How totally cool was it to look out my office window in Memphis to see the space shuttle streaking southeast, then see just a few minutes later that it had landed safely in Florida. I guess if you’re supersonic you can fly from Memphis to Florida in less than five minutes. I think I’ll never stop being in awe of the courage and skill it takes to be an astronaut, even in these days of awesome technological achievements.

I never heard a sonic boom, though.

Did you? Did you see it? What did you think?

As if wearing a skirt in the newest issue of Skirt magazine weren’t enough (click here to find your copy; that’s page 16, left), Ron’s partner-in-crime, Karen Perrin, has revealed that Ron, well … I don’t know if I can mention what she reveals on her blog today. Let’s just say they were planting pansies (really??!), and the word COMMANDO has something to do with it. TMI!

What do you think? Anyone else know any good stories about Ron?

Is to watch this every morning before going out into a world that can seem scary, what with crime and fears of crime, prejudice real and perceived, the grind of life that leaves you exhausted at the end of the day.I know it made my day.

There are nooses, and then there are nooses. The nooses (noosi?) in the news are at Germantown’s Performing Arts Center and much further south, in Jena, La.

In the local incident, some theater dudes had hung the ropes above a stage. Bad idea, and they were fired for it, unjustly, I”d argue. I didn’t hear any evidence that these theater employees had a history of racial insensitivity, or that any crude comments accompanied the ropes, which apparently are used all the time in theater settings.

 My sense is that G’town officials were sensitive to the legacy of  nooses - and that is good - but then they got afraid of not being sensitive enough - a legit concern - and then they got nervous and figured the way to avoid further drama would be to fire the employees, which was an unfortunate overreaction.

 Then, there’s this noose, definitely designed to intimidate black students in Jena, La. Read more about it in my Thursday column.  

On the heels of the story about the British woman who went 40 days without beauty products or bathing comes this story about a new study that says breast cancer could be linked to deodorant usage — particularly those deodorants/antiperspirants that rely heavily on aluminum (the study says the average antiperspirant is 90 percent aluminum).

Antiperspirant is mainly made up from aluminium salts which have long been associated with cancer, as well as other human disease and the daily application of aluminium-based antiperspirants could possibly result in the presence of aluminium in the tissue of the underarm and surrounding areas.

I’m always skeptical of these short, soundbyte-ready studies, but I’m also skeptical that every FDA-approved chemical we routinely apply to our bodies is truly safe in the long run. So, it doesn’t hurt to ask: Am I doing what’s best for my body? Of course, with all these inconclusive studies, it’s hard to tell. But if you’re feeling skittish, there are alternatives.

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