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Category: women

Heleen Mees’s New Leaf

Published November 29, 2013
Amsterdam, 9 mei 2010 Heleen Mees econoom en jurist, columnist Dutch economist, writer,journalist Foto Felix Kalkman
Amsterdam, 9 mei 2010
Heleen Mees
econoom en jurist, columnist
Dutch economist, writer,journalist
Foto Felix Kalkman

It’s really unsettling when the media on both sides of the Atlantic tear apart someone’s personal life and put an otherwise unsightly blot on her thriving career. Heleen Mees, a 40-something Dutch economist, was accused by Citigroup’s chief economist, 60-something Willem Buiter, of stalking him. Before the whole ordeal, she made a name for herself in the Dutch feminist world. It’s hard to look back on that work with all of the weird quirks in current stalking story. I guess the whole altercation makes for entertaining articles and dinner conversation. (Like: What is so attractive about Willem Buiter?)

At the end of October, attorneys asked Mees to accept a plea bargain where she could avoid criminal charges. But she and her lawyer have declined. The matter will be officially taken back up in January, while Mees’s decision had to have been made by November 22nd.

In between then and now, Mees ran the New York City Marathon. One journalist was concerned with whether or not she would be able to run it.

And run it, she did:

I can’t help but think this lawsuit could do anything except boost Heleen Mees’s popularity. Maybe not in the economics world, but perhaps in the mainstream, like those Freakonomics writers.

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Wedding Season

Published August 8, 2013
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Photo by the talented Mélusine, our photographer*.

I am a self-described responsible citizen. On most days, I’m a vegetarian. I regularly shop at the farmer’s market, pay embarrassing amounts of money for milk, and ride my bike everywhere. In making these choices, I believe that I’m somehow making life better for the small farmer and the shop around the corner. So, when my fiancé and I decided to tie the knot, I wanted these lifestyle choices to spillover into the party we wanted to throw. Vegetarian food, check. Local produce, check. Flowers, well, flowers weren’t so easy.

I had heard of the slow flower movement, which had recently gained attention with Debra Prinzing‘s 2012 book, The 50 Mile Bouquet. Like the slow food movement, the slow flower movement encourages supporting local flower farmers. In the quest for my own, local flowers, I slowly discovered that many brides-to-be in the blogosphere have adopted the slow flower philosophy. This is a world in which women vie to have their wedding pictures accepted onto top blogs, and the eco-chic bride reigns as queen, at least for this season. I wanted in.

A surefire way to wedding-blog-acceptance is buying directly from a farm in your neighborhood. Putting potted plants in front of your guests is also a favorite option. A rarity indeed is the bride who plans ahead and grows her flowers herself. Nevertheless, the ordinary eco-chic bride buys her flowers from a sustainable florist.

There’s a catch to that, however. These self-proclaimed sustainable florists don’t all adhere to one single notion of “sustainable”. Veriflora, the authoritative certification on organic flowers, is expensive for small flower farmers to obtain, and it does not assure that your flowers have not been flown into the US from, say, Columbia. Or, you bought your flowers from a Washington farmer, but the bulbs came from the Netherlands. I wondered if putting a couple bins of soil at the center of our tables would get me into this elite club of eco-chic brides.

All of this confusion over what is sustainable and what isn’t doesn’t seem to deter the online wedding media from chronicling the adventures of well-meaning brides. And honestly, it hasn’t stopped me from checking out a few every once in a while. Entertainment is a powerful thing, isn’t it?

Here are some cute-sy eco-chic weddings:

A sylvan celebration, set in a vignette out of the novel Tuck Everlasting

These two took campy to a whole new level.

Brava! This wedding came to the source of the blooms: an herb farm! No cutting necessary.

*http://melusinephotographie.com/

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