Kitchen counters? Problematically short. (They should start at about your elbow crease. Not wrist.) Enter these genius 2-18" chopping blocks-on-legs, which you can simply stick on top of your counter for easy cutting and prepping. Smart.

Fellow tall lady and genius film director Edda Baumann von Broen, 6'3", has put her two talents together to create "Tall Girls", a wonderful documentary all about tall female life. And, hint hint, you may recognize a certain someone in the film. Edda just finished the film and is hitting the film festival circuit; in the meantime, here's a preview.

As promised, some much-needed good news for tall women searching for clothes! There's a new friend on the tall block: Long Tall Sally, a hip tall women's company from Britain, is launching the first part of their plan to become the worldwide dominant tall women's brand. To which I say: It's. About. Tall. Time.

The deets: Long Tall Sally just purchased Tall Girl Shop's warehouses and Canadian stores and is planning their stateside launch. So yes, this is all a nice long silver lining. Us tall ladies have been waiting all our lives for an international brand. The truth of the matter is, the reason tall men all have stores right down the block is because they're owned by large, corporate operations that can order large, affordable batches of clothing. We need one too!

The U.S. website of Long Tall Sally just opened. The detail you must know about: Returns are free. Meaning you can order 17 pieces, and return 15 of them. Or 16. This is key for someone like me, who has never purchased a pair of jeans without trying on 10.

More soon, as I know it...

As many of you have heard--and emailed accordingly with a vast array of emoticons--Tall Girl Shop, the family-owned nationwide chain and one-and-only place for many women to get clothes, has declared bankruptcy, and will be closing their couple dozen stores at the end of the month. What remains is on clearance (!).

In my book, I told the inspiring story of Hazel Gould, a tall chemist who founded the store over a half century ago in hopes of having something to wear to work. The book also explores why it's so hard to find good tall women's clothing, while tall men have lots of options (in short: women's stores require 3 seasons of clothing a year, which is risky for small companies, and women are fickle shoppers. And the economy is tanking, making women more fickle. Seriously, we don't support our own stores.). I've spoken with Tall Girl, and am quite saddened to see them go.

However! I will  have some very happy tall clothing news, that I can't quite post yet, but rest assured: there  will soon be a great new place to buy clothes.

Update: No, I'm not starting a tall clothing company. Pinky swear.

From Michael Winerip's "In Her Fifties, Looking for Love" piece, chronicling the single life of the lovely Christine Shiber, 57:

If it feels as if the remarriage odds are bad for a woman in her 50s, they are. According to 2001 census data, 41 percent of women 50 and over whove been divorced have remarried, while 58.4 percent of divorced men that age are remarried.

Thats the biggest remarriage gap for all age groups, said Dr. Francesca Adler-Baeder of the National Stepfamily Resource Center at Auburn University. Among the divorced, the least marriageables in our society are older women, highly educated who make a good salary.

Studies show men tend to marry down someone slightly younger, less educated, making less money, Dr. Adler-Baeder said. Women in their 50s literally dont have a visible pool of eligible men around them.

And if shes tall on top of that, Dr. Adler-Baeder said, the pools even smaller.

Ms. Shiber is 5 feet 9.
---

Sigh. I'd like to point out that Dr. Adler-Baeder is working under the very American assumption that a woman must-absolutely-must (!) date a man taller than she is. Or else the whole world order could be upended. Or something.

This is particularly nutsy assumption given that men in their fifties are much more comfortable with taller women in general. And that this one silly assumption cuts the already-small middle-aged dating pool down by two-thirds, and results in a lot of solo tall middle-aged women who would prefer not to be solo.

Ladies, try looking down from time to time. Or at least in a vaguely southwesterly or southeasterly direction. There's good stuff there.

Just fyi, the Kama Sutra is purely aspirational for tall folks. Don't feel bad if you've never done anything in it.

"It was designed by a culture of small people who did yoga," says Eric Amaranth, a New York City sex consultant. "There's a lot of energy consumed, and it requires flexibility that most people don't have. So it's not really relevant for taller people, particularly anything that involves lifting."

There's today's public service announcement.