Elizabeth Taylor (1976) Photo by Henry Wynberg via Pinterest

Short Nails And The Price of Beauty

I quit playing guitar at age 16 because I wanted long, beautiful nails -

One of the biggest regrets of my life is that I didn’t continue to play guitar as a teen because I didn’t want to have short, stubby fingernails. Instead, I wanted long, oxblood red claws.

The other day I realized I could have red or any color nails I liked and still play guitar because —

Let’s see — what’s 60–16… 44 years before you realized short nails are fine … you also haven’t lived until you’ve “styled” 2 cheap wigs to look like Danny + Sandy from “Grease”…

“Sandy” from Grease had short nails and bright red nail polish —

The things you realize when dressing up for a theme party.

The things you realize when you’re casually looking at social media. Today would have been Elizabeth Taylor’s 91st birthday and this lovely picture of her in a turban is going around. It turns out it came from a difficult time in Taylor’s history, when she was being courted by Senator John Warner. Taylor wanted to support her husband’s political campaign, so she tried to tone down her image. I remember her being mocked at this time for being overweight and also for choking on a chicken bone in a restaurant.