O, The Oprah Magazine articles from April 2007

O, The Oprah Magazine archives from April 2007

Angel networking.(the back story)(Seven Fountains Primary School)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... AS A PROGRAM OFFICER for the Angel Network, Gregg Sherkin oversees the organization's ventures in South Africa. In 2003 Gregg went for a follow-up visit to Shayamoya, a small township Oprah had visited a year earlier. He found that the town's...

Testing one, two, three hundred.(the back story)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... BEAUTY TAKES WORK--JUST ASK assistant beauty editor Kate Sandoval, who spent three hours peeling open 100 different brands of eyeshadow, blush, and lipstick (left) to assess this season's new color trends. The massive undertaking was held in...

Getting dressed demystified.(the back story)
April 1, 2007... STARTING THIS MONTH, OUR creative director and resident style expert, Adam Glassman (below), will be fielding your clothing quandaries (see "Ask Adam," page 106). Since posting a call for questions on our Web site, we've received some...

We hear you! Readers shut their mouths to improve their love lives, and agree that when it comes to love, age is just a number. But first, a few fall in love with RFK Jr.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2007... American Dream Your article on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was so illuminating, it was painful ["Oprah Talks to Bobby Kennedy Jr.," February]. It reminded me how tremendous the loss of his father was to this country, and just how much we need...

Thank you for listening.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2007... Congratulations to Holly Yeager ["My First International Incident," February] for having the guts to report on a United States admiral's offensive, cavalier remark about three servicemen raping a 12-year-old girl. I'm so glad she was listening,...

The silent treatment.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2007... My husband and I had aha moments when we read "How to Improve Your Marriage Without Talking About It" [by Barbara Graham, February]. We've since heightened our intimacy just by touching and doing. I realize I don't need to verbalize every...

Never mind the gap.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2007... Last June I married the most amazing man I've ever met. He also happens to be 19 years older than I am. I recognized many of our issues in "Love: What's Age Got to Do with It?" [by Lois Smith Brady, February]. While reading the article, I found...

Love and learn.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2007... "Goodbye, Hello!" [by Mark Matousek, February] hit me between the eyes. At age 48, I had the rug pulled out from under me by a man I'd been with since I was 16. The pain of losing him turned out to be only part of a greater pain--that of losing...

Baby or bust.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2007... The only disappointment in the February issue was Peggy Orenstein's "The Ticking Point." Some women obsess over having a "successful pregnancy" to the extent of leveraging their mortgages, their marriages, their lives. It bothers me on so many...

Self-knowledge is power.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2007... As I read Oprah's solemn, heartfelt words in February's "What I Know for Sure," in which she wrote about feeling ashamed of something she couldn't control, I couldn't help finding similarities between her thought process and my own, though mine...

A new attitude.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2007... While stuck at home during a winter storm that closed the school where I'm assistant principal, I finally had time to read the January issue. Bob Greene's "The Plan: Three Sane Phases" changed me. After years of making excuses, I understood...

Here we go!
April 1, 2007... PEOPLE NEVER FAIL TO AMAZE ME. THEY FACE THE unimaginable with a shot of grace and a rush of adrenaline; they steel their nerves; they summon their cool or anger or faith or whatever it takes to pull them through, and they go on to live another...

Go figure: dollars and sense (less): got a love-hate relationship with your money? You're not alone: in an oprah.com poll, readers confessed how they spend and save--and often fear and loathe--the green stuff.(O-ZONE)(Table)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 67 81 66 64 Percentage of Percentage who Percentage who Percentage who respondents who feel are responsible don't think they are Goody...

Screen gems.(Stephanie Daley, The TV Set)(Movie review)
April 1, 2007... * Amber Tamblyn is best known for her work on TV (General Hospital, Joan of Arcadia). But in director Hilary Brougher's new movie, Stephanie Daley, she makes the leap to film and more than holds her own alongside the magnificent Tilda Swinton...

