Remember the long-running soap opera As the World Turns?

The series ran on CBS for 54 years from 1956 to 2010.

In the 1990s, I was the publicist for a professional ballet company in Southern California. Every day came with a crisis — from getting the cover story in the paper (that was good) but the dates were wrong (that was bad and – for the record – not my typo) — to a patron hunting me down backstage ten minutes before curtain time and demanding that he and his party of ten be re-seated. Crises like these and others inspired me to come up with this play on words — as the stomach churns.

As an aside, Bill and I were living in Montecito at the time, an unincorporated area of Santa Barbara. One afternoon, I was in Xanadu Bakery buying oatmeal raisin cookies for Bill. Another customer mistook me for Susan Lucci, also known as Erica Kane on All My Children, another long-running soap that ran on ABC for 41 years from 1970 to 2011. I knew the mis-identification was a stretch — I had neither her hair nor her legs — but it kind of made my day anyway.

On another buying trip to Xanadu, I was mistaken for Julia Louis Dreyfuss of Seinfeld. Another stretch of the imagination. Then I was asked for my autograph in a restaurant by someone thinking I was Danielle Steel — not that much of a stretch given we both wore our hair pulled back.

These mistaken identities do make me wonder… should I move back to Montecito?

I know it’s not much, but that’s my best from Casa McGee,
Sandra

In case you missed it:
I’m no longer a writer in self-isolation