O, The Oprah Magazine articles from September 2007

O, The Oprah Magazine archives from September 2007

Bye-bye, inhibitions.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... "The Nude Attitude" [by Laure Redmond, July] was wonderful. I'd always been physically self-conscious, but I was especially so after divorcing in my 30s, when I felt my body was the worse for wear. Raising children and studying to become a...

The African Queen.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... Thank you for your July article about Sveva Gallmann ["For the Love of Africa," by Rosemary Mahoney]. I remember watching the movie I Dreamed of Africa, in which Kim Basinger played Sveva's mother. I felt sorry that the father and son died; I...

Barkin on beauty.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... I loved "Beauty Upkeep--The Ellen Bar-kin Plan" [by Valerie Monroe, July], which outlined the 53-year-old actress's opinions and practices with regard to health and beauty maintenance. It must be tough to pull off anything new in the celebrity...

Grin ... and cover it?(letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... Adam Glassman tells us we can't go sleeveless because uncared-for elbows are repulsive. Then Ellen Barkin tells us we can't go strapless or show our knees if we're over 50. I have a few age spots on my hands; should I head to the plastic...

Scaredy-cats in the kitchen.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... I got a kick out of Cara Birnbaum's "Mastering the Art of Fearless Cooking" [July]. That was me ten years ago, until I took a 13-week basic culinary class at a local kitchen supply store. It was eye-opening! I learned how things should smell,...

Bedroom politics.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... I was glad to read "Eyes Wide Open," Violet Blue's July article on porn. I don't enjoy video porn--there's too much up-close action--but I do enjoy looking at sites online. I also like to read erotica to get my motor running. It was nice to see...

Getting ahead of cancer.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... Thank you for "Get a Jump on the Silent Killer," your article on ovarian cancer [by Naomi Barr, July]. But when I was diagnosed with granulosa-cell ovarian cancer at the end of April, I had none of the symptoms that were mentioned; my doctor...

Satisfied customer.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... The July issue was your best yet. "You're Middle-Aged, But Are You Done? Discuss" [by Caitlin Flanagan], which recorded a night of seven 40-something women candidly assessing their lives, and Lisa Kogan's column about her cousin's hair being...

Correction.(Correction notice)
September 1, 2007... The recipes on page 218 of our July issue and on page 236 of our August issue (which went along with the stories "Melons: The Inside Scoop" and "Feed the People," respectively) were developed by Rori Trovato.

Here we go!
September 1, 2007... I THINK IT WAS PLAYWRIGHT JANE WAGNER WHO said, "All my life I've wanted to be somebody, but I see now I should've been more specific." It seems to me that the world is made up of two kinds of people: those who practically yank the pacifier...

Damn, I'm hot! She's no giggling, high-heel-teetering femme fatale. Yet Martha Beck has done well (ahem, very well) in the romance department. If you turn into a wallflower every time an attractive person appears in your vicinity, Martha has strategies to help you strut your stuff.(advice, etc.)
September 1, 2007... WE'D BEEN WAITING 30 MINUTES for someone to take our order in a busy Mexican restaurant when my friend Cathy decided to take extreme measures. "Watch this," she whispered. Then she tugged the clip from her hair, opened a collar button, and...

Dr. Phil: "extend a hand to help him walk through his fear"; Phillip C. McGraw, PhD, on calming a skittish husband ... confronting your own adoption ... and setting boundaries with your mother.(advice, etc.)
September 1, 2007... Q Days after finding out I was pregnant with our second child, my husband announced that he wanted a divorce. We had separated once before, three weeks after our son was diagnosed as autistic. When tough situations arise, he bolts. He said the...

Suze Orman: "at the risk of making you more worried, are you sure that was your bank calling?" Shielding your financial identity ... weighing your kids' education against your early retirement ... growing a small business.(advice, etc.)
September 1, 2007... Q A representative from my bank called recently to ask whether I had received my new credit card. Since my current one wasn't due to expire for five more years, I asked why they sent a replacement. The agent said there had been a copyright...

