A Note About Walking Into Intimidating Places

As a practicing flâneuse, I have no problem walking into establishments designed for the well-heeled. I like to wander into luxury hotels, upscale restaurants, and auction houses if only just to look around at the decor and then leave. Sometimes I will ask a few inquiring questions of staff, but I do not usually want to mingle that much with the clientele.

More often that not, I am treated with cordiality, sometimes bordering on friendliness, even when I'm wearing my beat-up sneakers and a torn pair of blue jeans.

I attribute my success to good posture, a husky voice in the alto range, and some well-rounded liberal arts knowledge, in that order. Posture is almost everything. While I often feel like I am the only woman on earth that does not practice the yoga arts, I admire all the trim, almost Gumby-like bodies of those that do. As a youngster I attended summer camp in Tennessee, an all-girls camp that divided us up between the Amazons and the Valkyries, where a counselor would wander among us and exclaim, "The posture bird is watching!" I like to imagine that I have shoved the neck of a Fender Stratocaster up my back.

The second is my husky voice. Garbo had a lovely low voice that allowed her to successfully make the transition from silent to talking motion pictures, and I think people take vocal types like Garbo, Lauren Bacall, and Judy Garland very seriously.

The third quality that helps me in New York is a foundation in the liberal arts and a curiosity about the world that borders on a personality disorder.

In summation, I walk into formidable places with my head erect and then ask, in a low voice, if I may look around because I admire the work of (fill-in-the-blank architect or designer).

See complete Garbo Walks.

Image: WOTBA likes to dress up on occasion like the late great Texas blues master, Stevie Ray Vaughan.