Offside: must-see little movie of the month.(Offside)(Movie review)
April 1, 2007... In Iran, where soccer is a national obsession and women are among its most rabid fans, only men are permitted to attend professional games. The inequity has become a rallying point for the Iranian women's movement, spurring protests and even...

Nugget.(O-ZONE)
April 1, 2007... "Questions are far more effective than defensive statements. They do not imply agreement, but they do convey interest and a desire to understand and facilitate an environment for peak performance, a central thread of effective leadership.......

Oh, Henry.(O-ZONE)(play )(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Oh, Henry IN THE TUDORS, A NEW SHOWTIME SERIES ABOUT THE COURT OF HENRY VIII, WRITER Michael Hirst (Elizabeth) has created an edgy costume drama with a magnificent cast. (He gets some help from director Charles McDougall, who's brought us...

When She Was White.(An O Writer Writes)(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2007... What happened to Sandra Laing reveals the perversity of apartheid as few stories can. On March 10, 1966, 10-year-old Sandra, the brown-skinned biological child of fair-skinned parents, woke up officially designated white and went to bed...

School of rock.(How Can I Help?)(Ladies Rock Camp)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... WOULD-BE LADY ROCKERS WHO dream of musical glory but whose only gigs have been at karaoke bars or in the shower have a new gateway to superstardom. At Ladies Rock Camp, three-day workshops in Portland, Oregon, and New York City, women learn to...

What's Playing in Rufus Wainwright's Ear?(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Rufus Wainwright can make a lyric like My phone's on vibrate for you break your heart. The son of folkies Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle, he douses his ornate pop with torch-singer romance, winning over wildly diverse fans with his...

Must-see (Green) TV.(Tube)(Planet Earth on Discovery Channel, The Green on Sundance Channel)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... You'd have to be living under a melting ice cap not to have heard about our planetary state of emergency. This month two groundbreaking new series make their cases for preservation simply by celebrating what will be lost if we don't wake from...

Nugget.(O-ZONE)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... "The issues that confront us may seem so huge, so complicated, so difficult to deal with that it's hard to believe that anything we can do will have a meaningful impact. But there are a lot of us in the world. A lot of people doing a lot of...

Bite-size ways to save the world.(Site to See)(idealbite.com)(Website overview)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... IT HAPPENED in 2006: The earth's population hit 6.5 billion, hippos landed on the threatened species list, and we were faced with the inconvenient truth that the world is melting. What's an SUV-driving mortal to do? Sign up for idealbite.com,...

Los Angeles: literati meets glitterati.(THE PLACE TO BE)(12th Annual L.A. Times' Festival of Books)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... HEMING WAY ONCE said that as a writer the only way to deal with Hollywood is to drive up to city limits, wait for a producer to throw you a bag of cash, toss him your manuscript, and drive away. The tension between literary types and Los...

... and while you're there.(O-ZONE)
April 1, 2007... WHAT (ELSE) TO DO * At the Geffen Contemporary at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), see the arresting new exhibition WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, a visual record of a tumultuous and joyous time for women artists worldwide....

The panic button: your tire blew out on the freeway. Your wallet's been stolen. There's a deer in aisle one, next to the unsalted cashews. Don't just stand there--freak out! Martha Beck on the only rational way to weather life's big and little snafus.(advice, etc.)
April 1, 2007... THE MILITARY HAS GIVEN THE ENglish language two words that brilliantly articulate different types of crises: The first is snafu, an acronym for "situation normal, all f---ed up." The second is fubar, which stands for "f---ed up beyond all...

Dr. Phil: "I'm not sure this is a battle you want to pick": Phillip C. McGraw, PhD: a woman can't stand her son-in-law ... a grandmother longs for direction ... and a mother is wounded by her critical daughter.(advice, etc.)(Column)
April 1, 2007... Q My daughter and her husband live a few hours away and visit mostly on holidays. Much of the time, my son-in-law sits in a corner, never saying a word or cracking a smile. If we go out to dinner or a movie, he doesn't offer to help pay. My...

