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 A day in the life
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| An evening reading in Central Park. 6:50 PM. Photo: JH. |
| Thursday, August 9, 2012. Very warm day, but bearable as long as you didn’t have to be out in it all day. Many people do, of course. And there were a lot of tourists midtown as well as in the carriage and bicycle rides in the Park, and the joggers, and the walkers. |
| There was a nice breeze on the Promenade early last evening and the neighbors were out and about. |
| The view of the northern tip of Roosevelt Island and Astoria, Queens across the way. 7:20 PM. |
| The northern tip of the promenade on the edge of Gracie Mansion. 7:25 PM. |
The FDR looking south, with people heading north for home. 7:35 PM. |
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Wednesday/Michael’s. It was noticeably a much quieter Wednesday although the place was full up. Too hot for anything but a leisurely lunch (in an hour).
At Table One in the bay, PR guru Catherine Saxton with Emma Snowdon-Jones, Hutton Wilkinson, Margaret Luce, Tom Shaffer; Norah Lawlor (PR) with Tara Palmeri of the New York Post; Catie Marron with Susan Gilchrist (financial PR); Mark Simone of WABC Talk Radio, one of the longest running, most entertaining voices on New York, and one of the nicest guys in New York too; John Huey of Time; Dini Von Mueffling (PR); David Sanford of the WSJ and Louis Stein; Joe Armstrong the Mayor of Michael’s with Susan Lehman of the Times; Bob Schieffer with Susan Zirinsky of 48 Hours; Richard Belzer who was celebrating the publication of his new book. I don’t know the title.
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| Richard Belzer with one of his pups. |
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He was handing them out to several people but he ran out of books before I got to say “hey, where’s mine?” If you’re a Richard Belzer fan, and I know he’s got a lot of them, you may know the title. He’s notable in Michael’s (besides for being Richard Belzer) for bringing his dog with him. He’s the only one who does. Cute little white dog. But he was without pup today. I asked him why. “She’s on a playdate,” he told me. And she loves it; getting a rest from us bipeds. He told me yesterday he and his wife have four or six at their house in the South of France. I told him if I had a house I’d have ten.
Moving around the room: Jerry Inzerillo; Herb Siegel with Frank Gifford; Jonathan Estreich; Martin Puis; Dave Johnson; Ben Lambert; Gillian Tett (FT); David Poltrack of CBS; Henry Schleiff with Cynthia Turner; Nick Verbitsky; Brooke Hayward; Rob Weisbach; Shelly Palmer; Susan Hallmar; Clare Eastman; Stu Zakim; Sandra Hallmark; Martin Bandier; Alexandra Chemia; Steven Smith; Joe Gromek; Eric Goldberg; Mark Lederman; Alfred Youngwood; and dozens more of their ilk.
Yesterday’s Telegraph of London had an excellent obit of Robert Hughes, the author and art critic, who died on Monday, a week after his 74th birthday. After lunch I stopped by Archivia (which was featured in yesterday’s Guest Diary by Delia von Neuschatz) to see if they had had any books by Robert Hughes, having just read yesterday’s obit.
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| Erica Jong, author of the classic Fear of Flying, with Piers Ashworth, who is writing a screen adaptation of the book that sold millions of copies. |
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The obit made me want to read another one of Hughes’ history/critique books. They had one copy left of his latest: “Rome,” which I have. Just outside the bookstore, looking at the window was Erica Jong and a man I didn’t know. I went out and she introduced me. He's Piers Ashworth, and is writing a screenplay adaptation of “Fear of Flying.”
Leaving Archivia I was heading home walking up Lex, when I saw the sign in the window of William Poll: “Christine Poll is 94 today.” Back up a little. I’ve known about William Poll since I first came to New York in the 60s. An East Side specialty. Food. Supplier to the finer co-ops along the avenues of Fifth and Park and all the cross streets in that area. Someone once told me that they knew a woman who bought her bagels there and called them “bay-zhels.” Fitting. Truthfully I never went inside until a week ago.
