A successful local author met me for coffee a few years ago. We were talking about book clubs, women’s book clubs to be exact, when she leaned toward me and said in a low voice, “Let me let you in on a dirty little secret. They don’t read the books.”
A group of eight Denver women has licked that problem. They belong to The Magazine Club.
Once a month, they meet in a restaurant. Over drinks, each member brings a magazine she has read and talks about an article in it. “After that we cut out pictures from the magazines and make a diorama,” says member Christina Brickley.
I love this club.
The members are Brickley, Erin Egan, Megan Rosenzweig, Mary Miller, Kristy Sands and Caroline McMorrow. President Miller keeps all the dioramas and brings a few to each meeting.
Magazine choices include everything from People to Vanity Fair to the New Yorker. “Always the New Yorker,” says Brickley. “The cartoons make excellent wallpaper for the dioramas.”
They are career women and moms – which limits their book-reading opportunities. “Those darn books,” jokes Brickley. “We all have enough time to read an article. And we get to catch up and have dinner and take turns paying the bill.”
This could catch on.
Smoking lobsters
Smoke Free Colorado’s informative TV commercials tell us that restaurants have everything they’ve always had – minus the smoke.
I’m all for that, but in one ad a group of people is sitting at a table when a lobster is served to them. The big crustacean is laid out on a platter, tail down, garnished with grapes and sliced oranges. I’ve been served many a lobster in my life, but never one with lots of fruit. It’s enough to make me start smoking.
Ladies first
I can’t go there, but women should check out the “female urinal” at the new Tattered Cover bookstore on Colfax in the converted Lowenstein Theatre.
That’s right. One of the stalls in the women’s room has a handwritten sign on the door, announcing that inside is the “Female Urinal – Left behind from the original Bonfils Theatre (FLUSH SEVERAL TIMES)”.
“It was here and part of the building,” says TC’s Matt Miller. “We thought it was an interesting historical thing to keep, so we did.”
My bathroom spy tells me the porcelain potty has no seat. And it’s certainly not a water-saving device, as some modern urinals brag. “It’s deep, like a really deep bidet,” she says. “You could do your laundry in there if Smiley’s is closed.”
No thanks.
Fore!
In Colorado Avid Golfer magazine’s Challenge Match, Fox 31’s meteorologist Stacey Donaldson edges out Ch. 9’s sportscaster Susie Wargin. When Wagrin sends one into the rocks and it comes flying back at them, she tells the mag, “I was afraid the ball would hit Stacey in the mouth and she’d look like (ex-Av) Teemu Selanne.”
cn u txt fst?
Ben Cook, once the world’s fastest text messenger, comes to Denver in an effort to regain his title July 28. It’ll all come down at Water World at the Jump/Dew Challenge when he faces the best Colorado texters.
The contest message reads: “The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.” He won in 2004 with a time of 57.75 seconds. He has since been whooped by a woman in Singapore with a time of 43.24 seconds.
City spirit
Can’t wait for the opening nights of the Denver Art Museum’s Hamilton Building. The last event runs Oct. 7-8, starting at 10 a.m. and ending the next day at 9 p.m. All night art! … Annie’s Cafe celebrating 25 years in the biz … Tom Brokaw is in Colorado working on a documentary about illegal immigration … Cheyenne Frontier Days, July 21-30, includes entertainment from Steve Miller, July 21; Martina McBride, July 22;
Keith Urban (with Nicole?), July 23; Carrie Underwood, July 27; Larry the Cable Guy, July 29 … Sez who: “They may take away the freedom of speech, but they can’t take away the freedom to shut up.” Roger Stim
Bill Husted’s column appears Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Husted also appears Tuesdays and Fridays on “Good Day Colorado” on Fox 31. You can reach him at 303-820-1486 or at bhusted@denverpost.com.
