The Mall The Mall The Mall

Scarlett is back from a brief trip to New York and brought me various odd cookies and candies from Chinatown; my favorites so far are meant to look like bamboo shoots, but I only know this because they look like the bamboo shoot icon in the Japanese videogame Harvest Moon. (Sort of like how one can assume tuquoise-colored candies in the U.S. are raspberry flavored, I think just because candy companies needed to pick something to be blue instead of red. I remember my shock a few years ago when I ate a particular variety of large seeded grape which actually tasted like grape flavoring; before that, I had no idea "grape flavor" was more than an abstract concept.)

Went to the mall to get Ciro some new shoes since he will undoubtedly be walking a lot when he gets to Dallas, and I'd rather he not have constant leg pains from worn-down soles. I also wound up picking up a new purse, as my current one is falling apart and I inevitably lose my keys in it even though it's not much bigger than my hand. This new one looks a little more tony than I am, just by virtue of being white leather, but it does have feathers hanging off it and is comfortable and functional and attractive. I always have to be careful about this sort of thing because my face looks high class and country club, and it's easy for strangers to get the wrong idea if I'm not aggressive in my personal style. Probably only I could make this big a deal over a $20 clutch and not a Kelly bag. To be honest, "I don't hate this and could handle carrying it every day" is a pretty high bar for a purse to clear with me, so I'm fairly happy.

I have somewhat lacksidasically resumed my search for a signature perfume, which has always seemed to me like one of the defaults a well-finished person should have, like a default stationer and a default cocktail. (I love variation, but there are times when one needs to be prepared with a go-to decision.) Scent is so much a part of memory, and I do like to be recalled. However, for most of my life, I have lived with people with perfume allergies, which matters more. And while I like the idea of smelling like something specific, I don't like to smell like just anything, so I bias toward uncented lotions, shampoos, etc., and don't have much starting point from which to know what works well on me.

In the past, I've searched mainly by reading a lot about perfumes and trying to get a sense of how various scents are regarded by people who obsess over this stuff, partly because That Is How One Researches and mostly to avoid having to go to the mall every day or two to be spritzed with something that could disappear from shelves in a week. Since I was at the mall already, I went ahead and tried Guerlain's Shalimar, one of the more legendary perfumes. To me, it mainly smells sweet and vanilla, although with significant class and complexity behind that. I suppose it's a sign of the times that it seems safe and staid to me; when it was introduced in the '20s, it was barely decent, partly because the civet was stronger in that formula and largely because vanilla was viewed as a powerful aphrodesiac. (Which has some scientific backing to it. Needless to say, Ciro is enjoying my smell.)

It would definitely not be a bad choice, but I question whether it's the right one. Which means more trips to the mall. Sigh.

Screened The Fall as part of my lecture series at Epiphany as part of my continued effort to make sure everyone in the world sees that movie.