Ideal Bite

The fur section-in most big department stores, there's a little more wall space separating it from the rest of the store and it's tucked in a back corner. There's no curtain, but it's always seemed to me like the porn room at a video store, the opium den at the back of the restaurant, the sorry little power-hungry man behind the Wizard of Oz...

So is the desire for real fur somehow akin to "indulgences" like sex, drugs, and rock ‘n' rule (um, power)? Huh-uh. No. Knowing what happens to animals whose fur we take, knowing that people profit from cruelty, and especially knowing that there are faux-fur options that match or exceed the 40s glamour we all occasionally covet...there's just no reason to move the curtain aside and delve into that dark place.

OK, so most of us don't-but if you haven't already clicked through to the article about misleading faux fur labels in today's Personally Speaking section, please do. It may give you a shock (no graphic photos or anything), but it'll help make your future faux-fur purchases that much more informed.

As an aside, the team was in New York last week to celebrate the launch of our first local editions (you're reading those, right?!). We got to meet actress Jennifer Coolidge, who impressed us by wearing a faux-fur jacket with a sign on the back, "Faux Fur Forever."

-Jenifer Morgan...off to admire an Arctic fox wearing its own fur coat...