Contrary to popular belief, reading fashion magazines can teach you useful things!

Eminence grise
Originally uploaded by Blend10.

I have finally finished my summer book “The Sisters: Saga of the Mitford Family,” just in time for fall to arrive. It is once again getting dark by 7:30, and to my disgust I have put my umbrella and fall jacket to use. But I digress. I thoroughly enjoyed my summer read; it was very historical as well as entertaining. The authoress was fond of peppering the book with little French sayings, probably because several of the Mitford Sisters spoke fluent French. On the other hand, poor little me had no idea what she was talking about and just skimmed over them. One other time, when I was tearing through the trio of French inspired books by Diane Johnson (Le Divorce, L’Affaire, and Le Marriage) my handy-dandy pocket sized French dictionary was my constant companion, there were so many French sayings and the like I wouldn’t have understood anything without it. However, this time around, I was in no mood. Consequently, I probably did not get the same level of understanding from this biography. Except for one thing. I was reading the new issue of Lucky magazine (the magazine about shopping) and came upon a review of the new shower gel Les Basiques Lavandes Grises (from France of course), and the reviewer likened it to the French phrase “Eminence Grise” which is a person who appears unremarkable but secretly controls everything. Not five minutes later, I went back to my book, and wouldn’t you know, the first paragraph I read used this very phrase! I got that creepy goose bumps feeling from the coincidence. But of course they say there are no coincidences. So for anyone who has ever said that fashion magazines are all surface and pointless, take heed, for they have taught me many useful things over the years, and I know they will continue to do so.