Do You Roll, Or Do You Fold? E. JEAN CARROLL FEB 4

Once upon a time, a lively, dark-haired young genius entered the Miss America Contest. Her figure was dynamite! Her personality was dazzling! And though she did not sing, play the piano, give a recitation, or twirl a baton, her talent was electrifying. For three minutes she demonstrated—item by item— “how to pack a bag.” I didn’t get to see it, but I heard she just missed being in the top ten. But you would not miss being a finalist, Reader! No. No. You would not have seriously advised spreading your toiletries across the bottom of the bag! You would have won the whole pageant by demonstrating how to edit the total crap outta items that poor young lady called “essential.” Me? I recently traveled with eleven clothing bags, plus one Huntress duffle bag of shoes (the lucky old black-and-white Vivian Westwoods, the cruel black combat boots, etc., etc.,) another Huntress duffle bag of makeup (Chanel foundation, Armani foundation, Mac foundation, Elf foundation, Face foundation, five jars of Vaseline to help remove the Chanel foundation, the Armani foundation, etc., etc.,) a third Huntress duffle bag of turtle necks, a forth Huntress bag of connectors, cords, pens, pluckers, clippers, scissors, notebooks, magazines, books; a large blue-and-white Kaplan Hecker and Fink canvas weekender filled with oranges; and five Trader Joe bags stuffed with earphones, instant coffee, salad dressing, salad bowls, peanut butter (smooth), peanut butter (crunchy) T3 electric rollers, a steamer, two loaves of certified organic Bread Alone Nine Mixed Grain sent to my hotel by Robbie Kaplan, knife, fork, spoon, Republic of Tea, Emperor’s White tea, green tea, peppermint, and so on and so forth. Just to put this into perspective……..when Nellie Bly, that magnificent journalist, beat the world record on her famous around-the-earth trip in 1889—what did she pack? How many bags did she carry when the 10-gun salute was fired from Battery Park as she stepped off the train in Jersey City and for the first time in the history of the world, a woman circumnavigated the globe “without guide, escort or attendant?” Trunks? None. Suitcases? Zero. Miss Bly wore one skirt, one bodice, one hat and one coat for the entire 72-day journey! She carried one small handbag---about the size of a Birkin---with toiletries, changes of underwear, paper and pens, and, Conflabbians! Nellie Bly arrived, with a pet monkey, looking smashing! Illustration by Wendy MacNaughton which appeared on Maria Popova’s most excellent Marginalian So . . . What do you pack for a trip, dear Conflabbians? And how do you pack it? Do you roll or do you fold? Do you bundle or do you pile? And what kind of suitcase do you like? Hard back or soft? What brilliant packing tips do you have for us? Leave a comment Share Ask E. Jean is a duffle bag just chock full of our subscribers’ wisdom! Do you have a tip to help the world? Join the Mighty Conflab! To receive new posts and support the Conflabbian brilliance and my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Upgrade to paid SHARE LIKE COMMENT RESTACK © 2024 E. Jean Carroll 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104