You’ve Got a Long Way to Go, Baby!

You’ve Got a Long Way to Go, Baby! By Menopause Taylor  Back in 1968, the phrase, “You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby” became very popular. It implies progress. And, even though it was an advertising slogan for Virginia Slim cigarettes rather than anything expressly political or social, it symbolized these long, slender cigarettes that were […]

Pre-vention, Inter-vention, or Fixin’

  Pre-vention, Inter-vention, or Fixin’ by Menopause Taylor  I’ve often said that doctors are repairmen. The entire four years of medical education and the four to five years of residency training are all devoted to learning how to repair people once they’re broken. Of course, the tools for fixing broken people aren’t the same as […]

South African Hair Affairs

Have you ever thought about just how preoccupied humans are when it comes to their hair? It can be a critical part of our identity. How often do you describe someone without saying word about his or her hair (or lack thereof)? “The redhead.” “The bald guy.” “You know, that girl with the long blond […]

Fifty Shades of Black

A couple of weeks ago, I was riding in a South African taxi cab. The driver was a middle-aged fellow, with dark chocolate skin and pinkish lips. He’d been born and raised in Cape Town. It’s my habit to talk to cab or Uber drivers. I like to show genuine interest in and kindness toward […]

Beauty and The Beast

Remember the fairytale “Beauty and The Beast”? The beauty was the lovely young, feminine, elegant, sexy, desirable, kind woman who seemed to have everything going for her. The beast was a big, hairy, ugly, mean, cursed animal who inflicted pain and misery on others. In the story, the names “Beauty” and “Beast” clearly distinguish the […]

While You Weren’t Sleeping

Not sleeping! We all hate it. While you weren’t sleeping, you were lying in bed wishing you were sleeping, but to no avail. Then you started searching for the reasons you weren’t sleeping. All the tossing, turning, re-positioning, thinking of things that might have put you to sleep. And all the while, you were assessing […]

Waste Product or Waist Product?

One of the things menopausal women hate most is the accumulation of fat around their waist. Even if you never had a fat waist before, you notice an increase in its size at menopause. No more hourglass figure. No more firm, flat belly.  Suddenly, every gram of weight you gain seems to end up around […]

There’s a Very Fine Line Between “Ed” and “Ad”

It’s so difficult to get accurate information these days! Of course, the key word is “accurate.” There’s plenty of “information.” But how in the world are you supposed to separate what’s credible and accurate from what’s not? The Internet was supposed to make information gathering better. But, has it? Historically, if you wanted to learn […]

Face Fat or Belly Fat; That is the Question

It seems that life is all about trade-offs. You just can’t have things both ways. For most matters, we’re pretty used to these trade-offs. We know we can either spend our money or save our money. We trade freedom for companionship when we enter into a romantic partnership. We accept that we have to forfeit […]

Leakage and Shrinkage

We live in an era of name changes. The reasons for name-changing vary, but some are quite baffling to me. Let’s see, the “trash man” is no longer the trash man. Now he’s a “waste management worker.” A woman who stays at home rather than going to a job somewhere else used to be called […]