don’t pull a Janet Jackson

Remember “Nipplegate” – when Janet Jackson had a “wardrobe malfunction” at the 2006 Super Bowl halftime show? (I had no idea it went all the way to the Supreme Court. CBS is still currently battling a $550,000 fine levied by the FCC for the malfunction.)

no, that's not a nipple

I went to a networking dinner this week with a group of impressive Washingtonian working women. Being female, I noticed their garb: everyone (except me) in skirts or dresses, some pretty short. Too short. Yeah, short hems are completely au courant, but save it for non-work occasions. (OK, I’m an old fogey.)

But hey, haven’t we come to the point where women can go ahead and wear whatever they damn please, whenever they damn want? Theoretically, yes; but you can’t argue with the laws of physics. When you sit, short skirts ride up. Women with short hems can’t move much – they have to studiously keep their legs together and maintain postures that aren’t conducive to good blood flow. (Boy, do I sound like a grandma.) Devoting a portion of your brain to keeping wardrobe malfunctions at bay means you can’t devote your full brain capacity to things like winning that argument in court or landing that new business.

Writer Krista Bremer, a California born and bred American married to a Muslim man, wrote a thoughtful piece in O Magazine about her experience dealing with her young daughter’s foray into wearing a Muslim headscarf. She recounts a time when she observed another adolescent girl, wearing a string bikini, trying to play ping pong with a boy. “It was easy to see why she was getting demolished at this game: Her near-naked body was consuming her focus.”

And then there’s the law of attraction. No, men don’t think about sex every 7 seconds, but they (and women) probably have some sort of sexual thought with some frequency. While sex is an awfully good thing, it usually doesn’t mix well with work. (To be sure, having done time in big PR agency life, I realize that sex – at least the concept of it – can lead to more business…)

I can hear the groans of fashionistas everywhere. I remember rolling my eyes when my dad chided me for wearing a short skirt to work waaaaay back in my twenties. Had he made the point that a slightly longer hem would have been more comfortable for me, I might have rolled them only half way.

I’m not advocating a puritan habit. Just one that works for you.

Work it, baby!

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DID YOU KNOW? $1.6M was spent on thong underwear for tweens ages 7-12 in 2002.

what would MacGyver do?

The health care mess. You know the one. The one screwing everything and everyone up. What would MacGyver do?

A story in today’s New York Times talks about “Bringing Comparison Shopping to the Doctor’s Office.” It opens with “Americans comparison-shop for items as small as groceries and as big as cars. But they rarely compare prices on their health care.” That’s the messaging I used when I was the flack for The Leapfrog Group, urging people to research hospitals to compare quality and track records before checking in for care. (Go to Leapfrog for a free tool that allows you to comparison shop for hospital care.)

What’s that you say? You don’t want to have to “shop” for a personal health care provider? You have quite enough on your plate, thank you? Can’t docs just get along, keep their hands clean, and be good, competent and honest?

With health care today embodying divergent modes of care, conflicting philosophies even on what “health” means, alternative vs. traditional medicine, and docs who overcharge and  ones who don’t wash their hands, we have to face the music. While our nation’s health continues its downward steady march, you need to add health literacy to your to do list.

MacGyer says do your homework when it comes to your health.

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It’s Friday and I’m giving you homework? Criminy! Since school’s mostly out, I give you a funny video of BP oil execs handling a disastrous coffee spill…

One more thing: Text “GULF” to 50555 to give $10 to www.SaveOurGulf.org (founded by Robert F. Kennedy), more info at http://yhoo.it/9DPypz; or, text “WILDLIFE” to 20222 to give $10 to the National Wildlife Federation oil spill efforts, more info at http://nwf.org/oilspill.

being jackson pollock

I’m taking a break this week. So should you.

This week I give you a quick mental break, a two-minute lark that gave me a smile and a little creativity boost.

CLICK HERE. NOW.