O, The Oprah Magazine articles from February 2002

O, The Oprah Magazine archives from February 2002

Letters.
February 1, 2002... We Hear You! Readers react to our features on the importance of family the joy of gift giving, and other recent highlights. Joyce Maynard's "The Story of US" [December] really touched me. What a beautiful gift she gave her children in...

Home free. (Here we go).(refugees thankful for freedom inherent in American life)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... THEY COME TO OUR SHORES BY THE MILLIONS: REFUGEES, immigrants, survivors -- those who willingly risk their lives to reach this land of great freedom, filled with the hope of realizing their dreams. On my show recently, I had the privilege of...

Dr. Phil: "men don't get it-but we are trainable": Advice on the five kinds of income, bringing kids into a risky world, and turning the tables on a real jerk. (Tell it like it is).
February 1, 2002... Q What causes a person to be a workaholic? My husband and I have a nice home, three beautiful kids, and no money worries. I don't understand why he works a 12-hour graveyard shift, then works a side business six days a week, too. I've...

Suze Orman: "You know you're on the wrong path": That's good news - now you can take steps to get your finances back on track. (Financial Freedom).
February 1, 2002... Q Is COBRA the best way to go? I'm 40 years old and about to be laid off. My husband's job doesn't offer health insurance. Is my only option to continue my benefits under COBRA, through my former employer? How do I find out if I'm eligible...

Bono-Fire: U2's brilliant front man rocks convention -- so what's he doing with Jesse Helms? Elaina Richardson finds out. (Use your Life).(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2002... THE IDEA OF THE ROCKER REBEL. IS sorely tarnished in these days of pop lite, but there's nothing sugarcoated about the intensity Bono brings to the world. Consider these few events from the past year in the life of U2's charismatic front man: a...

Deborah Norville's inside audition: The video ain't over till the slim, blonde anchorwoman sings. Right? This TV host said no--then succeeded beyond her wildest dreams. (Aha! Moment).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... AT FIRST MY ASSIGNMENT for Inside Edition seemed like the ultimate fantasy: Record a song and then shoot a music video. How hard could that be? I'd be letting the stylist for Destiny's Child, the makeup artist fresh from Erykah Badu's latest CD...

Cheers: Lise Funderburg argues that optimism isn't the refuge of bubbleheads it's a scientifically proven way to get happier, healthier, and even catnippier to the opposite sex. (Uncommon Sense).
February 1, 2002... MANY OF US HAVE A hunch--though it hasn't been proven beyond the shadow of doubt--that the only category of humanity more annoying than street mimes is relentless optimists. You know them: endlessly, unbearably sunny Pollyannas, clearly in...

The company we keep: Memo from Ronna Lichtenberg: Your buddies at work can provide friendship, perspective, and a good joke or two. So change your business plan. (Working Spirit).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... THERE ARE PEOPLE IN THE WORLD who say it isn't businesslike to care about your coworkers. Not all of the people who say that are men. The distance-is-the-best-policy camp is big on making fun of companies that claim they're like a family ("Oh...

Heart's desire. (The O List).
February 1, 2002... "Had enough of those itty-bitty guest soaps? This triple-milled, jasmine-scented French soap is pure luxury." (Heart soap, S18, Jan de Luz; 877-800-3011; jandeluz_ny@hotmail.com)

Flower boxes. (The O List).
February 1, 2002... "Here's a terrific way to send fresh flowers. And they look just as beautiful when they dry." (Boxed in Blooms, $95 to $220 [shown].

Star-Spangled shoes. (The O List).
February 1, 2002... "Is this what they mean by 'America the Beautiful'? These sexy sandals will make you look patriotic right down to your toes." (Red, white, and blue heels, $465, left, and $795.

Nuts and bolt. (The O List).
February 1, 2002... "The perfect little gadget when guests come by for a glass of wine--it's also kind of great when you lust feel like sliding into couch-potato mode and watching a video." (Hasselho wooden nutcracker, $15.

Striking oil. (The O List).
February 1, 2002... "Dip your bread in it, drizzle it aver a salad--grapeseed is my oil of choice. Here's one that's flavored with lemongrass." (Infused oil, $12, Pier I Imports.

Hot under the collar. (The O List).
February 1, 2002... "I've always loved the big white shirt, but nothing warms up a winter day quicker than a shot of bright color." (Cotton broadcloth shirts, $150 each, Ralph Lauren; for Ralph Lauren stores.

Cut the cord. (The O List).
February 1, 2002... "How did we manage before phones went cordless? This one looks like modern art and sounds crystal-clear." (BeoCom 6000 telephone, $475, Bang & Olufsen.

How to wear the pants this season: When you're haberdashing around town in a great pair of trousers, you don't have to worry about skirt lengths, pantyhose, or keeping your knees together. You're absolutely free. (Fashion).
February 1, 2002... GIORGIA MANGIAFESTA for Italian TV, 27 WHY PANTS? "I love comfortable clothes. My personality is very casual; I don't like dressing up, even on a big night." WHICH PANTS? "When I come home from work, I take a shower, put cream on my...