Suze Orman: "you need a serious financial wake-up call, and I'm sounding the alarm": an oppressive load of debt ... a cramped house ... and a husband who squanders money.(advice, etc.)(Column)
April 1, 2007... Q After college my fiance and I lived abroad and worked as much as possible. We started sinking into debt, and it took a while to get reestablished Stateside. Finally, we found a house, and though it wasn't expensive, my husband wasn't earning...

Something to think about becoming fearless.(advice, etc.)
April 1, 2007... WHETHER YOU'RE AFRAID of asking for a raise, disappointing your family, or flying, fear is a sign of self-deception. When you allow your attention to be absorbed in fear, you've taken it off what is actually going on. But only one thing can...

Bernie Mac's aha! Moment: his mother was crying. Then laughing. The comedian knew, right then, what he had to do (his best, forever).(advice, etc.)(Interview)
April 1, 2007... IT WAS ROUGH BEING DARK. I GOT heat from my own people more than anyone else. I remember going to my mom and saying, "Why am I so black?" And she said, "Because I'm black. You just gotta always work harder than the average bear." She taught me...

The O List: "a few things I think are just great."--Oprah.(Buyers guide)
April 1, 2007... Traveling Bright "The perfect going-away present for anyone who's ever stood in front of a customs officer trying to find the navy blue passport at the bottom of her bag." ($20, Baekgaard; verabradley.com) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]...

Suits make financial news! The hot story this season is a stunning price revolution that lets you economize without compromise. Seven style-minded women couldn't believe the deals. Plus: how designers are making fashion more democratic.(style)
April 1, 2007... $236 Ruffles & Flounces "Suits make you feel ready to take on the world." Stacy-Ann says. "I get up for work at 1:30 A.M., so I need to reach into my closet and emerge really put together." A nipped in ruffled jacket and flounced...

Look what we found! Bags, beads, and shoes with nothing to hide.(style)(Buyers guide)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... For sheer charisma, the new see-throughs have no peer (and they go with any color). 1. Heaped with gemstones, this sandal is a treasure. Marc Jacobs, $1,395. 2. The chain bag goes public in a lucid modern translation. Chanel, $895. 3. Lucite...

What's new now?(report)(fashion)(Buyers guide)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Green Stuff Fashion that's good for the planet has been about as stylish as RyKrisp... until now. White + Warren, the cashmere people, are doing sweaters in a scrumptious yarn made from bamboo--the fast-growing grass is a quickly...

Shopping with the stars.(like.com)(Website overview)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... We're just coming out of awards season, which means hours of dish about what the stars are wearing. Suppose you crave Halle Berry's sparkle-plenty necklace. You could type "diamond pendant" into a regular search engine and sort through the...

Ask Adam.(report)(clothes that fat women should buy)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Q: I'VE GAINED WEIGHT, AND MANY OF MY PANTS AND SKIRTS DON'T FIT ANYMORE. WHAT SHOULD I BUY FOR SPRING? First swear to me that you won't get down on yourself. You can look terrific at any weight--but you have to stay in the present. Shop...

Clothes in the key of life: Kai Milla--the woman who is the sunshine in Stevie Wonder's life--designs clothes that encourage us to feel how good we look rather than check the mirror. From loose pants to shoulder-exposing tops, they're honest, simple, sensuous.(report)(Interview)
April 1, 2007... O What was the very first item you designed? KM: It was a long, Empire-waist dress with a little ruffle in baby doll pink, which is a color I don't use today. I was 13, and I don't know why I did it, because I was actually more of a tomboy....

Look what we found! A pour of light and pearly polishes, hand cream that won't weigh you down, an elegant fragrance destined for classic status, and more ... here's what O's beauty director, Valerie Monroe, fell in love with this month.(beauty)(Buyers guide)
April 1, 2007... Spring Ahead After a long, dark winter, we look for signs--any signs--that spring is just around the corner. Here's something that seems to light the way to warmer, more carefree times: nail polish, of all things. These soft shades, from...

