Girl Week, Part II

Girl Week, Part II

Women”s Sports Quiz: (1) Who is the only American woman to

win the Overall World Cup Skiing Championship? [Hint: 1983]

(2) Picabo Street won the 1998 Super G Gold Medal. What U.S.

woman won the same Gold Medal in 1994? Answers below.

Lightning Strikes

From the 11/8/99 issue of Newsweek magazine comes the

following:

“It is a tragic case, a pure act of God.” London coroner Dr. Paul

Knapman, in a report on the deaths of two Thai women struck by

lightning in Hyde Park two months ago, due to metal underwires

in their bras that conducted an electrical charge to their hearts.

Vickie Lynn Marshall, aka Anna Nicole Smith

Now gather ”round girls and hear the tale of Ms. Smith,

Marshall, whatever. Anna is the 9th grade dropout who was

selected Playmate of the Year in 1993. But back in ”91 she was

dancing at a strip club in Houston when this 86-year old

wheelchair bound guy attends her show. His name.J. Howard

Marshall.

It seems that old J. Howard was grieving over the recent deaths

of his wife and his mistress (Diane “Lady” Walker). Anna

cheered him up as only Anna could do back in those days.

Anyway, they became an item and by 1994 they were married.

Anna was just 26-years old and by then J. Howard was 89 and in

failing health. He was also worth an estimated $1.6 billion,

having made his money in the oil business.

Anna was madly in love with J. Howard..cough, cough. Her

life was now complete and she hoped to live out her years with

this cadaver. But the next year, 1995, he died, for real. The

nation mourned.

Actually, the nation didn”t give a damn but Anna and her step-

brother, 60-year old Pierce Marshall, had a huge fight that

continues to this day over what would happen next. According

to reporters Mark Miller and Ana Figueroa of Newsweek, “it got

so bad between Pierce and Anna that they fought over control of

his ashes and they held separate funerals.” Anna, herself, was in

such a state that she wore a low-cut white wedding dress to her

service.

Well, the court case that started with the death of J. Howard has

had many twists and turns but it is finally close to a resolution.

Anna wants half of the Marshall fortune, even though she isn”t

even mentioned in J. Howard”s will. Pierce is the sole heir. A

bankruptcy judge is actually figuring out how to split up the

estate as Anna filed chapter 11 awhile back. The judge is

expected to reject her demand for half the estate but she is likely

to still receive millions, at which point she wants to start her own

movie studio and remake all of Marilyn Monroe”s movies. We

at “Bar Chat” wish her all the best and anxiously await the

verdict and the first film.

Most Overrated Fashion Designer

According to Woody Hochswender, a former style reporter for

The New York Times, “Naming a single fashion designer the

most overrated is like picking the most self-absorbed model:

There are so many to choose from!”

Writing in the May/June issue of American Heritage magazine,

Hochswender continues. “To my mind the entire professional

class is overrated – by the humorless, adoring in-group that

fawns over every ruffle and seam, by a suggestible public that

pays premium prices to wear ”designer” labels, and, most of all,

by the designers themselves. The whole process is skewed by

the vast sums fashion designers spend burnishing their own good

names and reputations. Seductive images of their taste,

competence, good breeding, and tolerance for all races (if not

body types) are ubiquitous.”

Woody chooses Halston as most overrated. He was “the

forerunner of a certain breed of modern fashion figure whose

queen-sized ego far exceeded any particular talent he

demonstrated in the atelier (artist”s studio…I had to look this

word up), if such a name can be ascribed to his eventual

headquarters, a drug-ridden aerie in the Olympic Tower on New

York”s Fifth Avenue.”

Halston”s supposed genius “rested on the notion of elimination –

of pockets, zippers, ruffles, and so on…Just throw on a bolt of

triple-ply cashmere with armholes and an oval cut to let you pull

the thing over your head. (That”ll be five thousand dollars,

please).” What do you think, girls?

Brownie Wise

What? Who is she, you”re asking? Why Brownie invented the

Tupperware party! But first, you need to know who invented

Tupperware.

It was Earl Silas Tupper, a New Hampshire tree surgeon and

plastics innovator. He began experimenting with polyethylene, a

new material at the time. Tupper admired the material for its

toughness and nonbreakability. He received his patent for the

“Tupper seal” in 1947.

Enter Brownie Wise, a divorced single mother from Detroit.

Wise was a successful Tupperware salesperson in an otherwise

dreary market for Earl”s product. In 1951 he placed Wise in

charge of all sales and distribution. Her first step was to

withdraw all Tupperware from stores. Sales would be in-home

only.

The Tupperware party soon became a ritual of suburban

America. The new housing tracts lacked common gathering

places and the parties helped fill the void. Back in those days

women also had few ways of making money having been shoved

out of the work force after the men returned home from World

War II. A Tupperware hostess could make $25-$30 for a two-

hour party. Burp! [Source: U.S. News, 10/18/99]

Top 3 songs for the week of 10/31/70: #1 “I”ll Be There”

(Jackson 5.speaking of girls) #2 “We”ve Only Just Begun”

(Carpenters) #3 “Fire And Rain” (James Taylor).

Quiz Answers: (1) Tamara McKinney (2) Diann Roffe-

Steinrotter.

Girl Week wraps up, Friday.