Barbara Holland

She also began writing articles and short stories that were regularly published in magazines including Ladies’ Home Journal, McCall's, Redbook and Seventeen.

Turning to essays, Holland published three collections: Endangered Pleasures: In Defense of Naps, Bacon, Martinis, Profanity, and Other Indulgences (1995); Bingo Night at the Fire Hall: The Case for Cows, Orchards, Bake Sales & Fairs (1997), and Wasn't the Grass Greener?

Holland lamented the increasing social unacceptability of common vices, saying: "We have let the new Puritans take over, spreading a layer of foreboding across the land ... and denying ourselves even the most harmless delights marks the suitably somber outlook on life.

[2] In 2007 The Washington Post published a profile of Holland after the release of her 16th book, The Joy of Drinking, which she wrote to protest the rise of "broccoli, exercise and Starbucks."

During the interview, she poured herself a glass of wine and lit a cigarette, pointing to each and saying, "Stuck up here on this mountain, I have only two hobbies" and said that she regularly drank a "half-gallon of Scotch a week".