A million ways to save the world.(advice, etc.)
September 1, 2007... Award-winning playwright EVE ENSLER resumes her monthly mission: to canvass the best brains around the globe for their earth-fixing ideas. So that by Valentine's Day 2008, the tenth anniversary of V-Day--Ensler's movement to end violence...

What do I do now? Friends' disastrous wardrobe choices (and uninvited candor). Improper introductions and AWOL thank-you notes. O's experts toss Jancee Dunn an etiquette lifeline.(advice, etc.)
September 1, 2007... You give a gift and the recipient doesn't thank you. Three ways to handle it: [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 1 That's easy: Don't give another one!--JACK MARSHALL 2 This, to me, is one of the most egregious ethical transgressions. After...

Nikki Giovanni's aha! moment: she still thought of herself as a hip young babe at the age of 58. But when the poet discovered she was old, she realized she was even cooler.(advice, etc.)
September 1, 2007... FOR MOST OF MY LIFE, I'VE THOUGHT of myself as pretty cool. I have a tattoo. I wear my hair short. Even at 58, even after being diagnosed with lung cancer several years earlier, I thought, I'm in good shape. I'm young, and I'm healthy. I'm a...

Scary work scenario #2: and I have to spend all day with these people? Whether they're pushy, lazy, boss hating, self-promoting, or haven't done any actual work since 1973, dysfunctional colleagues can make everyone look bad. Suzy Welch on how to win at work with a losing team.(advice, etc.)
September 1, 2007... HER NAME WAS MARGARET. SHE HAD AN ANSWER for everything, even questions I didn't ask her. She dominated team meetings, nearly jumping out of her chair with "Look at me!"--type comments aimed directly at the boss. The rest of us sitting there,...

The O list.(guide to accessories)(Buyers guide)
September 1, 2007... "A few things I think are just great."--OPRAH Grand Opening "These funny little bottle openers work like a charm and look cute to boot." ($21 each, Ritzenhoff; ritzenhoffusa.com) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Logging On Just Got...

Shop right!(style)
September 1, 2007... Fall fashion is in its glory, but most of us are muttering, "I've got a closetful of clothes and nothing to wear." That's why O's style team came up with a clear-cut plan for getting you dressed brilliantly this fall. It dispels new-season...

The way we shop now: would you sooner have a root canal than pay full price? Do you hide new shoes from your husband? If you budget at all (a lot of us don't), how do you divide the pie? Here's the bottom line according to our women-on-the-street confessionals and exclusive online reader poll.(shop right)
September 1, 2007... HOW I SPEND TRINA REUBEN-WILLIAMS, 35, DANBURY, CONNECTICUT, MARKETING CONSULTANT [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WHERE I LOOK: "Until recently, I only shopped at high-end retailers online because I was too intimidated to walk into the...

Commando shoppers: in their hands, buying clothes is practically a martial art, and they always (well, almost) hit their target. O debriefs four black belts for their browsing strategies.(shop right)
September 1, 2007... EVE FEUER, 46 O contributing editor and fashion consultant [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "I don't like to get caught up in trends, and I don't like to waste money." * To avoid accumulating environmentally unfriendly shopping bags,...

Zap! You're dressed! Call it the Uniform Solution: great black pants (the five pairs here are all best-sellers, made year after year, so you can always turn to them) and a perfect white shirt (the latest crop has cute sleeves, imaginative trim). That's fashion security.(shop right)(guide to women's clothing)(Buyers guide)
September 1, 2007... IF YOU HAVE A BELLY, an edgy leather waistband makes it virtually disappear, and the torso-lengthening low rise counteracts a short waist (As Is by Alvin Valley, $350). The Antonia blouse from Anne Fontaine ($295)--the ultimate white-shirt...

And to top it all off ... throw one of these over your shirt and pants. You're chic in seconds.(shop right)(guide to jackets and shirts)(Buyers guide)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... THE WRAP With its commodious, unfitted shape, this laid-back tweed jacket (Ann Taylor, $228) keeps your uniform neutral but adds cozy texture. Wear it cinched with the tie belt or, for a bit of helpful camouflage, let it hang loose. Shirt,...

