Good Bye Nora

I loved Nora Ephron.  She was my mentor in so many ways, and she didn't even know it.  I use her vinaigrette dressing recipe from HEARTBURN three or four times a week, and just passed it on to my son, so she's often in my thoughts. And though most people remember her for her quote "Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim," the quote of her's I remember most vividly is "Having a child is like throwing a bomb into a marriage."  But I digress.

I only met her once, when I was a journalism student at NYU, where she entertained us with her memorable commentary on how to spot a Jewish American prince.  I wanted to be her.

And I was, for a while.  I wrote a satire column in my local newspaper and sold an article on bad dating to Cosmopolitan when I was 17.

She married Carl Bernstein, and I married a local journalist who worked at the newspaper I owned.  He cheated on her with the British ambassador's wife in front of the whole world and my ex....  well, let's just say I knew the pain and anguish she expressed in HEARTBURN a little more intimately than I had ever hoped I would.

She left the news for Hollywood and I went into book publishing, which my journalist ex called "infotainment."

And she showed us that living well is the best revenge.

I still hope I can follow in her foot steps in some way.  But I know they're pretty big footsteps.

And I will miss her every day.