HUMOR AT WORK
THE VIXEN GUIDE TO CORPORATE LIFE
Although Vixenhood is a full-time gig, it is not, alas, a paying one. I have
a committee working on that!
In the meantime, the tedious details of life (rent, car payments and cat
food)—not to mention the fabulosity of life (expensive shoes and
handbags)—occasionally demand that a Vixen sidle her bodacious behind up to the
corporate trough.
Posted July 2007
HOW BRANDING IS LIKE SEX
If comparing something to sex doesn’t make it more interesting, then we’re
not doing it right. Take branding, for instance. Here are the three most
important ways that branding is like sex:
#1: It’s simultaneously ubiquitous and mysterious.
#2: Everyone thinks they do it better and more often than they
actually do.
#3: Mad skills are great, but nothing trumps true
love.
Posted April 2009
MONDAY MORNING MAXIMS: "HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS"
Starting off your workweek with a bit of humor, here are four edifying
corporate lessons complete with memorable epigrams. I didn’t write
these—they’ve been floating around for so long that I have no idea whom to
attribute them to. Happy Monday!
Posted November 2007
LA VIDA SINGLE
IF YOU CAN'T GET A LIFE, AT LEAST GET A CLUE
I had lunch at Café Rouge in Berkeley
on Saturday afternoon (still the best cheeseburger in the
entire Bay Area). As I sat at the bar flipping through Sue Ostler’s
Relationships that Rock!—research for my latest literary idea about a
series on successful singledom—a demanding, nicotine-edged voice intruded on my
reveries.
Posted May 2007
GAMES
DEBORAH NEEDS GOOGLE (AND A PINK BUS)
A friend of mine sent me an email the other day telling me to Google “[your
first name] needs” (including the quotes) and write down the first ten coherent
results that came up.
I’m not a big fan of stuff like this. I need new ways to waste time on the
Internet about as much as I need new ways to eat Oreos—I already know more than
I should. On the other hand, I did have three minutes until I had to put on
lipstick, find my shoes, and grab my keys before dashing out the door. Three
minutes that may have changed my life forever.
Posted May 2009
OVERRATED :: UNDERRATED
Courtney Martin, over at Crucial Minutiae, put me onto a terrific new blog
called Overrated List.The List was inspired by a typically surly and provocative
Christopher Hitchens quote in The New Yorker a
few years back, in which he declared lobster, champagne, picnics and, um,
anal sex “the four most overrated things in life.”
It’s an inspired idea. Unlike Facebook’s “25 Things About Me,”—an exercise in
viral narcissism more aptly titled “25 Things We All Wish You’d Kept to
Yourself”—your Overrated List opens a revealing window into your world view.
Posted May 2009
MEMOIR
CONFESSIONS OF AN ACCIDENTAL BEAUTY QUEEN
The emcee’s voice boomed through the
auditorium, but I didn’t hear it so much as feel it reverberating
through me. All I could actually hear was the sound of my heart
pounding. I knew my family and friends were cheering from somewhere in
the packed house, but I couldn’t
see them. I was blinded by the white-hot lights that engulfed me and
the other four girls as we waited at the center of the stage.
How on Earth had I gotten here?!
Posted April 2009
POP CULTURE
ANGELINA JOLIE-LAIDE
I have a love-hate relationship with Angelina Jolie. Angie (as she
prefers) seems blissfully unperturbed by this. But I, feeling
constantly pulled in opposing directions, am less sanguine about it.
And since she’s arguably the most popular woman in American culture, I
have to think about her pretty frequently. Specifically, I have to
think about what I think of her. And honestly, it’s exhausting.
Posted June 2009
TECHNOLOGY
(MACINTOSH) APPLES FALL FROM THE COOL TREE
My friend Jennifer and I were recently dishing about our computers
(Macintosh laptops and displays, of course) and
our music players (various sizes and generations of iPods and ViPods, of
course) when she suddenly lowered her voice and leaned in close as if
revealing a deeply personal secret.
“You know what? I actually feel like the fact that I use Apple products makes
me, well . . .”—she silently mouthed the word—“better.” She looked
worried. “Do you think that’s wrong?”
Posted July 2007