The boot/bag you'll want this season.(shop right)(guide to boot and bag)(Buyers guide)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... TWO WAYS TO UPDATE an outfit faster than you can say "I'll take it": The stacked-heel ANKLE BOOT (Calvin Klein, $150) has flattering diagonal elastic that looks like an extension of the foot. Striking with pants, but if you like a skirt, be...

High glamour, low price: Vera Wang's smashing new line for Kohl's looks rich, reads chic, and is priced to sell like wildfire (the clothing tops out at $138). It's gorgeous on women her age (58), her teenage daughters, and everybody in between--including size 16s.(shop right)
September 1, 2007... "I BUY LEGGINGS by the cartload," says Vera Wang, who loves to combine items from her "very, very luxury" collection with those black basics. Comfortable, easy, flattering ("I'm petite and they're elongating")--they are her signature: "I wear...

Everything here is under $100! The best of the season, at crazy low prices.(shop right)(Buyers guide)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... $88 Ethnic print skirt--a natural match for neutrals, Banana Republic; bananarepublic.com. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] $60 Updated shirtdress with slimming ruching at the waist, Chadwick's; chadwicks.com. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

Adam says: O's creative director, Adam Glassman, tells you what your best friends won't.(shop right)
September 1, 2007... Q WHAT DO YOU THINK OF COMMUNAL DRESSING ROOMS? Well, you can get an honest comment about how your butt looks! I grew up going to discount stores with my mother, and I remember the try-on area as a shopping version of The Red Tent: There...

Fall's top trends: a best-dressed week; Which new styles are wearer friendly, and how do you put them together? O's 7-day guide has the answers.(shop right)
September 1, 2007... Monday Getting back to work is tough enough; you may as well be comfortable in a sporty, silky blush pink anorak (Moschino) that can acquire enough polish for the office if worn over a Henley tee (Gap, $25) and wide-legged pants in...

Make (up) someone happy; Your project: to find a new lipstick ... or eyeshadow ... or blush. A simple errand--or a rite of transformation? Valerie Monroe, O's beauty director, slips behind the counter to see what's really putting a smile on your face.(style beauty)(cosmetics)
September 1, 2007... ONE SATURDAY AFTERNOON NOT LONG AGO IN A NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT store, I inadvertently wandered into a party so lively, I couldn't bring myself to leave: a hundred people at least, mostly women, young and old and in between, laughing, sharing...

Look what we found! Luxurious triple-milled soaps, a refined skincare classic, intoxicatingly scented shampoos and conditioners, and more ... Here's what O's beauty editors--Valerie Monroe and Jessica Matlin--fell in love with this month.(style beauty)(Buyers guide)
September 1, 2007... * Attention, thrill seekers: Here are a few things you could do this fall. You could wallpaper your sitting room in a rare, exquisite, 17th-century flocked fabric; you could indulge in a bottle of a wildly expensive, bewitching frangipani and...

Ask Val: you've got questions? Our beauty director, Valerie Monroe, has answers.(style beauty)
September 1, 2007... Q My skin got dry after my doctor put me on Lipitor. Could other drugs have a similar effect? Yes, and you probably wouldn't suspect it, which is why I always read the minuscule print on drug inserts. The one drug you might figure would...

The chic of gray; From pearl to stone to smoke, this cool neutral is a subtle way to rethink your table for autumn: its palette-cleansing purity makes it a naturally elegant background for all kinds of food and drink.(style home)(guide to kitchenwares)(Buyers guide)
September 1, 2007... THE DEEP END of the spectrum--charcoal, anthracite, slate--is close to black, but "softer and more approachable," says author and color consultant Leatrice Eiseman. "It has unobtrusive power." A gorgeous foil for any metal, gray fits right into...

Eater's digest: what's new and delicious this month.(style food)
September 1, 2007... The Bite Stuff You'd like to be able to invite friends over for drinks at a moment's notice, but what can you offer them to eat? All you've got on hand is plain cheese and bread. Well, try this: Keep jars of aromatic Harvest Song preserves...

