Shop Talk

I Have a sinking spell whenever I go past Hale’s at 420 Madison avenue. The window, you’ll remember, is full of deep, seductive Simmons beds and I want to fall onto one of them and give up the unequal struggle. For some time I’ve yearned for a Louis XV model which is heavenly and costs only $39.50. A Simmons mattress and box spring cost below $30. The latest addition to national bed-life is a double bed with one headboard. It’s really two single beds, hinged to the outside of the head so they can be pushed apart for making in the morning or quarreling at night. Hale’s makes lots of beds to order and they’re not expensive, so you may have your coat of arms or the fourteen angels or any other whimsy incorporated as guardian of your dreams.

This is my annual news beat and I expect the Pulitzer Prize for reporting the new Kathleen Mary Quinlan beauty kits for dry or oily skins. Of course by the time this is published they’ll be a sensation all over town. They contain cleansing cream, skin stimulant, special texture cream, violet astringent, foundation cream, that exquisite Mist of Dawn, and powder. The combination and use of these products leave your skin in a glow that seems to last indefinitely and, surprise of surprise, Miss Quinlan has set the price of them below $3.

The pretzel shows signs of becoming the great staple food of America. Russel Wright approaches this large subject with becoming gravity. Mr. Wright is out with a pretzel tree, and no more broken bits in the bottom of the bowl. The digestion will perform more effectively if the pretzel hangs splendidly like a Christmas tree bauble on a little wood and aluminum rack. This subtle sign of modern civilization costs but $3.70. The latest aluminum dish from Mr. Wright’s hand is my idea of something I can’t live without. It has a small, fairly deep center section, fenced into two halves, and a generously wide rim. In the middle you put the main facts of a Continental breakfast, butter and confiture. Around the edge, rolls or toast. Or for dinner, Barle-Duc is stowed on one side, cream cheese in the other, and saltines decorate the hem.

Dunhill advocates the long cigarette holder! You know, on every ship there’s a Russian princess who dangles one. But these aren’t the same ilk. Specifically they are exclamation points on the beach or country club porch. Slender and black, they disappear into a torpedo-shaped holder at the drop of a hat. Should be used with the tongue in the cheek and cost $15. Dunhill’s Shop in Rockefeller Plaza is entrancingly English and tweedy. Your best fella will be touched to tears if you give him the pipe with a choice of ste###s, long or short. It seems they dote on short stems for golfing. I wouldn’t know about that but the salesman says so.

Feminine hands, today, are in more active use than ever before. They drive motor cars and wield golf clubs and do many other things that make for wear and tear, yet they must be as impeccably lovely as those of the beauties who sat with their hands exquisitely folded in their laps. Most recent among the preparations that are designed to make and keep them lovely is a new hand cream by Pinaud. It contains no soap but it is absolutely soluble in water and has the double faculty of beautifying as well as cleansing. It is a delight to use, as it is delicately fragrant and not at all sticky.

If you haven’t as yet left the Melting Pot and it’s already the middle of August, and a young girl’s fancy, and as old one’s, too, should turn to vacation and that much-needed rest, then sit down and consider Breezemont at Armonk, N. Y., very seriously. It’s close enough to the city and yet it’s in the very center of God’s country. You’ll be able to manage the rates in spite of inflation and those salary cuts.