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Chick Wit:
For Kathy
Lisa Scottoline Many of you email me to comment on the column, for which I thank you. Especially when you like it. Occasionally you don't, and that's okay, too. Lately, there's good news and bad news in the email, and I thought I'd take a second to share it with you. First, the bad news. Around the holidays, I wrote a column thanking the troops for their service, but I wasn't very clear. One email from a reader said: "You disappoint me. I also would like the men and women home from Iraq and Afghanistan, but come on, if you don't know this is an oil war you have been ignoring the newspapers you write for for years. These wars have nothing at all to do with our freedom, and everything to do with securing an oil supply so you can drive your car with its GPS system in it." Ouchie. Let me clarify things. My holiday column was intended only to support the troops, and I didn't intend to intimate a view on the war, either pro or con. But since the email, I went back and reread my column, and I see how it could have been read differently. Mea culpa. I'm still not going to say what I think about the war, because that's not why you're reading me or why I'm writing this column. You can get your political fix on the op-ed page, but Chick Wit is intended to be the counter-programming to all that, especially in this election year. My hope is that my column feels like coming home —a warm, safe place where you can put your feet up, feel comfortable, and have a few laughs. And now for something completely different. You may remember my column about my lost jester hat. I dropped it when I was out walking the dogs, and somebody picked it up and kept it. In the column, I remarked that I bought the jester hat at Eastern Mountain Sports and that they didn't make it anymore. Drum roll, please. You're not going to believe this, but the president of Eastern Mountain Sports, William O. Manzer, read that column and decided to put the jester hat back into production. Yay! (Told you that cool, smart, sexy men read Chick Wit.) Mr. Manzer sent me an email, saying: "When I read the column, some quotes of yours struck home. I once lost a sweatshirt that had paint on it from the many walls I have painted in my first two homes, and when I lost that, I felt I had indeed lost an old friend. So when you quoted Herodotus as saying 'Of all possessions, a friend is the most precious,' I thought to myself, you did lose a friend, an old friend that kept your head warm." He's so right! I lost my old friend, the hat! How great is that? Do you have a crush on Mr. Manzer yet? I do. Of course, after I got the email, I used it as an excuse to call him and find out if he was married...er, I mean, to thank him for making the jester hat again. He was really nice, even though he did talk a lot about "we." I wasn't sure if he was talking about the missus or the company, but I didn't ask, to retain some shred of dignity, now squandered. In any event, the jester hat will be available next fall, and I'm buying a zillion. Finally, there is one last email I want to mention, also about the jester hat, but this one means even more to me than Mr. Manzer's, and you'll see why. The email was from a woman named Kathy, who wrote that she had a jester hat like mine and offered hers to me. Then she added: "The hat is yours if you'd like it. The only question is IF you would wear it, knowing its background. I bought it many moons ago for my crack skier son, who pretended, quite convincingly, that he loved it. It languished in his closet, while he wore those beanie types hats that were, and still are, 'uber cool.' I refused to part with it, knowing full well that someday he'd come to his senses and see the true worth of a fleece jester cap. That day will never come as he passed away last year at the age of seventeen." Kathy continued: "For some crazy reason, I get the feeling he's looking down at me and saying, 'Hey, mom, give that dog lady my hat. You're never going to wear it, you're too into the matchy matchy ski outfit thing. (He forgets about the little Austrian number I showed up in on the slopes with the fake blonde extensions attached). She needs it because those random losers are never bringing hers back, not unless there's a reward being offered. Just do it." What a lovely thought, and a lovely offer. I didn't feel as if I could accept her son's hat, but Kathy gave me something a lot more precious. A reminder of how giving a person can be. And how deeply a mother can love. Thank you, Kathy. © Lisa Scottoline 2008 |