For tennis aficionados the US Open at Flushing Meadows near New York is a must-see affair. The colours worn by Grand Slam champions jump out at you. Roger Federer, a new father of twins and the best player in the world shows off his new red and black court attire; Serena Williams, the No. 2 women’s player, sports a fuchsia minidress; and Nadal, the reigning Australian Open champ and a threat to Federer appears in a ‘taxicab-yellow polo shirt.’
Alongside tennis mania are scattered weddings across America. The marriage season is from June to October.
Glowing couples – a man and a woman; a man and a man, a woman and a woman (it’s okay to be gay) exchange rings of eternal love, sacrifice and service to each other before family and friends who dab their eyes when vows are made and couples united in ‘holy matrimony.’ But half of these couples eventually divorce. In the park sits a single dad who has brought his three kids. ‘One day my wife left me,’ he says. ‘I still don’t know why.’ She’s taken his home and half of all his earnings that he made over the years. ‘My children miss me… I was a good husband, a good provider and a good father.’ The older two boys vent their anger on their little sister nearby. They scratch her, rough her up until she starts to cry. The dad lost in his sadness tells them not to harass her. Soon the three are back to playing with a bagful of toys their dad has gotten them. All is well or is it? Will the anger of their parents’ divorce leave their tender hearts scarred forever?
Then we have this guy called Hugh Hefner. Sound familiar? Does the magazine Playboy bring back images of bunnies? Well his estranged wife is demanding a divorce and his famous penthouse along with millions of his wealth. Millionaire Hefner, 83, married Conrad, 43, in 1989, when she was Playmate of the Year. They have two teenaged boys. Currently the aging playboy is ‘involved with 19-year-old identical twins Karissa and Kristina Shannon’ reports Divorce.com. There’s Ravi too – an Indian judo karate master who put his wife through law school with his meagre earnings when the couple migrated to America from India. ‘I would drive her each day from our home in the Bronx to her college. I gave her everything. And when she became a successful attorney, she divorced me.’ Ravi is a broken man and wants to return to his roots in India. ‘But I love my son and until he goes to college, I must hang around here.’ Then there’s Flor Murillo whom I meet at Home DepotShe advises me on what to use to clean my kitchen floors, countertops and toilets. ‘I worked as a cleaning lady for 17 years in New York just to put my son through school,’ says the woman whose husband left her soon after the couple came to the US from South America.
‘Now my son has finished college but he has no job,’ she adds while pushing a huge bottle of detergent my way.
‘This stuff is the answer to your cleaning problems,’ she says confidently. ‘It will make your life a lot easier.’ Flor’s tips for cleaning are priceless. They work wonders for me. ‘Tell my boss that you found my help useful. I’ll get a raise.’
While Flor the Latina’s hands and nails betray her blue-collar status, the Brit Anna Wintour’s signature dark glasses showcase her unchallenged status as the empress of fashion. The devil wears Prada starring Meryl Streep was filmed on Anna, the tyrant editor of Vogue. Its September issue is always special. This year the 4 pounds, 9 ounces Vogue carries 840 pages of gloss, 727 of them ads ‘that issue is now detritus of the Golden Age of excessive spending,’ derides Maureen Dowd in New York Times.
The poor and the rich, the married and the divorced, the gay and the straight, all come together in the backdrop of fancy tennis tournaments and dazzling fashion shows.
Alongside tennis mania are scattered weddings across America. The marriage season is from June to October.
Glowing couples – a man and a woman; a man and a man, a woman and a woman (it’s okay to be gay) exchange rings of eternal love, sacrifice and service to each other before family and friends who dab their eyes when vows are made and couples united in ‘holy matrimony.’ But half of these couples eventually divorce. In the park sits a single dad who has brought his three kids. ‘One day my wife left me,’ he says. ‘I still don’t know why.’ She’s taken his home and half of all his earnings that he made over the years. ‘My children miss me… I was a good husband, a good provider and a good father.’ The older two boys vent their anger on their little sister nearby. They scratch her, rough her up until she starts to cry. The dad lost in his sadness tells them not to harass her. Soon the three are back to playing with a bagful of toys their dad has gotten them. All is well or is it? Will the anger of their parents’ divorce leave their tender hearts scarred forever?
Then we have this guy called Hugh Hefner. Sound familiar? Does the magazine Playboy bring back images of bunnies? Well his estranged wife is demanding a divorce and his famous penthouse along with millions of his wealth. Millionaire Hefner, 83, married Conrad, 43, in 1989, when she was Playmate of the Year. They have two teenaged boys. Currently the aging playboy is ‘involved with 19-year-old identical twins Karissa and Kristina Shannon’ reports Divorce.com. There’s Ravi too – an Indian judo karate master who put his wife through law school with his meagre earnings when the couple migrated to America from India. ‘I would drive her each day from our home in the Bronx to her college. I gave her everything. And when she became a successful attorney, she divorced me.’ Ravi is a broken man and wants to return to his roots in India. ‘But I love my son and until he goes to college, I must hang around here.’ Then there’s Flor Murillo whom I meet at Home DepotShe advises me on what to use to clean my kitchen floors, countertops and toilets. ‘I worked as a cleaning lady for 17 years in New York just to put my son through school,’ says the woman whose husband left her soon after the couple came to the US from South America.
‘Now my son has finished college but he has no job,’ she adds while pushing a huge bottle of detergent my way.
‘This stuff is the answer to your cleaning problems,’ she says confidently. ‘It will make your life a lot easier.’ Flor’s tips for cleaning are priceless. They work wonders for me. ‘Tell my boss that you found my help useful. I’ll get a raise.’
While Flor the Latina’s hands and nails betray her blue-collar status, the Brit Anna Wintour’s signature dark glasses showcase her unchallenged status as the empress of fashion. The devil wears Prada starring Meryl Streep was filmed on Anna, the tyrant editor of Vogue. Its September issue is always special. This year the 4 pounds, 9 ounces Vogue carries 840 pages of gloss, 727 of them ads ‘that issue is now detritus of the Golden Age of excessive spending,’ derides Maureen Dowd in New York Times.
The poor and the rich, the married and the divorced, the gay and the straight, all come together in the backdrop of fancy tennis tournaments and dazzling fashion shows.
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