Mirror Image

Finally, a Barbie that looks more like a regular girl than a Playmate bimbo-in-training – and it plays music too. This week, Mattel is introducing a Barbie MP3 player that comes with a docking station that allows entrée into its own virtual world, BarbieGirls.com, where players use “B bucks” to buy outfits for an online version of the doll.

This is territory that has been explored before – the popularity of Webkinz, a stuffed animal-centric Second Life world for preschoolers, has been documented in the Inquirer , and the New York Times reports that companies such as MTV and Disney are following suit.

What I find interesting is that while BarbieGirls.com may be a virtual world – ergo, one of fantasy – the new Barbie player itself cleaves much more to reality in looks and fashion (while the player has interchangeable outfits, they lean more toward casual t-shirts, jeans and skirts than elaborate ballgowns) than the bleach-blonde pneumatic version I grew up with. Does this mean that toymakers at Mattel believe that when it comes to gadgets, technology-savvy girls are more likely to buy and use one that reflects themselves rather than a societal ideal? Guess we’ll have to wait until the Princesses version comes out.

There is at least one place you can shop in Rittenhouse Square without circling around the ever-clogged Center City streets.
Starting last week, Kiehl's, located at 1737 Walnut Street, instituted curbside service.
Other big city locations including those in Manhattan, Boston, D.C. and Las Vegas have similiar drive-up perks.
That means all you gotta do is call the friendly, white-coated Kiehl's salesperson. Tell them you are out of Creme de Corps Soy Honey Body Polish or Amino Acid Shampoo and pay for your order over the phone via credit card.
Then, with cell phone in hand, (you want to make sure they don't confuse your whip for somebody else's) you pull up in front of the tiny apothecary and voila! a neat little bag packed with high priced, yet all natural products are yours for the taking.
Unfortunately, if you want to go across the street to Anthropologie, browse at Joan Shepp or lollygag in KnitWit, you are gonna have to park.
Happy Shopping!

The baby brigade crept into bars and pubs slowly at first. I'd see a stroller inside 10 Stone at 3 p.m. on Sunday, or a family grabbing a quick dinner at Royal Tavern around 6 p.m.

But then the city smoking ban went into effect for real, and suddenly it seemed, the babies were everywhere: Sidecar, Monk's, Standard Tap. I knew when I saw a newborn tucked into a booth at Yello' Bar at 10 p.m., quietly sleeping as his parents downed drinks with the gusto of people on borrowed time, that the dynamics of Center City bars were changing.

My first reaction was similar to that of Reese Witherspoon in the movie Sweet Home Alabama where she greets an old classmate with a judge-y "You have a baby. In a bar." But then I became more compassionate. Why shouldn't city parents bring their young children out at night, as long as the babies aren't crying or, at an older age, running around and causing chaos? What better way to inoculate children to city living (and keep parents from fleeing to the 'burbs)? So I'm glad the bars (and for the most part, other patrons) are accommodating.

What do you think?

As the Image editor, I receive dozens of "womens interest" books from publishers, many of them self-help volumes (why so many of these books are aimed solely at women is a topic for another day). And a lot of these - surprise, surprise - are about how to get a guy.

The latest entry in the genre is How to Date Men: Dating Secrets from America's Top Matchmaker by Janis Spindel, who has allegedly 760 marriages to her credit. Despite that track record, the book itself offers little that is new, preferring to revisit the same advice that any single woman over the age of 25 has already heard from her mother a thousand times: Dress cute on the first date! Don't sleep with him on the first date! Don't bring up marriage on the first date! (or ever)! This is one dating manual that isn't even worth skimming at the book store (which I admit I occasionally did in my single days).

Compare Spindel and her warmed-over advice to Patti Novak, the straight-shooting force of nature behind Confessions of A Matchmaker, my second-favorite cable show of the summer (fbehind Top Chef). If you haven't seen this show, set your DVR immediately for 11 p.m. Sundays at A & E. Based in Buffalo, Novak talks and dresses like a South Philly girl on steroids. She's tough with her clients - she tells one woman with a menagerie of birds, cats and flying squirrels to "lose the zoo" - and some of her clients don't want to hear it. But she's always spot on, and it's hilarious and poignant to watch the men and women on her show get it and become successful daters - or fail miserably. Best of all, it's equal opportunity: the men of Buffalo (and beyond) certainly need as much help dating as the women, whether it's learning better table manners or losing the lame pickup lines.

Have you ever bought a dating advice book? Did it help - or hurt?

In tomorrow's paper, Elizabeth writes about the resurgence of Vera Bradley handbags, particularly among teens heading off the college. Long a soccer mom standby, the soft printed totes are apparently everywhere in Haddonfield and the Main Line, and are starting to invade Center City.

Now I lived through the 80s prepster fashion - the Izod shirts, the crested blazers, the (ugh) Laura Ashley everything. And I understand that fashion is cyclical, and the looks this fall are more ladylike and demure than past seasons. But Vera Bradley as high fashion? Please.

To me, Vera Bradley is the Crocs of the handbag world, an item so fusty and mumsy that you can smell the talcolm powder within. When I see either of these on the street, I feel like the wearer has given up, that they can't find proper shoes or a bag that doesn't resemble a pillowcase. It's lazy anti-fashion that ages the wearer by at least 20 years, if not in looks, then in attitude.

Whew. Clearly I have strong feelings on this issue. What current fashion trends drive you nuts?

By Lara Fritzsche, an Arthur F. Burns Fellow from Germany

Here in Philly, there has always been something new for me to learn – especially how to deal with American guys. At bars here, it takes only a few minutes until the first guy is talking to you. It almost seems like a game: If she won’t like me, maybe the next girl will.

Now guys in Europe will talk to you in a bar. But it takes some time until they come over and start flirting. It’s not that they are more choosy or shy. They try to be subtle, so you aren’t skeeved or nervous. Of course, the conclusion that women draw is that they’d prefer not to address you at all so they don’t have to risk rejection. You could spend the whole day in a café in Germany and never talk to anyone except the waitress.