The Late Show: A Semiwild But Practical Survival Plan for Women Over 50

Longtime Cosmopolitan editor Brown ( Sex and the Single Girl ), who helped usher in the '60s with her magazine's brash, sassy advice on everything from getting it on to taking it off, here offers her brand of consolation to those of her followers now on the cusp of old age. Funny and breezy, she ticks off the multitude of indignities and frustrations aging women face. She also shares her own efforts to vanquish time, as well as those of innumerable rich and famous friends. Sex and money, she believes, are the keys to happiness, and she is not lacking for examples of 90-year-olds who are doing well. But there is still hope for those who will determinedly count little pleasures and bigger ones (``room service in a great hotel when you aren't paying''). She doesn't recommend tattooing for receding hairlines, as she herself tried, but neither does she stint on advice about how else to keep up appearances and stay thin. However frothy, this little advisory offers comfort and cheer--possibly even for those who have neither sex nor money. (Mar.)