It All Depends on How You Look at It. 11/14/25

Botox. Did you know it stands for botulinum toxin type A? What does that mean? It means every time you inject yourself with Botox, you are injecting botulism. And, oh yeah, toxins. Why is it we do all these spa treatments and saunas to “cleanse the toxins from our bodies,” but then go right ahead and inject the stuff back in? Me, I’d rather get my toxins from brie cheese and bacon. I once worked at the same ad agency as John. One of the leaders of the agency was a woman who had significantly transformed her appearance with Botox. I’ve heard it said that one can get addicted to Botox. On one particularly hot summer afternoon, I had a lunchtime dental appointment, and rode a Citi Bike (a bike sharing program in NYC) to the dentist and then back to the office where I had a meeting. I cleverly wore a blue work shirt that day and arrived to the conference room with massive sweat stains. The previously mentioned Botox woman, who was leading the meeting, said, “Hi Andy. You know you can stop yourself from sweating by getting Botox injections under your arms.” I sat down and said, “No thanks, I’d rather sweat.” The comedienne Joan Rivers, who was infamous for receiving many Botox injections, once joked, “I’m laughing, you can’t tell from my face but I’m laughing.”

Which brings us around to our second comic about outlet shopping, which is really about longevity. I have recently heard comments from friends like, “If life was like a round of golf, what hole would you say we’re on. The 16th?” For those of you who have never played golf, a round is 18 holes, so being on the 16th means you’ve lived 8/9th’s of your life. Kinda morbid, don’t you think? So I immediately backtrack and say, “The 16th? No way. I’m on the 14th at most.” More compelling was a visit from my bff who moved to Los Angeles. I would see him regularly because I would go to L.A. to shoot commercials. I also saw him whenever he came to New York to visit his family. Well now his parents are no longer with us and I no longer am in advertising, so I no longer shoot commercials. My wife and I rent a beach house each summer. He comes in whenever he can make it, including a visit this past summer. At the end he pointed out how much we should cherish these visits because, “How many more times do you think we’ll see each other in our lives?” On a much lighter note, we applied this line of thinking to t-shirt shopping. Who wants to think about how old we’re getting? On second thought I’m going to get a shot of Botox.

That’s it for this week. Have a terrific weekend while we go the gym to defy the aging process (though I must admit, I’ve gone from running to jogging to fast walking on the treadmill),

Andy and John