The lives they lived

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From: Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Date: 12/30/02-02:59:02 AM Z


The cover of the NY Times magazine for Sunday, December 29, is a montage
of people of all types and ages -- supposedly. What they have in common
was that all died in the year 2002. But when you look more closely another
pattern emerges.

They are 5 women and one Barbie doll, 9 men and Bugs Bunny.

But look some more. Figures in the text show that the oldest of the women
is 39 years old, the others appear much younger.

The men range to all ages, two are at least in their 80s. (But in truth,
women over 40 are simply not seen in the media, or advertising, only with
very rare exceptions outside of ads for adult diapers.)

Three of the women, Eileen Farrell, Peggy Lee and Linda Lovelace (of "Deep
Throat" fame) were "entertainers." The others were included not for
something they did, but for something that happened to them, like the
daughter of the woman who invented the Barbie doll & named it for her.

The men were writers, sports figures, activists, musicians, a chess
champion, a news director, an inventor, etc.

There are more male profiles than cover photos, however, making a total of
6 women, 20 men.

Some fairly active women (including gallerist & collector) died this year,
but somehow.... maybe they didn't have pictures of them in bathing suits?

Yes, two of the five women on the cover are wearing bathing suits, a third
is aparently naked, although with flowers in her hair.

All the men are fully dressed...

So Edith with her skirt hiked up could fit right in.

And again about Gerhard Richter -- Michael Kimmelman in HIS list of the
year's most noteworthy events (in the art section), lists the Richter show
at #1. He says, "the retrospective, an unexpected smash even for the
Museum of Modern Art, proved that serious painting is alive and well and
that masses of people still want to look at it. The work annoyed and
baffled just enough viewers to stir debate."

Judy


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