“There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women." ~ Madeleine Albright

Now, I'm sure that Madeleine Albright's quote does not necessarily apply to this post - but I think that you'll get the point.

I guess that I have always thought that there is an unwritten rule between women. If you see someone coming out of a restroom with their skirt tucked into the back of their pantyhose, you say something like, "Excuse me, but I thought you'd want to know that your skirt is tucked into your pantyhose." Or, if they have spinach in between their teeth, you gently let them know. Or, if you see them walking around with toilet paper stuck to their shoes, or flowing out of their waistband, you do the sisterly thing and kindly tell them.  This was even briefly touched upon on The View yesterday. Timely, as I put this "sisterhood" into practice last night.

First though, a funny story that most of my friends already know.  Up until a few years ago, my mother-in-law lived about a hour and a half away from us. We would often meet a little ways in-between to celebrate things like Mother's Day or Easter, at the Turningstone Casino. They have wonderful brunches, and this meant that no one needed to cook, or drive very far; plus she enjoyed playing the slot machines. On one such ocassion, when we had finished our meal, Bruce and his mom headed to the slot machines, my son headed to the arcade, and I started my "people watching" circuit.  But first - the restroom.

We had agreed to meet up about an hour later, and yes, I wandered, wandered, wandered all over that casino for an hour. When we finally met up and began to make our exit, Bruce said, "Turn around for a minute." Yes, you guessed it, I had a three-foot tail of toilet paper trailing from the waistband of my pants. No one, not a single soul, had attempted to save me! And, if you have ever been in a casino, you know that there are security cameras EVERYWHERE! Well, what was there for me to do but laugh hysterically, which is what I did, with my family joining in.

Now, I imagine that those security cameras have caught a lot more interesting things over the years than my hour- long traipse through the casino, but I have to believe that on the ocassional slow day, they are saying "Hey, pull up that footage of the woman walking all over the place with the toilet-paper trailng from her pants!"

So, on to my act of sisterhood last night. Bruce and I were at a production by our local Cortland Reperatroy Theatre.  Following the intermission, as we were returning to our seats, I noticed an older woman and her husband just ahead of ahead of me. She was sporting the dreaded toilet-paper tail. I sidled up to her and said, "Pardon me, but you seem to have something tucked into the back waistband of your pants. Perhaps you husband can help you with that." I then hustled to my seat. Despite the fact that the woman made deliberate efforts to not glance my way, I had done my duty.

So please, if you ever see me with my skirt tucked in my pantyhose ( though I don't think I even own a pair of them anymore), or spinach between my teeth, or trailing toiletpaper behind me - you will be my new best friend if you let me know!