Gloria Steinem Comes Out: What's Her Next Frontier

(Photo:  Ms. Foundation)

Yes, that’s Gloria Steinem at work at Ms., the feminist magazine she and a dedicated crew (see picture below) founded more than 40 years ago.  Hers was one of the stories featured in Makers: Women Who Make America, the PBS documentary on the last 50 years of the women’s movement that aired earlier this week.  (If you missed it you can watch it online; here’s the PBS link.)  The New York Times review dubbed Gloria the star.  But now she's off to the next frontier. 

The Best Exercise for Strengthening Knees

The most fallible joint (photo from New York Times)

Caryl perfects: The Squat ( You Can Too!)

I’ve always had trouble with my knees. The knee is the most fallible joint in the human body. I read that in Sports Illustrated decades ago—and it stuck with me. Many factors contribute to aching knees, and not all of them have to do with age. My own knee problems began in my teens with a cheerleading accident. Think splits gone horribly wrong. In my 20s, while downhill skiing (or was it tennis??) I tore ligaments in my knee that resulted in a knee brace (hard to wear with the high boots of that era). With exercise, I managed to avoid surgery. As an aside, I am convinced one of the reasons I married my husband is that he carried me up to my third-floor walk-up apartment in Greenwich Village during my six weeks of physical therapy.

What is Evernote.

Maryl answers:  The 3 ways Evernote helped me get a memory like an elephant

“To help the world remember everything, communicate effectively and get things done”.  Now that’s a corporate mission statement I can support.  So in my ongoing effort to do less, be more efficient and productive (especially online) and save time, I’m mastering Evernote.  This is a suite of software tools that organizes my ideas and projects together in one place regardless of their format or original source. I’ve already found three ways I can clean up my clutter and stop losing files, photos, bookmarked web pages, emails, video, audio…easily got another hour back to my day!

Caryl toasts: Wine--A Love Story, Part 2

And, Our Romantic Heroine is A Feminist!

Norma Ratcliffe, the African Queen of Wines

I think you’re going to like this second-life profile; it’s a story of travel and romance, family and fulfillment, of transforming a corner of your world into a global platform. It’s a real woman’s story, one that’s inspiring and instructive. At the end you’ll get a buying tip from the woman herself for one of the most delicious red wines you’ve probably never heard of. Remember red wines are good for you--and your memory.

Maryl toasts: Why Women Love Wine

Women buy and drink more wine than men do. Despite this, if you should find yourself dining out this Valentine’s Day, don’t expect to be handed the wine list if your companion is a male.  Interested in some new suggestions?  Continue reading and check out the Second Lives Club list of ten reasonably-priced (around $20) and highly-recommended choices that are equally enjoyable alone or with a special someone.

We interrupt this blog post to bring you The Continuous LIfe

Painting by Mark Strand

Does it sometime feel like life is repeating itself? You load the dishwasher; you unload the dishwasher. You put your makeup on in the morning; you wash it off at night. You lose your keys, your glasses, your phone; you find your keys, your glasses, your phone. You write a blog post; you write another blog post . . . Sometimes the continuous life feels like numbing monotony, other times reassuring predictability. One thing we know at Second Lives Club, it is important every so often to stop and appreciate what we have as well as figure out what we can do better. So, after a GenFab dinner with other midlife bloggers tonight –(website launching soon, bookmark this link)—Maryl and I are going to take a few days off and a hard look at what we’re doing here. How’s that for a cosmic question? But first a favorite poem from Mark Strand to sustain you while we're away.

Diet for a Second Life: The Best Protein

By Food Blogger Ruth Gantman

As we age, our digestive systems are taxed. It’s best to eat simple and clean. Clinical research and author Dr. Neal Barnard suggests we eat no more than four different foods at any one sitting to reduce stress on the digestive system. We, as Americans, are saturated in offerings of animal protein and, according to Colin Campbell’s 30 year definitive China Study, the best source of protein that matches our own would actually be human flesh. So Jonathan Swift’s 18th century social satire A Modest Proposal not only would solve the economic problems of the Irish lower class, but also has a nutritional base. (Gasp)

Maryl Found: An Extra Hour in Her Day

I recently attended a seminar titled, The Art of Less Doing, which is about how to be more productive and spend less time doing fewer things.  There were a number of automation tools proffered that could take the rest of the year to integrate into my daily or weekly agendas.  So I started out slowly with a change that I knew about but needed someone standing over me to do.  As a result I estimate I got an hour back each day.

Second Look: Amour's Emmanuelle Riva

She wowed audiences in her first move role in Hiroshima Mon Amor and thrilled moviegoers no less in her most recent in Amour. Her breakout performance, directed by Alain Renais, was in l959; fifty-one years later, Michael Haneke chose her to play Anna, a dignified music teacher and devoted wife who is mercilessly debilitated after a stroke. For that performance, Emmanuelle Riva received the Oscar nomination for Best Actress. If she wins on February 27, 2013—the night of the awards ceremony and her 86th birthday, she will be the oldest person in any competitive acting category to take home the Oscar. (For the record, Christopher Plummer, 83, won last year for his role in Beginners.) By any measures, Emmanuelle Riva, who grew up in a small village in eastern France where she worked as a seamstress before she traveled to Paris to study acting, is a star with an exceptional career but she hates both words and applies neither to herself.

Maryl commits: To New Year Results Not Resolutions

 Here we are feet back at the starting line, with a clean slate in hand, heart in the right place, head on straight ready to start the yearly cycle over again. At least in our second lives we don’t have to repeat the folly of our past New Year’s resolutions that may have pictured a slimmer, richer, smarter, more caring and newly promoted vision of ourselves but didn’t quite capture our innermost dreams and desires. Whether our goals were honestly honed or not, barely half of us will still be working toward them halfway through the year. But I’ve got three new tactics to beat those odds for 2013. 

Caryl takes: Dr.Frank Lipman's Two-Week Detox

Everything you need--minus cat and candle 

Gwyneth Paltrow isn't doing it this year but I am. She's concentrating on the Superfoods but I'm taking the cleanse. I  start this Monday, which for me marks the first day of MY new year. It takes me a couple of weeks to get back my equilibrium after the hullabaloo of the holidays. By the second week of January, I am as calm as I am going to get.  And, my desire to detox and my willpower to reboot my body is at its peak.

Shake ingredients come in packets to mix with water.  

I am a I am a believer in cleanses as long as they're not the flavor of the month kind. Remember the Master Cleanse that was made up of homemade lemonade, maple syrup, water, and Cayenne pepper? Crazy, huh?

Maryl got: Arm Candy in her Stocking

Actually I got two bracelets in my stocking this year and another as a gift from Caryl (along with a leopard tunic to match). I have always liked receiving jewelry for Christmas and my husband has nicely obliged over the years. Specifically rings were my real delight, and he took several practice runs before the actual engagement ring showed up one Christmas morn. But something's happened with my penchant for rings.