I’m not. As one of those I-want-what-I-want-when-I-want-it types, I have little patience waiting for sales, digging through piles of messed-up merchandise desperately seeking bargains, or buying cheaply off season to squirrel away for later. (What personality type, I wonder, are squirrels?) MEN HUNT, WOMEN GATHER. As we all know, men hunt, women gather....

No matter how colorful they are — and they are very colorful this year — buying a bathing suit will give you the blues. What can I say? A few adjectives spring to mind: Dreaded, humiliating, humbling (not exactly the same as humiliating), life-negating, tiring, stressful. (Please feel free to join in!) And then there are the nouns: Disaster, failure, disappointment,...

Buying a bathing suit: Somehow, I feel that I don’t have to say another word. And yet I must. Certain adjectives come springingly to mind: dreaded, humiliating, humbling (not exactly the same as humiliating), life-negating, tiring, stressful. Please feel free to join in!  There are nouns, too: Disaster, disappointment, defeat, compromise, frustration, failure,...