Peculiar Beauty

Through Bowlerized (another Berlin-based blog) I found the most wonderful compendium of classic beauty tips throughout history. The site is called Peculiar Beauty. Bonnie Downing, the editor of the site, also released a book with the same title.

My favorite entry (so far) has to be reading tips from Beverly and Vidal Sassoon, a couple my father took me out to dinner with at Big Window back in the 1970s. Just check Ivan’s book of celebrities, I got to sign it several times as a child, my first being at dinner with the Sassoons.

But enough gratuitous name-dropping… here’s the quote:

“I would like to add a small, totally chauvinist view here:  Smoking is anti-sex.  To kiss a beautiful woman, even if she is wearing the most feminine of scents and has the softest skin and moistest lips, is– if she smokes– like kissing a little old man.  I associate smoker’s breath with whiskey old codger’s and with my army buddies– neither group do I kiss.  The smoking woman may have come a long way, baby, but it’s down the wrong street.

Because Beverly hates the smell of onions, I got her to stop smoking during the day.  I kept an onion with me, and whenever she started to smoke a cigarette, I took a big bite of raw onion.  She now smokes occasionally in the the evening, but she always uses mouthwash before we kiss goodnight.”

Hmmm… wonder what trick I can use to get my wife to learn German… I think I will promise an hour at the gym for every hour she studies Deutsch!