95 Picadilly

A millennium ago, when a senior in high school, my senior class prophecy was that I would anchor the evening news. More specifically, as a personal goal, was to be behind the anchor desk at a much earlier hour for NBC’s Today Show, despite what might be described as a face for radio and a…

If you’ve never heard Jessie Mueller sing her gut-wrenching rendition of “She Used to Be Mine” from her Tony nominated performance in the play, Waitress, the singer longs for a time when she was “reckless, just enough,” and while the play is set in more dire circumstances – like the film, upon which it is…

It was announced this week that Paula Deen and her sons, Jamie and Bobby, were closing their flagship store, The Lady & Sons, in Ellis Square in Savannah, Georgia.  It was the restaurant that made her famous outside the city and became a genuine staple for the Gilreath family every time we were in the…

As I do every weekend, I watched the HBO series, “The Gilded Age,” which hinges on the clash between the old families of New York and the new money associated with the period the French called “La Belle Epoch.” Much like the French, America likes to see itself as a classless country, where people rise…

95 Piccadilly When decades after her marriage Deborah Mitford – by then the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire – wrote her memoirs, she titled it, “Wait for me!,” taken from her perpetual call as she, the smallest of them, chased after her brood of famous siblings. By the dawn of WWII, the Mitford Sisters – who…

A celebrated quote from Rudyard Kipling hangs over the tunnel entering Centre Court at the All England Club in Wimbledon, England: if you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same. It seems the perfect reminder, as generation after generation of the game’s greats move to and fro, graciously…

Tennis great Billie Jean King recently announced her dislike for the traditions at Wimbledon, the sport’s most renowned tournament.  Despite feeling that King has done wonders for the sport, especially for the advancement of women,  I think she may have flipped her lid a touch on this one.  After all, she played at Wimbledon.  It…

For a country I’ve never visited, I’ve held a long fascination with India.  In fact, for better or worse, it helped me make a life decision once.  I was struggling to decide whether to leave a job and praying emphatic prayers for guidance. My office, in the current position, was being decorated in an eclectic…

A few days ago, I began watching Variety Magazine’s YouTube channel and seeing conversations between actors, oftentimes iconic ones, who have made a life sharing their craft. The ability to do that is completely God-given and something that many of us, myself included, spend a lifetime trying to find, perfect, and manage, whatever the gift.…

When growing up, my late sister collected autographed photos of pageant titleholders.  I recently looked at those.  There were inevitably hundreds. Women who became famous for many endeavours.  Others who faded into history.  All that left a mark on an industry that I think is maligned and misunderstood.  Over the weekend, we saw the crowning…