Back by popular demand, my third 'Let's Bring Back ... " column.
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Let's Bring Back ...
1. Double-features. Perfect for long, rainy November afternoons, and for prolonging first-date make-out sessions. Let's also bring back pre-feature cartoon shorts!
2. Dressing nicely for travel and dinner. Because these days, going to restaurants and airports is an aesthetic nightmare.
Cabaret, 1972
3. Satirical political cabarets. The comeback of burlesque is perfectly delicious, but let's take it a step further. As we all know, sex and politics are a time-hallowed, natural mix. So let's bring that mix back to the stage, Liza-style.
4. Hobbies. And collections. Book collecting. Butterfly collecting. Bee keeping. Whatever. Hobbies are quaint, and it's nice to do something in which the process is the pleasure.
5. Three-piece suits. On men and women. Because they just look so smart.
Jackie Kennedy during her husband's presidential campaign
6. Foreign languages. Learning French used to be an absolute prerequisite for cultured American women. Jackie Kennedy campaigned and entertained for her husband in both French and Spanish. Ask for Rosetta Stone for Christmas. Your chicness quota will skyrocket.
7. Game night. Scrabble, bridge, poker, whatever. A friend of mine points out that game nights used to serve as wonderful occasions to get soused and gossip and argue. And it does get so dreadfully boring to go to yet another couple-y restaurant dinner.
8. Old-fashioned Frigidaires. They are just so damn stylish. You just expect to open that heavy door and find ice-cold bottles of beer and yummy Betty Crocker icebox cakes inside.
9. Vintage cocktails. Today's far-fetched confection cocktails suck. I don't know about you, but I find the idea of a watermelon martini to be rather sickening. There's nothing like a good, manly Manhattan, or a crisp gin and tonic. I'm partial to Shirley Temples myself.
10. Baby bonnets. Soft, satin ones in white or pink. It's probably best to leave them off the boys, though. They'll hate you for it later.
The pocketwatch: Curiouser and curiouser
11. Pocketwatches. Preferably an heirloom. It will make you look wonderfully old-world and curious. Plus, it removes the watch as a dull, ubiquitous status symbol.
12. Lovely, leisurely evening walks. After dinner, just a stroll around the neighborhood. Because window-peeping is always better at night.
13. Suspenders. Men in rolled up shirtsleeves and suspenders are hot.
14. Daisies. Like modern cocktails, modern flower arrangements can be so overwrought. It's so lovely to get an innocent, cheerful bouquet of daisies.
15. Intelligent opinioneering, which does not resort to personal attacks, and which is not solely in the service of shameless self-promotion.