Ask Val: you've got questions? Our beauty director, Valerie Monroe, has answers.(beauty)(Column)
April 1, 2007... Q I keep seeing references to "older" hair. Does hair really age? Yes, in a way, it does, says David Kingsley, PhD, a trichologist (hair specialist) in New York City. As we get older, our skin, including the scalp, tends to get drier....

Mystery cake: recipe--flour, fruit, a rolling pin. Reaction--swoons and cries for seconds. But there was more to Maggie Paley's mother's dessert than a handful of ingredients.(food)
April 1, 2007... MY MOTHER WAS A GOOD COOK AND a great baker; her desserts were so delicious that my father and my older brother wrote a song about them, to the tune of Dvorak's Humoresque. It began, You may think us quite disgusting / We eat though our belly's...

A spy in the waiting room: sleuths pose as patients to improve care.(bodywise)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... AT YOUR NEXT DOCTOR'S visit, the staff may seem less surly and you could be promptly ushered into the examination room. Don't slip into shock: More and more hospitals and clinics are trying to improve care by using faux patients--and it's...

Toxin confidential.(bodywise)
April 1, 2007... * You stroll down a store's aisles scanning cleansers, bottled water, cosmetics. Now over to the produce section, pause at the meat counter, and then head to the checkout line. Count up the items in your basket: That's how many decisions you...

A killer painkiller.(DRUG ALERT)(Actiq)
April 1, 2007... A FEW MONTHS AGO, Jake Epperly was at a country club wedding in suburban Illinois when he overheard a female voice scream, "Give me that lollipop!" This was no petulant child demanding candy but a woman in her 50s yelling at her husband. And...

7 foods to lengthen your life.(bodywise)
April 1, 2007... * CHOCOLATE, wine, and a long, healthy life--it sounds like a toast, not a diet. But a new book out this month, The Bonus Years Diet, claims that downing just the right amount of seven "bonus foods"--dark chocolate, nuts, garlic, fruits,...

The way to eat: David L. Katz, MD, sorts out the healthy, the harmful, and the hype.(bodywise)(Column)
April 1, 2007... Q What's the difference between organic eggs, vegetarian eggs, free-range eggs, omega-3 eggs, and cage-free eggs? Is it worth spending more for any of them? --ELAINE LAU Evanston, Illinois Nutritionally, there isn't much...

Defending my life: both her mother and her father wrestled with breast cancer. She was sick of radiologists and mammograms, tired of watching, waiting, fearing the worst. So former anchorwoman Rene Syler made one of the most difficult--and strangely exhilarating--decisions of her life.(bodywise)
April 1, 2007... DECEMBER 15, 2006 MOST WOMEN MAY FORGET about their breasts until they put on a bra or have sex. But I think about mine all the time. I look at them, study them, wonder if something heinous is growing inside them--the deformed one, a...

Think Like a Thin Person: resist cravings? No problem. Set realistic weight goals? Piece of cake. But what if your diet coach challenged you to go eight hours without eating a single bite? Barbara Graham reports on getting over her deep, dark, self-sabotaging fear of hunger.(The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person)(Book review)
April 1, 2007... MY FAVORITE FAT JOKE IS THAT I'M STILL trying to lose my pregnancy weight--only my son just turned 35. Needless to say, I'm no stranger to dieting: I've been to South Beach, Scarsdale, and Beverly Hills, with too-many-to-count excursions to...

Into thin air: a six-day Peruvian trek? Cara Birnbaum wasn't the type--gung ho, athletic. Which is why the last thing she expected was a glimpse of the divine.(fitness)
April 1, 2007... I'M SITTING ON A CONCRETE SLAB IN TINQUI, Peru, a strangely ghost-townish village in the Andes. This is a place where otherwise sane people start and end a massive 55-mile hike around a skyscraping mountain called Ausangate. And as I squint...

Dr. Oz's 20-minute, spring-into-shape, excuse-busting workout: no time? No energy? No equipment? This is exactly what you've been waiting for.(fitness)
April 1, 2007... IN THE FUTURE, THE SECRET to losing weight may come in the form of a liquid potion, fat-melting injections, or, who knows, even an inner-thigh amputation. Today, besides maintaining a smart eating lifestyle, you can do two major things to...

