When I grow up...

On March 2, I mentioned the importance of positive female role models for girls. But I don't think we ever outgrow the need for role models. So I think as I move into my twilight years, I'd like to become more like Maggie Smith. Or Judi Dench. Or perhaps Helen Mirren, Geraldine McEwen, Julia McKenzie or Joan Hickson.

Not that I know any of these women personally, you understand. But I do find myself admiring the characters they portray on the big and little screens. Strong, fiercely independent women who, while they care about others, understand that they need first and foremost to please themselves and to hell with what anyone else thinks. Women who defy ageist stereotypes. They're a wonderful antidote to those skinny, sunlamp-baked, age-denying Hollywood "babes" (not that there aren't younger actresses or female actors or whatever whom I admire as well).

In Hollywood, of course, looks tend to be everything. And yet, the women I have just mentioned are all, in my book, very stylish, exuding a kind of serene personal elegance.

This past week, I saw The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. And I have to say I really enjoyed looking at what people were wearing, especially the older women. Long, flowing tops worn over trousers. Artfully draped scarves. Large yet tasteful necklaces and bracelets, often worn in multiples. Wonderful earrings. Chic yet practical, with nary a "killer heel" in sight. Clothes I could imagine myself wearing - assuming I could master the art of scarf-arranging and find a few more earrings I could comfortably wear without going through the ordeal of getting my ears re-pierced (long story there which I won't bore you with right now).

Then there's Miss Marple. The reason she's so successful at solving her cases is that she appears to be the stereotype of a harmless and perhaps slightly dotty old lady - everyone's favourite granny or auntie (Julia McKenzie, in fact, was excellent as "Gangsta Granny" in addition to her long career portraying Jane Marple) - but from her position of invisibility, looking up from her knitting or peering over the rim of her teacup, she is studiously observing and listening to everything and everyone around her while the authorities bumble on and jump to the wrong conclusions. As a youngest child, I guess I often felt that my viewpoint was automatically dismissed or not listened to ("She's too young to understand" type of thing), but we as a society often exhibit the same attitude towards old people. Elders are not respected to the same extent in our culture as they are in, say, many Asian cultures.

I'm going to need to give this whole role model business some more thought. And maybe by next year's International Women's Day, I'll have come up with a more comprehensive list.

Beware the Pis of March

My partner baked an apple pie with a pi on top, in honour of Pi Day, typically celebrated on March 14. But should it not perhaps be celebrated in the early morning of March 15 instead? Approximately .00159 of the way into the day? Mind you, we should probably make it after 1 AM, given that we have already artificially "sprung ahead" in an effort to cheat Mother Nature and elude the enemy. Or maybe we should look at marking the day approximately 1/7 the way into the month of March, putting it much earlier - probably some time in the morning or early afternoon of March 5?

But perhaps that would be a bit, well, irrational. And you have to consider as well that in Archimedes' day, the Gregorian calendar that we use today was a long way from being invented. I don't know where the 14th or 15th day of the third month would have fallen in whatever system of timekeeping Archimedes used. Or even if there were such things as months back then (well, I guess there were - certainly earlier calendars than the Gregorian had them and the moon's been around quite a while...)

So maybe the easiest solution to this dilemma would be to say that any day can be pi day - or pie day - if you want it to be. After all. you can enjoy an unbirthday cake 364 days a year (365 in leap year)!