Anna Karenina in the House!

I have always longed to visit Moscow in the winter...huddled in fur coats, hats and boots...gloves...4 or 5 scarves wrapped around my neck...trudging along...hold on! I can do that in NYC! At least this week I can! Baby! It's cold outside! So off I go from Brookyn into Manhattan to a business lunch...by subway. It is cold everywhere but I am loving it. And I especially love it when I board the IRT line and find myself sitting across from this very NYC stylish woman in her gloriously large, very large and puffy, very puffy fur cap. I cannot take my eyes off of her...she is stunning...beautiful...comfortable in her skin...and apparently in that of the creature perched upon her head. (I am not an anti-fur type so I am not offended by this at all.) My husband has two of these wonderful hats he bought a million years ago in Russia. Each year I try to don one of them but I have two problems...the first is that they are waaaay too large so they bobble around my head so that sometimes I can see where I am going and other times I cannot. The second is that I just can't carry it off...while this woman really can. I mean she looks marvelous! Even Billy Crystal would agree! So, I lean forward, smile at her and say "Excuse me. I just love your hat! My husband has two of these hats but yours is much more hat than either of his...and you look magnificent! Would you mind if I took your photo?" (In NYC taking random photos of strangers without asking could get you into some very serious trouble...) Ms. Stunning smiles and says "But of course! Which way would you like me to look? Right or left?" Clearly she is used to having her photo taken and understands the whims of photographers...even we newbie's taking photos with our iPhones. I lift my camera and the people sitting on either side of her slide away like the parting of the Red Sea apparently understanding that I need be "at one with my craft". I capture only the Ms. Stunning in the photo and none of the random straphangers. At the very next stop she smiles, stands up, all 6' plus of her -- and I suddenly understand why she is so poised and comfortable in her skin and her glamour; why she asked which way I wanted her to look...left or right...she is clearly a model. Well done Ms. Stunning! Well done! She made my day! Enjoy this blip-pic!