I feel bad about my neck

Nora Ephron died in June of 2012. This continues to stun me. How could someone so wonderfully, fabulously, presciently, sharply witty die at all and so relatively young too? She was just 71.

Did you know? She was the screenwriter on the very serious Silkwood. That, by the by, is the movie where Cher came out as an actress with def solid chops. I've been a fan of her acting, if not her movie choices, ever since.
           
And forget what the critics said —Heartburn was wonderful.   
       
When Harry Met Sally? Oh god, how could anyone not flat out love this flick?   

My Blue Heaven? This is one of The Amazing Bob’s all time, most fav films.       

Now, I know there really is a quote about how, as Ephron aged, she came to be unhappy about her neck but I can’t find it beyond this:

We all look good for our age. Except for our necks.

Why’s this come up this morning? Eh, I saw a pic someone took of me and Ephron’s line instantly came to mind. I didn't realize until, mebbe, after seeing Heartburn, that I was, and had been for some time, such a huge fan of her keen wit.

…the amount of maintenance involving hair is genuinely overwhelming. Sometimes I think that not having to worry about your hair anymore is the secret upside of death.

I never really put a lot of time or money into my hair until fairly recently. Why bother when the good brain surgeons were gonna have to shave it off soon anyway? It seemed, in my 40s, the cutters were cracking open my cranium near constantly. In any case, now that I’ve got a decent cut and a sweet thatch of purple, I seem to be spending an inordinate amount of time fussing over it and Nora's words come to mind.

Anything you think is wrong with your body at the age of thirty-five you will be nostalgic for at the age of forty-five.

Now, my 30s weren’t prime bod time but my 40s were so, here I am at 57, being all nostalgic for the figure I had at 47.

Here are some questions I am constantly noodling over: Do you splurge or do you hoard? Do you live every day as if it's your last, or do you save your money on the chance you'll live twenty more years? Is life too short, or is it going to be too long? Do you work as hard as you can, or do you slow down to smell the roses? And where do carbohydrates fit into all this? Are we really all going to spend our last years avoiding bread, especially now that bread in American is so unbelievable delicious? And what about chocolate?

Yes, yes – I understand!

Insane people are always sure that they are fine. It is only the sane people who are willing to admit that they are crazy.

Yup.

And here are three brill quotes from her 96 Wellesley College commencement address:

One of the things people always say to you if you get upset is, don’t take it personally, but listen hard to what’s going on and, please, I beg you, take it personally. Understand: every attack on Hillary Clinton for not knowing her place is an attack on you. Underneath almost all those attacks are the words: get back, get back to where you once belonged. When Elizabeth Dole pretends that she isn’t serious about her career, that is an attack on you. The acquittal of O.J. Simpson is an attack on you. Any move to limit abortion rights is an attack on you — whether or not you believe in abortion. The fact that Clarence Thomas is sitting on the Supreme Court today is an attack on you.

Whatever you choose, however many roads you travel, I hope that you choose not to be a lady. I hope you will find some way to break the rules and make a little trouble out there. And I also hope that you will choose to make some of that trouble on behalf of women.

Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.

My dream date would be Nora Ephron, Caitlin Moran,  Dorothy Parker, Jen and me all dishing over the crowd at Sonsie on a Thursday night.