Why did I never go inside since I like delis and food shops (and bookshops and hardware stores)? I don’t know. Maybe I thought it was too serious for this sight-seer. However, a couple of weeks ago I was at a dinner party and the hors d’oeuvres were so good I asked the hostess “where?” She said “William Poll; only William Poll.”
So last week, walking up Lex, I was thinking about that dinner and so I stopped in. It is a very serious place. It’s not some deli or even some “specialty” food shop. It is a serious kitchen for the likes of those who live on the avenues of Park and Fifth et al, and all the side streets in between. Shelves of well-packaged, seriously packaged food items. The first thing I saw, in a basket just inside the front door were bags of bagel chips (still bay-zhel chips to some people, I’m sure). Which I love.
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| Mrs. Poll at the time of her 90th, taken for the New York Times. |
| Mrs. and Mr. Poll, 28 years ago. |
Then. looking through the refrigerator shelves of the freshly packed hors d’oeuvre foods, I saw a lovely green guacamole with red bits. I love guacamole, and as simple as it seems to make there is guacamole and then there is guacamole. Remembering those hors d’oeuvres at my hostess’ dinner, I figured this had to be the real guacamole. So I bought the chips and the guacamole. ($14 tax included.)
When I got home and settled down, I opened the chips and the guac. And ate it all. No self-control; I didn’t care. And it was hot. Jalapeno peppers in the mix.
So today, walking up Lex again, feeling like my compulsive self, I was thinking of the guacamole at William Poll (williampoll.com). And the chips. And so it was; that was how I learned it was Mrs. Poll’s 94th. This time when I brought it home, however, I only ate half and put the rest in the fridge until tomorrow – when it has to be eaten! |
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| Diana Vreeland's lunch ALWAYS came from William Poll. Her assistant's daily lunch instructions and diagram are below (courtesy of Diana Vreeland: Immoderate Style). |
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More Gore. Carol Joynt, our esteemed former Washington Social Diary ace who abandoned us more than a year ago for greener pastures (and honest-to-God benefits) for the Washingtonian magazine, published a piece yesterday on the Washingtonian web site, on the last hours of Gore Vidal.
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| Nancy Thomsen and Gore Vidal, Los Angeles, 1982 when Gore was running for California State Senate. |
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At first I thought it was a morbid idea. And then I realized I had morbid curiosity anyway. I daresay Gore Vidal probably would have found Carol’s piece compelling too. The headline says it all: “Gore Vidal’s Last Words: ‘Stop It”’ His Last Book: ‘The Wizard of Oz.’” But as it always was with Gore, there was More.
Seeing that, it immediately occurred to me that it sounded like a character based on the man himself in one of his novels about Washington. “Stop It!” could easily sum up his decades-long message to the American people about what they should be shouting at their governors. And “the Wizard of Oz” couldn’t be a more timely reminder of the situation in our current politico-banking system.
Satire, of course; but so’s everything that Gore’s wit touched. You could almost think he was saving those words for his last. He did think about those things. Remember when his peer and contemporary Truman Capote died, his comment on hearing of it was: “good career move.”
Carol’s piece was so interesting that I wish I could just re-print it, or steal it ... but it’s not ours, alas. However, don’t miss it, if you’re even vaguely interested.
Interestingly I’m still getting mail about Gore’s partner Howard Austen’s “correct” name. This confounds me since name-changing is so ordinary that our legal system has symbols for it: a/k/a or d/b/a. Carol Joynt in her piece refers to Howard by his second name Austen. Yesterday I also got an email from a reader in Palm Springs named Nancy Thomsen who was a volunteer in Gore’s 1982 bid for the California Senate seat and became very good friends of both men. She’d heard (from Gore) the story about Howard name being “too Jewish” for some people, and how Gore suggested Howard change it from Auster to Austen. “None of us knew Howard by his original name.” And so it was; and now what is it? |
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