Vitamin wars--the latest.(bodywise)(research on antioxidants)
September 1, 2007... MORE THAN HALF of American adults take vitamin and mineral supplements. If you're one of them, you may have been alarmed by recent headlines suggesting that antioxidant supplements containing vitamins A, E, and beta-carotene shorten your life...

Stay clean--and safe--for less.(bodywise)(antibacterial soaps)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... SAVE YOURSELF SOME money: Research has shown that, in the home, antibacterial soap is no more effective than the regular stuff in preventing infection. Worse, the antibacterial scrubs may harm you. The most recent red flag indicates that...

Of mice and women.(bodywise)(medical tests on laboratory animals)
September 1, 2007... ABOUT 20 YEARS AGO, scientists realized that testing drugs and medical procedures primarily on men told them little about how a woman might react. But animal researchers have just recently begun to conclude that using only males means they're...

The blood test women need--and doctors skip.(bodywise)(type 2 diabetes)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... ANN WILLIAMS'S three children each weighed more than nine pounds at birth--an indication that a mother's blood sugar may be high. She'd also had pregnancy-onset diabetes with her youngest. These were warning signs that she was at risk for type...

One from (and for!) the heart.(bodywise)(advantages of blood donation)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... IN MEDIEVAL TIMES, barber surgeons would open a patient's vein to treat everything from fever to psychosis. Their success rate left a lot to be desired. Had they limited themselves to haircuts and the treatment of heart trouble, history might...

The way to eat: David L. Katz, MD, sorts out the healthy, the harmful, and the hype.(bodywise)
September 1, 2007... Q I have a very high risk of breast cancer, and I'm confused about soy: Should I eat it or avoid it? If it's good, how much? --LINDA HALL North Andover, Massachusetts [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Yes, I think you should eat soy foods....

Sprinting to weight loss: want to lose weight in a hurry? Research shows that brief-and-intense (with rests in between) trumps dutiful-and-steady. Selene Yeager explains the new science of getting fit fast.(bodywise)
September 1, 2007... GAINING WEIGHT CAN DO THAT TO YOU: MICHELLE Falkenstein, a 45-year-old teacher and mother of three from Saskatchewan, felt discouraged, demoralized, and depressed. But she also had determination. Like millions of women, she had struggled with...

Walk (or run) this way.(bodywise)(exercise intervals)
September 1, 2007... Though interval workouts sound daunting, anyone can do them, says Phil Campbell, the creator of the Sprint 8 interval program. "You don't have to run full speed," he says. "You don't even need to run. You can bike, swim, elliptical train, even...

8 ways to get back in the game after the mommy years.(bodywise: mind)(working women)
September 1, 2007... OF THE 37 PERCENT of college-educated women who quit their jobs, many to raise children, 93 percent are ready to go back to work within about two years, according to data published in the Harvard Business Review. But by most accounts, trying to...

Marital mood leak.(bodywise: mind)(depression in spouses)
September 1, 2007... FOR BETTER OR FOR worse, when you get married, you sign on for a life of sharing--bedsheets, bathroom space, cold germs. Moods, too, as it turns out. And it's becoming increasingly clear that "emotional contagion," the unconscious tendency to...

Why we don't care about Darfur.(bodywise: mind)(social problems and its effects)
September 1, 2007... MORE THAN 200,000 PEOPLE dead in Darfur. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Tens of thousands of women raped in eastern Congo. One million killed by malaria each year, mostly in Africa, where 3,000 children alone are dying every day. How...

Sunstruck.(reading room)(On the Beach)(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2007... WHEN PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD MISRACH LOOKED OUT ON AN idyllic Hawaii beach from the balcony of his hotel room in November 2001, he saw more than an expanse of sun and sand. He saw tiny, vulnerable human beings lost in space. His gull's-eye views...