The look of love.(women respond to Olay survey)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... How DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOURSELF? Ok, silly question. But really, think about it for a minute. That's exactly what Olay asked 500 readers like you to do. After trying Olay products for a week, they told us how they changed the way they feel...

A midwinter night's cream: A dry wit and a dry martini are great. Dry skin isn't soften yourself up with shea butter soap, shea butter anything. (Beauty Girls Toys).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... TAKE JUST A MOMENT TO RUN YOUR hand over your bare arm-- don't forget your elbow Is it smooth? Or does it feel more like your loofah? Winter's combination of cold air outside and dry heated air inside can be harsh on your skin. That's why we...

Split-Second splurges: Should I? Shouldn't I? Yes, I need that lipstick right now! Experts explain the whys behind your impulse buys. (Beauty).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... ARE YOU READY for some good news? I thought so. Here it is: Buying something on impulse -- especially an inexpensive beauty product -- maybe good for you. So quit feeling guilty about adding that sixth rich bronze lipstick or pretty scented...

The magnificent mini-me massage: You've heard of spot reduction. What about spot massage? With the me-rubdown, it's oil for one and one for oil (tools deliciously optional). (Beauty Shopper).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... WE HOPE YOU ALREADY know from happy experience that massage is a great way to reduce stress and relieve tension. But if you're finding it hard lately to book a block of time, or if laying out $50 to $100 an hour makes you want to crawl under a...

Love in the time of Cardamom: He's her star of India. She's his dixie chick. Together Amy Finnerty and her husband fused their spice racks, and their lives. (Dish Fulfillment).(Brief Article)(Recipe)
February 1, 2002... A FEW YEARS AGO MY husband came home early after an important lunch with senior management. I was waiting expectantly to ask him how it had gone and was relieved when he walked in the door smiling. "It went really well," he said. "I had a...

Let's get down together (the sequel): Last summer we paired up three dieting women with three been-there, shed-that mentors. Ninety days later? Hip, hip, good riddance! Louisa Kamps weighs in on the magic of loss. (Minding your Body).
February 1, 2002... HERE'S A REPORT ON OUR first weight-loss experiment. Backed by research, intuition, and some serious finger crossing, we paired three chronic dieters struggling to lose weight with three women who had already done so (see the full story in last...

Why are we still smoking?: We all know the appalling numbers, the deadly odds, the damage to your heart and lungs. Still, we reach for the pack and light up another cigarette. What gives? Dorothy Foltz-Gray filters out the truth. (Minding your Body).(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2002... HERE'S A CRITICAL WOMEN'S HEALTH problem that we're all ignoring--and it cuts right to the heart of our psychology: Since 1950 the female death rate from lung cancer has soared 600 percent, making it the leading cancer killer of women....

Marg's book club: CSI's guiding force prefers the oldies, the goodies, and the eternally life-transforming. (Books that made a Difference).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... ABOUT FOUR YEARS AGO I STARTED a book club. I thought it would give me the opportunity to commit to a book and follow it to the end. (I'd fallen into the bad habit of starting novels but not finishing them.) Thirty people showed up the first...

A family under glass: Ann Beattie deftly exposes the fine links and chinks among family members in her new novel. (Reading Room).('The Doctor's House')
February 1, 2002... ANN BEATTIE HAS A GIFT FOR revealing the dark truths at the core of human relationships. An unerring chronicler of the everyday turmoil of marriages and friendships, she derives the maximum benefit from minimalist fiction, using lean prose to...

The winter of her content: Black Earth City chronicles the vodka, crime, love, falling snow, and humanity of life in the new Russia. (Reading Room).
February 1, 2002... SOON AFTER CHARLOTTE Hobson decided to leave England to spend a year studying Russian in the sleepy provincial city of Voronezh, 500 kilometers southeast of Moscow, the Soviet Union collapsed, creating in its wake a society rife with petty...

Intimacy: Susan Minot takes on the complex give-and-take of sex in her fastidious, provocative Rapture. (Reading Room).
February 1, 2002... TO BE A MAN READING SUSAN Minot's work is to find oneself in a defensive position. You want to shout out that men are not so shallow, so callous, and so incapable of a sustained and intelligent tenderness as Minot's usually are. It turns out...

Family dancing.('Violence, Nudity, Adult Content')(Brief Article)(Excerpt)
February 1, 2002... "Standing at the kitchen sink, I discover that a plastic seltzer bottle, empty, ready for recycling, when held by the base and bopped against the porcelain, makes a rich and primitive range of sounds, like an ancient drum. I start playing it,...

BibliO: From our shelf to yours. (Reading Room).
February 1, 2002... At the beginning of Laura Kasischke's hauntingly original The Life Before Her Eyes (Harcourt), two high school friends are held at gunpoint by a deranged classmate, One girl is killed; the other survives to narrate the spooky aftermath of her...

Oprah talks to Condoleezza rice: Our calm, cool, collected national security advisor on downtime (Piano, football, shopping) and uptime (Faith, unity, power)--and why the terrorists. Have already lost. (The O Interview).(Interview)
February 1, 2002... SHE HAS BEEN CALLED THE PRESIDENT'S right-hand advisor and one of the most influential women in the world. Yet when I first meet Dr. Condoleezza Rice, it's her strong, quiet presence, not her long list of accolades, that seems to embody her...

