Glamour is the peculiar and elusive characteristic that combines, in unspecified and unspecifiable proportions, the qualities of charisma, style, beauty, desirability, confidence, rarity, and mysteriousness. In fact, it is almost impossible to fully define what makes something glamorous. As with the Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's definition of obscenity, we have trouble defining glamour, but know it when we see it.And I think I know lawyers when I see them... always fawning over Potter Stewart. (Potter wasn't glamorous. Who are the glamorous Supreme Court Justices? Other than John Roberts.)
Manolo thinks George Washington is glamorous:
Tall, handsome, wealthy, mysterious, and possessed of real charisma. This is the test of true glamour: If your countrymen wish to make you king, you are probably glamorous. If you then refuse to be made king, you are indisputably glamorous.I meant is. Not was. The next question is "Can glamour survive?," and of course, the answer is yes. Some of the most glamorous people are dead. And, as Manolo says, citing Marilyn Monroe, "dying young is the surest way of maintaining one's glamour indefinitely."
Ah, but to be glamorously old. Do that well. That's impressive.
6 comments:
Glamourously old -- your favorite: Bob Dylan.
Glamorously old: Mrs. Brooke Astor. She would have fit right in with the What's My Line? panel too.
It's funny where all the secret lawyers are hiding. I have a diet book and a housecleaning manual that I later found out were by lawyers.
Glamour originally meant the ability to cast a magic spell...a triumph of fantasy over hard work, of illusion over substance.
Charisma is the outward expression of a divine gift.
Neither glamour or charisma is something that one earns through struggle, defeat, and accomplishment.
George Washington was tall and wealthy. His reputation he won through struggle, failure, and success. He was not the sheen of a patent leather shoe.
Maybe Manolo is another instapundit side project. It would explain a lot. Maybe everything.
Lauren Bacall, glamorously old.
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