I speak, of course, of the “body politic.” It’s a pun and a ter­ri­ble one at that. After quizzing sev­eral artist friends of sim­i­lar age to my own, I’ve come to a star­tling conclusion.

The single-​most sig­nif­i­cant inhibitor to true cre­ative, non-​stop, start-​to-​finish, pro­duc­tive qual­ity time in the stu­dio for women over 50?

Hot Flashes.

Men have no clue what we mean but then again, hor­mones do fuel the artis­tic flame in ways they can never know.

I am here today to let my female menopausal bud­dies in on a lit­tle secret. I’ve found RELIEF from hot flashes and you’re going to love this. (*This is def­i­nitely NOT a paid endorse­ment. I’d even bet the good old boys down in Arab, Alabama will swoon in their Lycra bicy­cle shorts when they hear how their prod­uct helps hot flashy women.)

It’s Frog­gtoggs. The cool­ing towel. The chilly pad. The all sports, all ter­rain, all pur­pose cool­ing towel. No more black cohosh tea, no more HRT, no soy prod­ucts. Ya’ll just get your­selves one of these chilly pads, wring it out with the ini­tial hot water and then slap that cool­ing towel across your thighs! Yes, THIGHS. I swear to all that is menopausal, it works. No more cold show­ers in the mid­dle of the day.

Try one. They are $14.95 at Dick’s Sport­ing Goods in Durham, that’s where I picked mine up for Rob to use when work­ing out but guess what? It’s mine now.

frog­gtoggs — as they adver­tise — It’s all about being cool. Cool in menopausal terms is an antonym — am I right? Not any­more. And if there’s a space for it, tell them Valerie MacE­wan sent you — con­fuse the fool out of them… hey?

c