bambina writes

My Guy

Note: I wrote this extremely personal essay almost a year ago after a short visit home, more as a release than anything else.  It seems appropriate to post it now, on the occasion of Father's Day.  

SHORT-TERM MEMORY, LONG-TERM LOVE

“Dad’s starting to forget things,” my mother told me when she came to visit with my sister last year.  “He’ll ask me something, and then ten minutes later, he’ll ask exactly the same question again.  It can get really repetitive.”

Senility was not something I ever thought would afflict my dad.  At least not at 75.  In fact, the only other close family member who suffered from dementia was my maternal grandmother.  In her dotage she would forget our names but recall with impressive clarity episodes from her youth, in the days before marriage and World War II.  Bedridden, she would keep her money and jewelry hidden under her mattress and then accuse the nurse of stealing from her.   She never forgot, however, that she was a devout Catholic, and even erected a makeshift altar on top of the television set in her bedroom in my parents’ house.  Vying for altar space with the Virgin Mary, the Infant Jesus and a vial of holy water from Lourdes was a plastic statue of Mickey Mouse.

We'll Always Have Paris

The acclaimed food writer and Francophile Dorie Greenspan writes about the top ten must-have, must-try, must-taste foods of Paris in her blog.  

"Earlier this year, I was asked to come up with a list of the 10 iconic foods of Paris, the tastes a visitor, perhaps a first-timer, shouldn't miss in the city, and it turned out to be a tougher assignment than I'd imagined.  Being a Paris part-timer for over a decade, I've written dozens of lists, but when I looked at the current ones, there wasn't much on them I could use.  The lists I make include my favorite bistros and wine bars, food shops, markets and, of course, patisseries, as well as places I want to try, but this list was meant to be a kind of meta-list, a categorization of culinary musts that would save a visitor from that horrible moment when he's returned home and is recounting what a great vacation he's had, only to have someone say, "I can't believe you were in Paris and didn't have a macaron!"

Je Ne Regrette Rien

Yves Saint Laurent, indisputably one of the greatest fashion designers in history, died on Sunday at his home in Paris.  He was 71.

He was born with a nervous breakdown, according to his closest friend and business partner, Pierre Bergé. He was also born with talent and creativity that were immense and staggering.

His influence on fashion is chronicled in an article in WWD today, complete with tributes from Oscar dela Renta, Marc Jacobs, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Vera Wang.  Nothing as yet from Tom Ford though, who took over as designer for YSL Rive Gauche when Saint Laurent and Bergé sold their company to the Gucci Group in 1999.  Saint Laurent continued to design the couture collections until 2002, when he took his final, tearful bow and retired from the world of fashion.