Confidence OOZES!

FROM WHERE I SIT  CONFIDENCE OOZES  JAN. 27, 2014  PAT SPILSETH

Tickets to Sarah Bernhardt, a Letterman favorite star on TV, were a fabulous gift from our generous son this year at Christmastime.  We blew through icy, snow crusted roads and blurry views of another frigid Minnesota polar vortex into the Dakota, a hip jazz establishment downtown Minneapolis.  

A half hour late, Ms Bernhardt gyrated onto the stage bellering out lyrics to some contemporary tune we were too unsophisticated to recognize.  But we were aware of the designer dress she wore with plenty of decolletague and spikey Montaldos.  We’d heard those designer names from some TV show or novel about NYC.  She was the epitome of what must be the very current NY style of modern women.

It takes real chutzpah to belt out tunes with her voice and swing that almost 60 year old body on stage before hundreds of viewers.  Admirers of all ages chortled and hooted at her irreverent comments about Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, travel...the works.  She was a cheeky broad!  Nothing was held back, including tales of her female partner from St. Lousi and their daughter’s teenage life.  “What’s in it for me” was her response to gay marriage.  She was bored with Prague, viewing the city as basically a plague on her travels.  Paris is the epitome of travel kudos, sipping cafes at a bistro, savoring buttery, flaky croissants while admiring the Seine and elegant passer-bys.  

Thank god, Dave had removed his white team sweatshirt and showed up in a Midwestern V-neck sweater and button-down collared shirt and cords.  My turtleneck sweater and wool socks typed us to be dyed-in-the-wool MInnesotans, which we knew she was poking fun at.  But we laughed along with the other wool and cords crowd.  No slinky silk, bare to the waist dresses and tux did we don that bone-chilling evening.