Times have changed. Thank heavens for progress. When I was a teen I remember waiting endlessly for my period to start as if it were some great mystical force of nature that would transform me into someone grownup and sophisticated. And then it happened and my period was well, less than magical. It was also sometimes unpredictable and it was often heavier than I anticipated. It sometimes led to some near disasters. Hacks of any sort, period or otherwise, were not on my radar back then. I became the master of my own limited repertoire of period tricks. The jacket waist…