After the fall: Jim Shepard's stories are so dangerously brilliant, they're radioactive.(reading room)(Like You'd Understand, Anyway)(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2007... THE ZERO METER DIVING Team," a short story about Chernobyl and its terrible aftermath--and just one of an astounding set of stories in Jim Shepard's new collection, Like You'd Understand, Anyway (Knopf)--presents itself, in spite of its hideous...

Saved from the fire: a young Vietnamese doctor leaves behind a stunning, passionate diary.(reading room)(Last Night I Dreamed of Peace)(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2007... DURING THE BLOODIEST DAYS OF THE VIETNAM WAR, Dang Thuy Tram, a young woman in her 20s, left her comfortable home in Hanoi to work as a doctor at a field hospital in the thick of the fierce guerrilla fighting. There she tended civilians and...

The all-night read.(reading room)(Away)(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2007... How is it that some people can lose everything but relentlessly keep moving forward? Away (Random House), by frequent O contributor Amy Bloom, tells of Lillian Leyb, an immigrant who lands at Ellis Island in 1924 with only her ambition and...

Brush to judgment: a witty, acute new novel takes aim at the art world.(reading room)(The Great Man)(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2007... IF WRITERS WERE STILL CONSIDERED dangerous, Kate Christensen would likely be in jail. Her writing is clear-eyed, muscular, bitingly funny, and supremely caustic about the niceties of social relations, contemporary American culture, and sexual...

Is that me? Aging realistically: a call to arms!(reading room)(60 On Up: The Truth About Aging in America)(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2007... PICTURE IT: You're old. Not "senior," not in your "power" years, not 80-as-the-new-60. Just old. "You look in the mirror," writes sociologist and psychotherapist Lillian Rubin in 60 On Up: The Truth About Aging in America (Beacon), and you...

How it feels.(reading room)(stories told of photograps)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... An old man alone, at home. You'll find nothing less, and profoundly more, in The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings (Princeton Architectural Press), photographer KayLynn Deveney's quietly moving late-life portrait. Hastings's handwritten...

Beautiful minds.(reading room)(A Mind Apart: Travels in a Neurodiverse World )(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2007... "HOW DOES EVERYONE resist the luscious-ness of others' minds, moving around us, with us, all the time, like a gallery of veiled art?" asks Susanne Antonetta in A Mind Apart: Travels in a Neurodiverse World (Tarcher/Penguin). Within its pages,...

What she's reading.(reading room)(Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... IN CONVENTIONAL FAIRY TALES, A humble being is transformed into a noble one, but in The Uncommon Reader (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Alan Bennett's comic fable about the forbidden pleasures of serious reading, the status-magic works in reverse....

Prep School confidential: Restless Virgins is an unblinking look at one of America's most prestigious--and recently scandal-plagued--boarding schools.(reading room)(Book review)
September 1, 2007... Apparently, you don't need to strand teenagers on a desert island to re-create the primal horrors we all remember unfolding in Lord of the Flies. In their first book. Restless Virgins: Love, Sex, and Survival at a New England Prep School...

New voices.(BIBLIO)(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2007... Our hero: a fat, virginal, chronically lovelorn, science-fiction-obsessed Dominican-American "ghetto nerd" addled by a family curse. Told in blindingly kinetic prose, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Riverhead), Junot Diaz's dazzling debut...

Books that made a difference to Viggo Mortensen: poems, novels, essays, histories. The actor (and writer, and publisher) goes to press with his favorite titles.(reading room)
September 1, 2007... IN 2002 I STARTED A SMALL PUBLISHing company called Perceval Press, with the help of Pilar Perez, a curator I'd previously worked with at the Santa Monica, California, gallery Track 16. The company's name came from the Arthurian legend, in...

A river flows through us: her worldly 12-year-old wasn't the sort to read Tom Sawyer. Or was he? So his mother pulled a fast one. Sneaky girl! Andrea Lee forms a classic bond with her boy.(reading room)
September 1, 2007... IT WAS WITH A CERTAIN TIMIDITY THAT I BEGAN READING TOM SAWYER to my son, Charles. We live in Italy, and Charles at 12, with a smudge of nascent mustache, is one of those jaded bicultural kids now produced in such quantities by this shrinking...