All our children.(Full of Grace: A Journey Through the History of Childhood)(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2007... NO SENTIMENTAL COOING, PLEASE: BEGINNING with Martin Munkacsi's fabulous cover image of three black children running on a beach (the photo that first made painter Henri Cartier-Bresson pick up a camera), the historic and modern images in Ray...

In the Valley of the Kings: Myth shimmers to life in a Nobel Prize winner's breathtaking trilogy.(Naguib Mahfouz's works)
April 1, 2007... IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO OVERESTIMATE the importance of Naguib Mahfouz to the Arabic language and to the people of Egypt, where he lived and wrote into his 90s. He produced dozens of novels and frequent journalism for the Cairo newspapers, he was...

The love letter: an odd couple tracks down a mysterious suitor.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2007... A heat-seeking missive sets off the action in Patricia Volk's deliciously mischievous new novel, To My Dearest Friends (Knopf). Safely ensconced in her urn ("They call them cremains?" marvels a guest at the funeral), the late Roberta (Bobbie)...

What's new at home? A whole other generation gap is creating an uneasy distance now between parent and grown-up child.(Walking on Eggshells: Staying Close to Your Adult Children)(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2007... WE DIDN'T LECTURE. WE DIDN'T SCREAM (WELL, HARDLY EVER). WE handled the kids with kid gloves. We listened, we empathized, we understood. So how come our grown-up children have so much trouble relating to us? Veteran book editor and parent Jane...

The uses of Joy.(Dancing with Joy)(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2007... The Puritans had a point: Suffering does build character. But, as Roger Housden notes in Dancing with Joy (Harmony), his liberating new anthology of poems, "joy can free us from our character altogether." Roethke, Rumi, Akhmatova are among the...

Disgraced: A pregnant teenager, sent packing in 1965, finds her way home.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2007... Nostalgic for the good old days of Norman Rockwell America? Without a Map (Beacon) may forever change the way you look at small-town life. Meredith Hall's memoir is a sobering portrayal of how punitive her close-knit New Hampshire community was...

Reality Czech: A deeply romantic novel mixes up history, remembrance, imagination.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2007... MARK SLOUKA CALLS THE FIRST THIRD OF his new novel, The Visible World (Houghton Mifflin), "a memoir," the second third "intermezzo," and the final third "a novel," making the layers and shadings of memory and truth not just the subject of the...

BibliO: A chiller with heart, the mysteries of midlife, and bugs we can love.(Helpless)(The Best Place to Be)(Riddled with Life: Friendly Worms, Ladybug Sex, and the Parasites That Make Us Who We Are)(The Grand Surprise)(Book review)
April 1, 2007... * Think the unthinkable: A child is kidnapped outside her home. Then imagine you can peer into the heart of the kidnapper--an appliance repairman called Ron who fears his horrifying proclivities but believes he's a slave to love. Barbara...

Books That Made a Difference to Laura Linney: For the actress, reading (whether an A.S. Byatt novel or The Iliad) is only half the pleasure. The other half is taking the book apart, and trying to figure out how the author invented a whole new world.
April 1, 2007... WHEN I FIRST PICK UP A BOOK, I'M JUST reading for the joy of it. But with a really good writer, it's exciting to go back and tear things apart. You look at the architecture of the story. You ask: "What does every character say about the other...

For goodness' sake: whether your boss is urging you to fudge some numbers or you're being asked to ignore one person's abuse of another, evil is only a choice away. Drawing on the insights of his new book, The Lucifer Effect, famed psychologist Philip G. Zimbardo, PhD, shines a light on the "ordinary heroes" who stand up for what's right--and offers mental exercises to help you do the same.(reading room)(Excerpt)
April 1, 2007... IN 1971, I BECAME SUPERINTENDENT of the Stanford Prison, a mock prison run by psychologists. I was a young psych professor at Stanford University, and I wanted to understand what happens when you put good people in a bad place. To do so, it was...

