Fairy princess dresses and the end (?) of war in Iraq. . .

Perhaps my life long and steadfast faith in the power of fairy princess dresses is Maria Beale Fletcher's fault. She was Miss North Carolina 1961/Miss America 1962. A good friend of my family designed her Atlantic City evening gown -- the dress she wore as I watched her win the Miss America crown.

Maria Beale, as she insisted I call her when my sister and I went to a fitting of that same dress, had worked as a Rockette before she took on the job of beauty queen. A real Rockette! I remember her standing unreal and magical in a fountain of white satin while Luther Self fussed about her with pins and measuring tapes. She remains to me today just as she was at that moment -- safely and securely preserved in her fairy princess dress, untouched by life's complexities. The real world protected her; that magical, serene, beautiful dress removed Maria Beale from all the penny-ante worries of real life.

I don't think I've ever watched the Emmy presentation show all the way through. I watch mostly sports, news and old movies on television (and the occasional Oval Office address), so I'm not that, you know, engaged in the Emmy outcomes. I don't know who all those people are. I'm vaguely interested in the whole cable/network/new media survival slugfest, but that's the undercurrent rather than the current of the Emmy evening.

Claire Danes

First thing the next morning, however, I always make a dive for People Magazine and the New York Times (on-line) to gaze at pictures of all those women floating by in fairy princess dresses -- beautiful unreal garments to celebrate unreal moments disconnected from anything to do with reality.


Last night President Obama spoke from the Oval Office to announce the official end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq. What does that mean? What did we accomplish? Why did we invade in the first place?

Can anyone explain any of this to me in a way that doesn't give me a burning desire to look at magical pictures of Grace Kelly?

Grace Kelly in her fairy princes wedding dress