Add sugar when making lemonade out of lemons
Remember when our mothers tried to soothe over a bad situation by saying, “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.”
Maybe we drank the Kool-Aid, but that Country Time myth turns out to be true.
Just ask Charlie Sheen about his $100 million contract with Fox for “Anger Management.” (Guess it pays to act out.) Or what about poor Britney Spears, who sunk like the Titanic, then rose from the ashes to show us she really had the X Factor all along.
So measure out the sugar for our QuirkOut recipe about things women do to make the best out of anything life throws at them.
CAN YOU SING
“D-I-V-O-R-C-E”
Divorce! The Musical
Divorce may be the end of a marriage, but for Ruthe Ponturo it’s been the beginning of a new career.
When her husband of 34 years left her, she didn’t pour her sadness and anger into cartons of Ben and Jerry’s. She turned them into songs.
“I started making them up while I was in the shower,” says the dancer, choreographer and singer. Working with composer John Fischer, they wrote one song, which led to another, which led to “Divorce The Musical: Better Mad than Sad,” a show that premiered recently in New York. (divorce-themusical.com)
We love the titles “God Bless Viagra” and “You Were a Whole Lot Cuter When I Loved You.” But our favorite lyrics come from “If Only You Were Gay,” where she dreams that “Jonathan Adler could have done both our bedrooms.”
On behalf of all the divorced gals, we thank you, Ruthe. You transformed singing the blues into a happy tune.
SLOBS UNITE
Slobproof Paint Pen
Two slobby sons and a husband could have forced Debbie Wiener to become bitter — like the rest of us — but instead she became an inventor.
How bad was it? The drapes were covered in orange stains where her husband wiped his hands after eating Doritos. (And to think we get angry when our husbands use the good towels.)
The walls were a mess from the kids’ ricocheting shoes, backpacks and sports equipment. To cover the scuffs, she used Wite-Out on the white trim and Sharpies for the rest. But just try finding a Sharpie with a perfect color match to Crème Brûlée by Martha Stewart.
So Debbie came up with a million dollar QuirkOut idea — the Slobproof Paint Pen (slobproof.com). You fill it when you’re painting the walls and then use it later to undo what your family does.
We’re all over this idea, Debbie. We just hope you’re coming up with a solution for pizza stains on the white couch. Then we’ll paint the town with you.
CUPCAKE WARRIOR
When Stefani Pollack’s friends complained about how expensive it was to serve cupcakes at their upcoming wedding, her QuirkOut response was, “I’ll bake them for you!”
Although she’d never baked a cupcake in her life, they were about to change her life. Every week until the wedding, she tried a different flavor for 
her friends to sample. To keep track of all the varieties, she started Cupcake Project, a blog that today has 700,000 page views a month (cupcakeproject.com).
The winners were root beer with cream soda frosting, margarita and gingerbread latte. (What, no champagne?)
Those sound tame compared to her Buffalo Chicken Wing Cupcakes, which were featured on the CNN website during the Super Bowl (don’t ask, just Google). “Everything inspires me. Anything I encounter could become a cupcake,” says Stefani, mother of a 3-year-old son.
She’s cupcake crazy, and everyone’s crazy for her cupcakes. Now a regular guest contributor for Paula Deen’s website, she’s also been featured on the Food Network and the Bon Appetit website, just to mention a few of her followers.
Hey Stefani, can we volunteer as taste testers? Any flavor but the Cupcake-wurst that you made in a sausage casing. We’ll stick to brats and beer at the ballpark, thank you!
