Fifty is the New Sixteen

CATFIGHT!

"The truth is that [Maureen Dowd] is now a woman in her 50s who looks like an attractive woman in her 50s. Except for her forehead, which is age 27 and so smooth (I wonder, how come?) that it seems she wouldn't be able to frown even if Gloria Steinem hit her over the head with a frying pan."

[SNIP]

". . . all statistics show that most educated men marry equally educated women. Nowadays when a woman decides to stay home it is usually because both husband and wife agree that it is the better way to raise the children.

"But how would Maureen, unmarried and childless, with a high-paying job and a string of boyfriends that has included a movie star, a top television writer and producer, and a couple of top editors, really know about the financial or family concerns of most women in this country?

"In all of her interviews, Maureen, to prove her point about how hard it is to be a smart woman, talks about her girlfriends at the New York Times, who are among the paper's most prominent critics. There is the one, presumably book reviewer Michiko Kakutani, who wept when she won a Pulitzer, because she thought no one would ever ask her on a date again. I wonder how authors who had slaved for years over their books and had them torn apart by Michi, felt after hearing that little anecdote about Michi's maturity and good sense?

"There's also television critic Alessandra Stanley, another of Maureen's chums who, quoting Dorothy Parker, says of herself that she speaks a lot of languages but can't say "no" in any of them. Gee, I haven't heard a crack like that since freshman year at Bennington.

"And then there is Maureen's frequently told story about her special relationship with George H. W. Bush. She claims they are like two leads in a Forties' romantic comedy. He's the upstairs "patrician gentleman" and she's the downstairs "Irish maid." Can you imagine what would happen if David Brooks claimed that he had a special sexy relationship with Condi Rice? Wouldn't he be hooted at, first of all, by Maureen Dowd?

More of Myrna Blyth on Maureen Dowd HERE.