Love traps 101: how did you find him, the guy who pushes all your wrong buttons? Liesl Schillinger reports on an amazingly effective new therapy that just might transform what we think about when we think about love.(connections)(Case study)
September 1, 2007... NOT LONG AGO, JEFFREY E. YOUNG, PhD, a cognitive psychologist and clinical researcher at Columbia University Medical Center, met with a couple in crisis. The woman, let's call her Chloe, was brutally critical of her boyfriend, let's call him...

Live your best love life! The ex factor: can we talk about past loves with present-day sweethearts? Cindy Chupack on the rules of remembering out loud.(connections)
September 1, 2007... When is it okay to talk about exes with a new guy? I wanted to tell my boyfriend about my ex, but that made him uncomfortable. I did get him to open up about his past, then found myself walking on eggshells when I thought I was doing...

I'm going to paint that man right out of my house: they moved to the country. They drifted apart. He left. She redecorated. Can an adorable home make up for a failed marriage? Allison Glock reports.(connections)
September 1, 2007... I FOUND THE FARM ONLINE. TEN acres of rolling pasture, with a burbling creek and a garden of heirloom roses. The house--white clapboard--was built in 1790 and boasted original wide plank floors and brass doorknobs black with age. Outside were...

Lisa Kogan tells all: oh, her man she loves him so. But let's just say, you know, for the sake of argument, that he were to be attacked by a vicious band of marauding yodelers. Then what? Here, the stuff our ever-resourceful columnist's dreams are made of.(connections)
September 1, 2007... YOU COULD FILL ENTIRE FOOTBALL stadiums with all the things that I don't know. I don't know how to make paella. I don't know how to do algebra or iron pleats or ski. I don't know how to sing on key, accept a compliment, interact at a party...

The afterlife: when her son Peter was killed on a hijacked plane on 9/11, Sally Goodrich concluded that life as she knew it was over. But then she found a new mission--building schools in, of all places, the harsh, violence-ridden land of Afghanistan. Peter Trachtenberg on an amazing woman who's risen triumphantly from the smoke and ashes of her own bereavement.(connections)
September 1, 2007... IN APRIL 2006, SARAH GOODRICH, A 61-YEAR-OLD SCHOOL administrator from Bennington, Vermont, paid a visit to a newly constructed girls' middle school in Logar, Afghanistan. Logar lies an hour and a half from Kabul, in a broad, fertile valley...

What do you really want to do with your life?
September 1, 2007... That's the question the eight women here asked themselves at a point when their days were filled with the same old, same old. And then they jumped--sometimes without a clue as to where they were heading. The upshot was, each found herself one...

Your brilliant (next) career ... and how to find it.
September 1, 2007... The puzzle: a successful woman who felt that something in her life was missing--but what, precisely? The answer: Marcus Buckingham, an expert in what works at work, believes that the power to transform your life is much closer than anyone...

Your great idea, whose time has come: you have a brainstorm ... but now what? Polly Brewster's six-part guide to going from concept to reality.
September 1, 2007... 1 Find Your Inspiration * CREATE YOUR OWN SERVICE DEPARTMENT. You don't need a billion-dollar idea--like sneakers with wheels--to start a company. The Small Business Administration (SBA) reports that 55 percent of women business owners are...

Oprah talks to Fantasia; She once was lost, a single mother living on welfare. But then Fantasia Barrino found the faith to rise above her situation and take a long shot: an open call for American Idol. Which led to two albums, one memoir, and spectacular success as the star of The Color Purple--proof that the American Dream is alive and well and living on Broadway.(Interview)
September 1, 2007... THREE YEARS AGO, Fantasia Barrino--then a 19-year-old single mother surviving on food stamps in the projects of High Point, North Carolina--arrived at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta with 50 borrowed dollars and an unlikely dream: becoming the next...

Gray's Anatomy of style.
September 1, 2007... Eight leading ladies have scintillating encounters with this most glamorous neutral. Softer than black, stronger than beige, gray works with any color, responds beautifully to a mix of shades and textures, and can do a shimmering backless gown...