The SAP of luxury: You've heard of the running of the bulls? Try the rapture of the pancakes as you drizzle them with the best maple syrup in the world. Peter Smith taps into sweet childhood memories.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... MAPLE SYRUP. AS IN SAP. As in not-so-great elementary school memories of that day in late winter when your teacher suited up the entire second-grade class and ushered all 17 of you, single-file (everyone's red and yellow snowpants going swish,...

What women really want to wear to work.
February 1, 2002... When it comes to work clothes, is the new code "anything goes"? not quite. It's sweet liberty to have more choice in what we wear to the office--including some nice, bright accessories--but it can also be tricky. Seven women tell us which...

Freedom.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... The great thing is we have it. The pity is we often forget that fact--until someone tries to bring it down "we would rather die on our feet than live on our knees," Franklin Roosevelt said we come this month to praise freedom of soul, mind,...

Reborn in the USA: Four immigrant women, driven by hope and the ferocity of their own imaginations. Four talents set free in a culture where the sky is, quite literally, the limit. The result? Four brilliant careers.
February 1, 2002... ANDA ANDREI, architect JOB: President of design for Ian Schrager Hotels BORN: Romania, 1954 ARRIVED IN AMERICA: 1981 WALK INTO ANY OF IAN Schrager's hotel lobbies--at San Francisco's Clift, Miami's Delano, or New York City's...

Who epitomizes freedom to you?: A few freethinkers name their heroes.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Naomi Wolf, author of Misconceptions and The Beauty Myth; cofounder of the Woodhull Institute Rosa Parks isa personal hero of mine. She felt fear and acted with courage, and she had faith that truth had the power to protect her. Rosa Parks's...

Red, white, blue, and green: Our lifestyle: Cars, traffic, malls with this addiction to oil, can we really call ourselves free? Maya Lin suggests a healthy way out.(reducing greenhouse gases)
February 1, 2002... AFTER SEPTEMBER 11 I WANTED TO do something. I felt absolutely helpless. Our president assured us that we would not have to give up our way of life. He told us that the best way to help was to go on with business as usual, to bolster the...

The possible dream: Ivy Meeropol's grandfather put the American dream of equality to music, Frank Sinatra sang it, and its sweet, awesome lyrics are still stirring.(includes lyrics to song The House I Live In)
February 1, 2002... THE OTHER NIGHT I WAS SURPRISED to hear Frank Sinatra singing "The House I Live In." I followed the sound to its source and caught the closing credits of Entertainment Tonight rolling over a video of Sinatra's 1986 performance for the...

We are all soldiers for freedom: The most important thing we can do for society, Martha Beck says, is to defeat fear and find freedom in our own lives.
February 1, 2002... SO HERE WE ARE, A NATION AT war... kind of. We were told that the war against terrorism would be a new sort of conflict, and so it has turned out to be: no clear battle lines, no obvious enemies, no place that feels completely safe. This is, as...

A cry in the dark.(depressed mother drowns children)
February 1, 2002... Her crime--drowning her five children in a bathtub--was unthinkable. But was it understandable? How did a clean-living, all-American woman like Andrea Yates snap? Suzanne O'Malley takes a hard look at a disturbing case that's riveted America....

Lavender fields forever: It comforts jangled nerve lifts your mood, smells like heaven. And for Jeannie Ralston it's become the color of hills, marriage, and a blossoming new life.
February 1, 2002... Most of what I know about the predawn world was learned over the course of six weeks last year. Here in Texas, doves coo in the early hours. The sky is a faint violet and shapes are in soft focus, as if you've put on someone else's glasses....

Woman, woman, burning bright: Shine on you! (with a dazzling array of light-reflecting moisturizers that will make your face glow). (Practical matters).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... WOULDN'T YOU LOVE IT if every time you looked in the mirror you saw yourself bathed in a soft light that made your complexion luminous? Especially during the winter months, when your natural glow seems to hibernate, you might want some extra...

What works for work: A hard job calls for easy, well-priced clothes. Inspired by our story on page 128.
February 1, 2002... Red: It's gorgeous. It's authoritative. It will jump-start you in the morning and keep your energy up all day. To give a suit spring fever, wear it with a white tee instead of a shirt. Silk jacket, $189, and pants, $109, Liz Claiborne. Cotton...

The sap of luxury: What's maple syrup without pancakes? Just great as a ginger glaze for fish, a sauce for steak, or in a maple sugar pie. (The Recipes).(Recipe)
February 1, 2002... Recipes are adapted from those of Tom Bivins, executive chef at the Old Tavern in Grafton, Vermont. For all recipes, dark amber maple syrup is preferred (available online at www.bairdfarm.com). BRUSSELS SPROUTS WITH SWEET POTATOES AND MAPLE...

What I know for sure.(Oprah Winfrey reflects on freedom and self-determination)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... WHENEVER I HEAR PAUL Simon's song "Born at the Right Time," I think he must be singing about me. I came into the world in 1954 in Mississippi--a state with more lynchings than any other in the Union--at a time when being a black man walking...