"We have walked through fire together": Bob Woodruff and David Bloom, two well-known TV journalists, and their wives, Lee and Melanie, had that rare thing, a perfect two-couple friendship. But when both men became casualties of the war they were covering, Lee and Melanie learned the amazing extent to which the worst of times can bring out the best in a friend. Nancy Doyle Palmer reports.(connections)
April 1, 2007... MELANIE BLOOM WAS RUNNING LATE, as usual. Her husband called from their table at the black-tie charity dinner she was racing to. "Hurry up," he said. "You're about to meet your new best friend." The Blooms were seated with Bob and Lee...

Lisa Kogan tells all: like everyone in her acquaintance, she's overtaxed, overtired, overanxious, and in way over her head. Her question: is it possible for any of us to stop and smell the daffodils?(connections)
April 1, 2007... A FRIEND ONCE TOLD ME ABOUT THE Buddhist concept of pain without suffering; it's a notion that fascinates me. I mean, is it really possible to say, "Yep, my stomach aches, all right, but I don't have to add insult to injury by letting that pain...

The other mother: out of the blue, her grown daughter announced that she'd tracked down her birth mother--and that she was coming to dinner soon. Carol Brennan on the crazy quilt of emotions when mom meets mom.(adoption)
April 1, 2007... The Adoption Papers You don't have to be Madonna bringing home a baby from Africa to run into issues. You could be the Caucasian mother of a Chinese toddler fielding outrageous questions from total strangers. A daughter, determined as a...

Finding my people: her birth father was a thirty-something married man; her birth mother his much younger employee. This much she knew. But who were the parents who'd made them what they were? And who were the people who'd adopted her and shaped her character? Novelist A.M. Homes discovers how addictive--and satisfying--it is to track down your tribe ....(adoption)(Excerpt)
April 1, 2007... I AM ADOPTED. I GREW UP KNOWing one thing about myself: I am the mistress's daughter. My birth mother was young and unmarried, and my father was older and married with a family of his own. When I was born, in December of 1961, a lawyer called...

8 things never to say to an adopted child: Willa and Josey are her daughters; they're from China, and they're her heart, her soul, her life. Any other questions? Unfortunately, yes. Elizabeth Cuthrell has a few words for well-meaning strangers.(adoption)
April 1, 2007... THERE'S NO STORY MY DAUGHTERS and I love more than how we became a family through adoption. My 9-year-old, Willa, asks me to recite the details over and over again. Josey, my 4-year old, listens intently to her story and makes me go back and...

Spring fashion--a garden of earthly delights: designers this season are besotted with blossoms--that's why these clothes are exploding with luscious buds, cascades of blooms, whole gardens of embroidery. Even shoes are being soft-petaled.
April 1, 2007... APRIL CHIRP, CHIRP. Spring is springing, our senses are stirring, and we're ready to be inspired. Come along as we drape ourselves in flowers, try on radiant looks for lips, cheeks, and eyes, and freshen up the dinner table with 12 perfect...

Can I really wear that purple eyeshadow? A private makeup lesson with the pros.
April 1, 2007... The gorgeous eyeshadows you're looking at here are only a small ripple in the new wave of irresistible spring makeup hitting stores now. We know you're going to want to touch it all, try it on, see how it looks on you. But where do you start?...

Salad days: iceberg dead ahead? Try frisee with hazelnuts, artichokes with shrimp. Caterer Alison Mesrop is always getting her friends out of salad ruts, and--thanks to her foolproof what-goes-with-what chart-she can do the same for you.
April 1, 2007... ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA, THERE WERE INNOCENT iceberg salads topped with cucumber and tomato, and we dressed them from a store-bought bottle or, in more civilized situations, a pair of cruets. They were plain, repetitive, and served on the...

Breathing space.
April 1, 2007... KOUSA DOGWOOD, FROM ONE HUNDRED FLOWERS Photograph by Harold Feinstein

O's Be-Prepared.
April 1, 2007... O's Be-Prepared, You're-Tougher-Than-You-Thought, We've-Got-You-Covered Guide * to Saving Yourself from Every Imaginable Disaster. And Then Some. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Illustrations by Serge Bloch *...