Tomatoes prime time: grab 'em now, when they're this ripe, this luscious, this versatile, this seasonally wondrous. Peter Smith gets into the red (not to mention the yellow, orange, green)....
September 1, 2007... FIND THE BIGGEST BASKET YOU CAN. Now run, don't walk, to your local farmers' market. From high summer until the middle of fall, tomatoes are in the prime of their lives. The sheer variety of names is amazing: Brandywine, Amish Paste, Mortgage...

Foundation: the puzzle solved; Too much and you look like a clown. Too little and you look unpolished. Very tricky stuff, foundation. Here, answers to all your questions about choosing it, using it--but never abusing it--and looking naturally flawless.
September 1, 2007... I COULDN'T HELP BEING A LITTLE JEALOUS. My colleague had the most flawless skin I'd ever seen. Even under the unforgiving glare of the office's harsh fluorescent bulbs, she looked perfect. I wrote off her complexion as one of those inherited...

The 12 most irresistible cosmetics of fall.
September 1, 2007... You may not need one more lipstick/eyeliner/whatever, but how about a sheer gold lipstick? An eyeliner as foolproof as a felt-tip pen? A powder that lights up your whole face? Here are the newest beauty finds worth looking for. 1 Three...

Breathing space.
September 1, 2007... ANTIBES, FRANCE, ON THE MEDITERRANEAN COAST Photograph by Kevin Galvin

"I'm really scared, but I'm absolutely ready for this".(Elizabeth Edwards)
September 1, 2007... She doesn't agree with her husband on every single issue. She doesn't hesitate to say so publicly. And, we're delighted to say, she doesn't walk away from a fight. Elizabeth Edwards is not only a funny, fierce, absolutely lovely force to be...

Not your grandpa's cardigan: you can leave your jacket in the closet a while longer. Oversize cardigans with fresh features--bold buttons, inventive knits--are a little bit varsity, a little bit edgy. Mr. Rogers, move over.(FASHION)(Buyers guide)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... BELL SLEEVES plus a baby doll silhouette equals a shapely knit. Daytrip by Buckle, $30; buckle.com. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A CHUNKY CABLE KNIT feels lean and lightweight. Liz Claiborne, S109; lizclaiborne.com. [ILLUSTRATION...

Best case scenarios; Makeup bags for every need: small, to fit into your purse; sturdy and well organized, to take on a trip; and big enough to hold your entire cosmetics collection at home.(BEAUTY)
September 1, 2007... TINY CLUTCHES Covered in easy-to-clean vinyl, this preppy pouch ($70) by KATE SPADE will always look as new as the day you bought it. Plus, the dark chocolate lining will conceal uncapped eye pencil and leaking lip gloss smudges. ...

Tomatoes: prime time; Ripe for the eating: crispy, tangy, fried green tomatoes; spicy tomato kebabs; a vibrant, garlic-tinged sauce on top of crab-stuffed "ravioli"; and a granita-like Bloody Mary (for story, see page 330).(THE RECIPES)
September 1, 2007... Frozen-Cherry-Tomato Bloody Marys An ice-cold Bloody Mary is always satisfying--until the ice melts and dilutes the drink. To solve that problem, freeze cherry tomatoes and use them in place of ice cubes. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 3...

Shop guide (all prices are approximate).(Buyers guide)
September 1, 2007... COVER/HERE WE GO P.49 Cardigan, Brunello Cucinelli, $1,560; 212-627-9202. Tank, Fendi, $790, Bergdorf Goodman, NYC; 212-753-7300. Pants, Piazza Sempione, $425; 973-379-3980. Earrings, Herve van der Straeten, similar styles available, Bergdorf...

What I know for sure.
September 1, 2007... I JUST CAME IN FROM A HIKE UP THE mountain in back of my house in Hawaii. Funny thing about a mountain: It always looks easier to climb when you're at the foot of it. My goal was to reach the top of the tree line--about 3,000 feet up from my...