Last night while driving home from a health board meeting I played with the dial a little - feigning interest in the latest news and commentaries - before switching it over, sneakily, although someone might be watching, to E!, channel 162 on XM. I'm hard on myself for listening to this station so much, but honestly, after sitting through a two-hour health board meeting and taking copious notes on new environmental services fees, is listening to the latest in Hollywood going to kill you? Certainly not. Is it going to educate you, or make you think more deeply about the state of the world? Probably not that, either. Unless you are listening to the latest report on Tom and Katie, and why the hell they haven't delivered on pics of their new baby yet, and maybe some Scientology theory thrown in - then you're exercising the mind, I think it's fair to say.

But last night there was no way I was going to resist when I realized that the Martha Stewart E! True Hollywood Story was on. Married at 19, a stock broker at 25. This was a Martha I didn't know. A callous, backstabbing woman with a penchant for ditching her family in the face of a new professional challenge? Yes, that too. What really inspired me about her story, however, was the way Martha acheived her goals, as well as her age when she did so.

One of my favorite things to do, as of late, is seach out celebrity's ages - especially those close to my own age. Inevitably, young stars, far younger than me, are making it in their chosen field of study. Lindsay Lohan. That 14-year-old golf star.

I applaud them, but secretly adore the 28-year-olds amongst the bunch, still forging their way. The 30-year-olds. And older, much older. As I haven't quite figured out my own path in life, I love to hear similar tales. Like Martha Stewart, who didn't, by the way, start catering until she was in her 30s or so and didn't publish her first book until her 40s. By 50 she was on the up and up with a magazine. She was a household name. But that wasn't the crux of her empire. Martha had television to conquer yet.

She also, around this time, allegedly tried to sort of run over her ex-husband, I think, who'd married her 26-year-old assistant. Not her finest moment. And, I mean, maybe not the best role model, with her personal life and all. That, however, is not my point.