The Winter Olympics are over and I am astounded at how much better they were than I thought they’d be… even CURLING, which I found out is not a sport for hairdressers on ice. How swell that the US brought home 37 medals, and I am truly glad that the gold for Hockey went to the Canadians, the final medal of the whole shebang, especially in light of those closing ceremonies. What the heck was that? That was the wackiest display of national pride I have ever witnessed. I thought I’d seen it all when women like caterpillars? stems? freaky mermaids appeared inside those giant maple leaves. That is until the giant inflated beavers floated out followed by lumberjacks on skates. The Chinese must have been in stitches. O Canada.

The night before I watched J-LO on SNL–she looked gorgeous and was funny as Rhianna in a short wig (“ella ella ella”) in the “WE ARE THE WORLD remake” skit. Then she started singing for real as the night’s musical guest. omg. The songs were crazy bad, and she chopped the tops off the high notes. That girl should stick to perfume.

But today something really cool happened. I had dropped our new Senator Scott Brown a congratulatory note after he won the election. I am not a Republican; I often lean left. But I decided to applaud his independent spirit and urged him to remain so. It’s where we all need to be right now. I had been impressed by his unaffected manner in person and on TV. I loved that he voted with the Democrats on the jobs bill. Lo and behold, what did I get in the mail today? A HAND WRITTEN note, thanking me, telling me a little about how he’s doing, and a little CD for Jack Williams who I let on is an Ayla fan.

Never in a million years did I expect such a down-to-earth, handwritten, personal response. I thought perhaps he’d sign a perfunctory note his aides had typed up. But this was clearly different, and the guy must be off in a million different directions right now: “Being watched 24/7″as he put it, on the cover of this week’s NY TIMES MAGAZINE, parodied on SNL, the subject of Letterman’s top ten, interviewed on Jay Leno, last night at the House of Blues in Boston…and oh yeah… he’s the new SENATOR.

So maybe I’m being played. And maybe he’ll collapse under all the pressure. But for right now, he seems responsive, and open, and REAL.

I’m giving this a real look.

Good night,
–and stay tuned!