little Monty Python pressure will make sure you stay on top of your tasks. (Monty Python’s Complete Brilliance Sticky Note Set, $8, Modcloth.com) PLUCK Raising Eyebrows: Your Personal …

How I Cleared Out the Clutter in My Heart

By Kristin Booker

Last spring while I was in a yoga class, the song, “Hearts A Mess” by Gotye came on. And it struck me that I was right there with him: my heart was literally a junkyard of broken bits. When people talk about tidying up, immediately thoughts fly to the home: desks cluttered with unopened mail, drawers filled with messy receipts, closets that seems to vomit forth clothes you can’t remember ever wearing. We buy magazines that tell us how to de-clutter our home to help keep us sane and happy. They tell us we’ll breathe easier after hauling 20-gallon trash bags worth of useless items to the curb. We’re better people now that we’ve rid ourselves of all that physical clutter. But what we rarely stop to consider is the wreckage of our past, as it remains cluttered in our hearts. The relationship that never quite died, the rejection letter that told you your work was not good enough, the person who told you your love was not quite right for them. Whether it’s hardened …

Four Pristine Films and One Covered in Filth

By Piers Marchant

In which we explore the filmic concerns of a given theme, and find new and novel ways of putting together yet another Internet-based list of movies. The wrinkle here, is our fifth pick will actually serve to prove as the counter argument, the best representation of the direct opposite of our theme.  1. Mary Poppins (1964) Director: Robert Stevenson Essential Characters: Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews), Bert (Dick Van Dyke), Mr. Banks (David Tomlinson) Basic Gist: Into a mournful house of sad children living in disarray with their bored mother and cold, emotionally vacant father, comes the vibrant, sing-songy Poppins, who descends to the family on an umbrella, sings a great deal, and teaches the lot of them how to embrace life’s travails and flourish. Tidy Type: Physical and emotional. Poppins teaches the children how to clean things up and get organized — which notably makes them instantly happier — but also how to enjoy their lives, freeing their beleaguered father in the process. Cleanliness Quotient (1-10): A solid 8, though we’re talking emotional clutter rather …

TueNight Honored by the Webby Awards!

By Margit Detweiler

Guys — we are jumping out of our chairs. We’re but six months old — ok, that’s like 45 in internet years (which is perfect) — and we’ve just been cited by the Webby Awards as an “Honoree.” See the news here. We couldn’t be more excited. The team — Kat Borosky, Susan Linney, Adrianna Dufay and myself — work so incredibly hard and scrappy every week to deliver something fresh, delightful and honest. This makes every 2 a.m. Tuesday scramble seem worth it, to know that people like what we’re doing. You really like us! Thanks too to our phenomenal contributors whose words light up these pages and who share their shiny faces on that “hard-working left rail” (as we call it). We all know we have a long way to go and we’re excited about that path — and for YOU to join us on our journey. Keep telling us what you like, what’s meh, what you want more of and KEEP READING! We appreciate your support. XO Margit and The TueNight Crew

Why I’m Proud of My Not-So-Tidy Life

By Amy Barr

Sometimes I forget to return a phone call or pay the cable bill or pick up my prescription…for three days in a row. There are nights when I find myself surprised at 10 PM that I’m still in my gym clothes from my morning workout. (How did that happen?) On certain mornings, there’s no milk in the fridge or TP in the bathroom or gas in the car. The dog smells. Then there are days when life feels completely arranged and in order: no creases, no spills, no surprises. And depending on my frame of mind on those days, that sense of tidiness can be either comforting or stifling. That’s because we all want to feel like we’ve got ourselves together, whatever that means. But we also want to feel spontaneous and not completely predictable, a combination that’s typically untidy. To me, tidy is a term that engenders both admiration and contempt, which is perhaps why I’m having trouble wearing it. When I try it on as a self-descriptor, the word fits me like a …

Margit’s Note: So Fresh, So Clean

By Margit Detweiler

Everything in its place. To me, the word tidy doesn’t suggest immaculate, it means orderly and balanced. Neat, but you could still have a secret junk drawer stashed with rubber bands, matches and Chuck E. Cheese tokens. Or a grand heap o’ magazines — stacked and findable — New Yorkers atop New Yorkers; Fast Companys upon Fast Companys; Dynamite magazines from the 1970s; Sassy magazines from the ’90s… I don’t have a problem, why do you ask? I am far from a tidy person. I am ok living in stuff and a bit of clutterly chaos… until I’m not. My inbox has won an easy war, due to my own neglect. “42,861 messages?!” say any number of random people who pass by and peek at my laptop. “I just haven’t had time to delete or folder them…and they’re searchable.” And that was all fine and good until Apple mail stopped working last week. D’oh. We all have those few places and spaces in our purview that, when they’re tidy, life is ok. For me it’s my desk — if it’s …

I Will Just Tell My Story: A Weekend with Women in the World

By Margit Detweiler

Sarah and Susan Silverman interviewed by Norah O’Donnel at Women in the World (Photo: TueNight/ Margit Detweiler) How do you break through stereotypes, boys clubs — hell, just flat out fear — and accomplish what you want to in this world? “Be undeniable,” said comedian Sarah Silverman at the 2014 Women in the World conference in New York City. “When women ask me how do you get into show business, or how do you do anything — be undeniable. It might not be fair… and you don’t want to get things because of fairness, just be undeniable — that’s how strides are made,” said Silverman. This was just one of an army of righteous messages from this three-day summit of thinkers and activists from around the globe. I was honored to attend Friday and Saturday as a representative of Gwynnie Bee, the plus-size women’s clothing site I wrote about a few weeks ago. As a longtime member and fan of the company, they offered to send me to the conference and I jumped at the …

Your Weekend TueDo List: Game of Thrones, an Important Hair Petition and More

By TueNight Crew

Yes, yes we know — we deliver every Tuesday. Well, sometimes we just can’t wait. To that end, here are a few cool things to check out this weekend. WATCH Game of Thrones Season Premiere. Sure, the costumes are exquisite, but there’s also some amazing hair flowing around in this much-loved series. Between Cersei’s long, top braided locks and Daenerys’ bleached blonde strands, they must have some seriously killer hair products on Westeros. (Sunday, April 6, 9pm, HBO) SIGN If you’re a black woman in the army, it just got harder to get ready in the morning. A new ARMY regulation — AR 670 — specifies hairstyles and grooming that are in and out of regulation. Dreadlocks or twists of any kind are unauthorized, and cornrows and braids are only very narrowly allowed. Sign the White House Petition if you think our soldiers should be allowed to wear professional, ethnic hairstyles. We did. BUY Bumble and Bumble’s New Cityswept Finish Spray. This light-weight finishing spray gives your hair a clean but “lived in” look — holding your style …