10 years old, alone on a hill ...
April 1, 2007... WHEN YOU'RE 10 YEARS OLD AND WEARING A NEW PAISLEY-patterned pastel bikini, the top cinched, sophisticatedly you imagine, with a yellow ribbon, and you have your blanket spread out on the grass of the Cathkin Braes, over the hill from where...

O's worst-case-scenario handbook: last time we checked, there was no burglar in the house, no quicksand in the yard, no drive-off-able cliff on the commute. But since we insist on clinging to fears even we know are irrational, Penny Wrenn found out what to do ... just in case.
April 1, 2007... You're at the bank and a gunman enters WHY IT PROBABLY WON'T HAPPEN The more secure the public place, the less likely that it will be held up, says J. Kelly McCann, president of Kroll's Security Group. BUT IF IT DOES "There's an...

The plane began to pitch ...
April 1, 2007... THE WEEK BEFORE I WAS SCHEDULED TO FLY HOME FROM St. Louis, where I'd been a visiting writer at Washington University, there were periods of bad weather--severe storms and tornadoes--in several parts of the South and Midwest. I thought there...

1939: just before the storm ...
April 1, 2007... BY NOW, AT THE AGE OF 85, I'VE SEEN A LOT, DONE A LOT, AMASSED a pretty impressive array of facts, lived on three continents, and ridden out a no less impressive number of wars, including the unnamed one that, as I write, blazes on the borders...

The rapist in my bedroom ...
April 1, 2007... I WAS RAPED ONE NIGHT LAST SUMMER IN SAN MIGUEL DE Allende, Mexico, where I live. A friend and his sister had come over for dinner, and soon after they left, at 10:30, a neighbor came knocking. Water was gushing into her house from a...

A spider beside her: how the body reacts to fear.(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... AMYGDALA The moment you recognize a threat, this almond-shaped structure in your brain directs a cascade of changes in your body so that you can respond appropriately: fight, flight, or squish. HEART It beats faster, raising blood...

Something in the way they move: instead of hugging the hips, the new skirts kind of ripple around them--very flattering, very cool, and they start at $25.(Fashion)(Buyers guide)
April 1, 2007... In Full Bloom Embroidered cotton with faux pearls, FOREVER 21, $25; forever21.com. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Bar None Fully lined cotton striped skirt, ST. JOHN'S BAY BY JCPENNEY, $30; 877-346-3527. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]...

Whisk, whisk, you're gorgeous! Any makeup that goes on with your fingers goes on better with a brush. Here are the only six you need.(Beauty)
April 1, 2007... JUST AS I WONDER WHEN I PEER INTO MY grandmother's box of flatware what one woman could ever do with so many utensils (a tomato server?), I'm filled with awe every time I unzip a superdeluxe 20-piece makeup brush set (a stippling contour...

Salad days: oh, lettuce rejoice! From avocado green goddess to tangy ginger-carrot, Alison Mesrop's dressings add versatility and pizzazz to every leaf under the sun (for story, see page 260).(THE RECIPES)
April 1, 2007... The Basic Recipe Olive Oil Vinaigrette This is fantastic on almost any kind of greens. Or you can use it as a building block for the ten flavorful variations below. All the dressings will last, refrigerated, up to 1 week. 2...

Shop guide: (all prices are approximate).(Buyers guide)
April 1, 2007... COVER/HERE WE GO! P.45 Cardigan, Richard Grand, $865, Bergdorf Goodman, NYC; 800-558-1855. Tank, INC International Concepts, $20, Macy's; 800-622-9748. Capri leggings, Nike, $48; nikerunning.com. Pendant necklace, Chanel Fine Jewelry, $3,300;...

The brightness of one's life.(what I know for sure)
April 1, 2007... I'VE HEARD TRULY AMAZING STORIES over the years, about almost every human situation. Conflict, defeat, triumph, resilience. Recently, I heard something that left me in awe. I haven't stopped thinking about John Diaz's story. He was on my show...