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Barbie

(Saturday, February 20)

            While rummaging through the basement the other day, looking for God knows what,  I stumbled upon a Barbie doll — tucked in among the Beanie Babies that our daughter collected as a child.

            And I had to admit, Barbie looks good for her age, considering she hit the big 5-0 last year.

            And, not only that, she's been a profit babe.

            Seems there is life after 50.

            The discovery of that doll, in fact, led me to do a little research via Google, all to find out that the sales of Mattel's fashion icon actually rose for the first time in over two years, by a remarkable 12%.

            What investment in your portfolio rose by 12% last year, smack-dab in the middle of a recession?

            None in mine.

            Hell, a 12% loss would have been a bonus.

            Mattel boss Bob Eckert attributes it to the creation of a new more-bendable Barbie, and its new Fashionista line of clothing apparel.

            Whatever, it's working.

            Remember Hot Wheels? Well, even that outperformed guesstimates, with an increase in sales of almost 16% — and this in a world where our children are seemingly glued to their Game Boys and Nintendos.

            Who would have thunk?

            I do not know how many Beanie Babies are in our basement, but there are lots of them.

            Who knows? One day they might represent our daughter's retirement nest egg.

            Here's hoping.

We’ve  just enjoyed a brief hoo haw about  de-sexing the words to O Canada.

Yet, year after year, the Academy Awards drone on with awards for BEST ACTOR and BEST ACTRESS, BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR and BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS.

(Disclosure here... Yes. The New York Times just published a column on this subject.  No... I did not plagiarize it. In fact I have been saying the same thing for years.)

There is no best DIRECTOR and DIRECTORETTE. No sex distinction in cinematography or writing or costumes or any of the other endless award categories that keep us all up well past our bedtimes every year.

Athletics are different. There is the reality of physical strength. Women may be just as smart as men but they’re usually not as big nor as strong.

But in acting...  Who is to say that Jeff Bridges is any better than Sandra Bullock, the winners of this year’s best actor and best actress award.  Indeed, even the word Actress has fallen into disuse. Theatre people usually refer to both sexes as ACTORS.

Quite apart from wrenching the Academy into the twenty-first century, such a step could streamline the annual ordeal by a good 30 minutes!