Everyone I know has been waiting for the first day of spring as an excuse to wear some cute new season looks and put the miserable winter of our national discontent behind us. But as I write these words, it is a dispiriting 36 degrees in New York, and a light snow is falling from the steel gray sky. Blech.

And it certainly was a red letter week for celebrity style fouls. Michelle Obama started the week well with the announcement that she was to be given an award by the Council of Fashion Designers of America. But by Wednesday she was being called out by this very blog for a pair of distinctly fug turquoise suede boots.

Not to mention! What was the deal with her instructing the White House staff to dye the fountains green for St. Patrick's Day? I know the Irish Prime Minister was visiting, but still, to this uptight WASP the spectacle seemed a little ... Jersey. Does that mean for Christmas we can expect those Frosty-the-Snowman-Inside-a-Snow-Globe inflatable yard things all over the White House lawn?

Maybe we'll give her a St. Patty's Day pass because we still love her, and let's face it, March 17 is a day when it's hard to look good. New York was full of happily drunk people wearing bouncy shamrock headbands and so much clashing green the place looked like a Shrek convention. I thought I might get a style respite that evening by interviewing Christie Brinkley at the Smile Train ten year anniversary gala Tuesday night, but she didn't show. (The entertainment for the evening was the Irish tenor Ronan Tynan and lots and lots of speeches. Mr Tynan wore a green waistcoat, was accompanied by a children's choir put together from local Catholic schools, and chose a selection of songs one would be A Very Bad Person to criticize: God Bless America, a 9/11 anthem, etc etc. Did I mention he has two prosthetic legs?)

So thank heavens for Alex Rodgriguez, who lightened the week by posing for the world's most ill-considered photo spread in Details magazine. Details is often unfairly parodied as being the men's fashion magazine for guys who don't know they're gay. The Yankees third baseman is photographed kissing his own reflection, and the journalist, Jason Gay, talks to him about Madonna. No judgments.

But thank-you, A-Rod, for getting us through this bleak last week of winter. Now, when's spring going to arrive?