Just my opinion:

Thank you, thank you, thank you! These words go out to all the clothing manufacturers who have opted to stamp their labels at the neckline of garments rather than stitch on a fabric label with thread I swear is made of wire! They itch, they irritate. So a few, not many, companies are simply stamping the material and it's not felt at all. Granted, fancy couture hasn't elected to do this and usually the stamped-on label is found on less expensive items, but I would wear such a T-shirt or sweater every day if I could, just because I no longer have to keep scratching the back of my neck. If labels must continue to be used I wish they would find a softer material/thread to attach to a garment. Comfort over chic any day. That's age talking.

I don't know what makes someone trustworthy just by looking at me from a television screen, but the late "60 Minutes" newsman Ed Bradley was one of those people. I felt the same when the late Peter Jennings brought me the news. They had my trust. That doesn't just come with the job. It's rare, unfortunately. Why is that?

Gene Kelly statue, where art thou? It has been a few years now since plans began regarding a statue in the Cultural District for this former Pittsburgher who deserves to be ogled on a daily basis in our Downtown theater district. What's the hold-up? Each time I ask someone who should know, I get "It's coming." Well, those of us who best remember Mr. Kelly and are getting "up in years" would surely like to have the opportunity to see the plan materialize while we can still make it Downtown and recognize the man swinging on a lamppost with his umbrella! Hey, we saw the original "Singing in the Rain" movie in a real theater! And yes, it was a talkie! Lets get moving and really sing his praises with a statue to stand forever in the rain, snow or sunshine of future Pittsburgh days.

I should know better than to trust a soap opera.

If you read me regularly you already know the CBS television soap, "Guiding Light," has had me scratching my head with its unrealistic summer-long treatment of the very serious matter of breast cancer. But hey, it's a soap, right? Comatose, the character of Reva was loaded with painkillers, everyone said their goodbyes..and then the flash of white light. Ahh, she's gone. I'm not cold-hearted. I just was annoyed with the way the illness was handled. It was time to end it.

Guess what? I had to rewrite this column because, two days and an episode later, after I was sending this to print, the comatose Reva awakens and new tests show the cancer is now gone! She's as good as new. Knowing soaps play with fantasy...yes, I watch from time to time...I had laughingly imagined her rising from the bed, cured, to live another day with Joshua, but I knew the writers couldn't possibly take the already dismal and misleading plot, which affects too many real women, to that level of absurdity. They did. Stay tuned...or not. I think not.

On the other hand, a recent TV special titled "Why I Wore Lipstick To My Mastectomy," which sounds light-hearted but wasn't, was more in touch with the real far-reaching effects of such a diagnosis. It was, I thought, informative and touching.

While the new film version of "Marie Antoinette" can boast color and a bigger budget and bigger hairdos, I don't think you could improve on the 1938 black and white version of the same name, shown recently on TCM, which starred Norma Shearer and Tyrone Power and a young Robert Morley as the king she married. Scenery and costumes (remember, it was made almost 70 years ago...I was 9) were exquisite and would hold up beautifully with today's version.

On the subject of soap operas, who is writing the scripts for Anna Nicole Smith? You wouldn't believe the sequence of events in a movie, but I suspect that will be forthcoming. What is really sad, and almost forgotten, is that a 20-year-old boy, her beloved son, is dead and she is using that tragedy for all kinds of publicity for personal gratification and sympathy and, eventually, money. All the "for the first time" interviews and pictures showing her "in mourning" are such a joke. I saw a few episodes of her earlier and embarrassing TV series in which lawyer Stern as her go-fer lackey, and adolescent son, Daniel, were often pitifully featured as she paraded barely clothed and appeared to be "out of it" most of the time in wacky so-called reality show scripts. Why didn't anyone see this as a kind of child abuse before the young man died? Does the new baby daughter born into this weird lifestyle have a chance?

By the way, the season of Chia-Pets is here. Who said there wasn't something to smile about?