[AN: All notes are taken verbatim from the book. I claim no rights to them.]
Being Martha by Lloyd Allen
- Introduction
- Somewhere along the line, the media portrayal of Martha became a cross of Betty Crocker & Cruella de Vil
- Martha & Me
- Martha’s hands were never idle
- It was often noticed that Alexis was ignored
- Alexis was often glad when someone other than her mother picked her up from school
- Has a hard time saying thank you or I’m sorry even if she was feeling it
- Growing Up Kostyra
- Martha Sr. hates it when she reads things negative about her late husband
- Martha is exactly like her father
- Martha fell for Andy HARD!
- Keeping Home
- She’s always teaching me something. That’s my mother in a nutshell. If you can teach her something, she will listen to you. If she doesn’t understand, she will ask questions.
- She is fascinated with acquiring knowledge
- Knowledge to her isn’t the 3R’s but S>>>skill, and the more skills you know, the further you will get in life
- Most daughters fight with their mothers about issues. Your mother would like it her way and you want it your way
- Stories about Alexis and Martha are exaggerated
- No Limits
- She knows when a house has good bones, a recipe has good flavor, and when a person has good skills
- You don’t schmooze with Martha. She’s not going to have a pajama party with you. She’s a different species
- Martha didn’t ask her staff to do anything she wouldn’t do herself
- She could be a tyrant, but she was right there with us all the way
- Martha was a tough teacher, but often those are the people who teach us the most
- Mentoring
- Working with her was bootcamp in how to start and run a business
- Martha always regretted her outbursts, even if she could not articulate it in the way people wanted her to
- Martha was not the type of friend to cry with and smother with hugs & kisses
- “Operate beyond all normal limits!”
- Drink ample amounts of coffee if you couldn’t keep up with her
- Tough for a man is great. Tough for a woman, she’s a bitch.
- Martha always believed nothing was insurmountable and that when an opportunity comes your way, it was put in front of you for a reason
- Her words could sting but she usually meant nothing by it
- She had the will and the way to get whatever she wanted
- Almost everyone who deserved credit got it. Those who didn’t are the one complaining.
- Martha is special like an artist, and when you throw in an intellect that is off the charts, you get someone who may not act like the rest of us.
- You have to really understand the dynamic and the near insanity of being that brilliant to really get a handle on Martha
- Martha provokes a longing in people>>>they want to get close to her, but that can never happen. She’s her own person-a private person
- Martha’s going to be as big as McDonald’s
- Doing Everything
- Parody books
- Martha Stewart’s Better Than You Are at Entertaining
- Is Martha Stewart Living?
- Martha Stewart’s Excruciatingly Perfect Weddings
- She never spoke about Andy after he left
- Her mind was very quick; either she like your idea or she didn’t
- She even insisted on having lunch with us. Having lunch together was important to her.
- Once yelled at truckers ruining her stone driveway>>”Get the hell off my driveway!”
- Due to a foot injury, once did a show segment on one foot
- Around Martha, humor was a survival technique
- Find me another human being running a business who isn’t controlling
- The Going Gets Tough
- Until you travel with Martha, you don’t fully know Martha
- Martha thinks that whatever anyone does is important
- She can’t deal with emotions the way most people do. And yet you can sometimes feel how desperately she wants to have someone to talk to
- 1997-Alexis marries a lawyer
- Martha is neither terribly masculine or feminine
- On Trial
- Another Place to be Martha
- Alexis is one of the few people who can beat Martha in Scrabble
- Next to Alderson Prison, Wal-Mart was the most happenin’ place in town
- Back Home
- There is a disagreement among family & friends as to whether Martha has “changed” since prison
- Moving Forward
- Martha may be a young girl at heart. She doesn’t just stand there by herself and appreciate things-she shares what she sees with the rest of us
- Epilogue: Martha Triumphant