November 2, 2009. It was a rainy and damp weekend in New York. Unseasonably warm (and rainy) Saturday. As the world knows it was Halloween. It actually started on Thursday all over town in parties private and charity-wise. Saturday afternoon shopping on the West Side, kids were going into stores “trick-or-treating.” In my neighborhood and in my building the kids were out in costume. By nightfall the older kids (18-78) were out and at it.
Apropos of nothing but rainy weekend reading: “... Paris society was a galaxy comprising many little planetary constellations, all revolving in their own orbits, sometimes crossing the path of others and sometimes colliding.” From Simon Schama’s “Citizens; a Chronicle of the French Revolution” (in a reference to the life of Talleyrand at the time) which I’m reading in tandem with Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities.”
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| Princess Firyal of Jordan and Lionel Pincus. |
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Also apropos of nothing but not nuttin’, the legal tangling that was beginning to stoke up the tabloids between Princess Firyal of Jordan and the sons of her recently departed significant companion, Wall Street tycoon Lionel Pincus, has been settled, dissolved, evaporated and all is well once again.
The princess was an heiress also to a share of Lionel’s approximately billion dollar fortune (a figure said to range between $60 and $100 million when all is said and done).
The settlement, whatever it is, exonerates Princess Firyal’s relationship with the late investment banker. Lionel Pincus was an especially kind and gentle man, especially with his loved ones, which included his sons as well as with Princess Firyal, who had been his close companion for more than a decade. It was a generosity of spirit as well as financial assets.
I also read Russell Baker’s review of Ted Kennedy’s autobiography in the New York Review of Books. Many of us grew up under the Kennedys’ lights. They dominated the political and celebrity scene for a generation of Americans, and then some. I also grew up in Massachusetts where they were well known before Jack went to the White House, although not in the same bright light. At that time the Kennedys were still regarded plainly as Irish-Catholics, which meant Not Quite Our Class by ruling WASP social establishment.
Old Joe circumvented any possible disappointment for his children who grew up in a world populated by New York socialites, movie stars and European aristocrats.
Jack and Jackie single/double-handedly ended that society. Killed it daid. The marketing of the Kennedy political ascension provided new definition of Who Was Who and Why. Their entry in our lives also coincided with all the great “liberation” movements of the 1960s. So they therefore were a part of it too. Furthermore their father had inculcated the idea of being useful in the world.
I was never a Teddy enthusiast which is not to say I wouldn’t have voted for him. Nor did I hate or loathe him. Like thousands of others, I heard the Teddy stories having to do with drinking, having to do with drugs, having to do with sex, separately and all together. Back on the Cape, in his college days and not long after, he had a terrible reputation for losing it after having too much to drink. He was boisterous, rambuctuous, an idiot, and destructive.
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| Teddy Kennedy, 1978. (Photograph by Jill Krementz [2]) |
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I never heard those stories in the context of gossip but just matter-of-factness the way you hear about a neighbor’s behavior at a party last Saturday night. I got the impression Teddy was one of those guys who had a lot of pent up energy, maybe you could even call it anger. We know those people, don’t we? Especially after a few drinks. There’s always a residue of something pathetic.
It was also true that almost everyone I know who actually knew the man, including those who knew him for decades, or even met the man, had a lot of respect and often great affection for the way he’d carried on the family name, as its patriarch and in public service. And there were others who also experienced him and were not kind about him. Women, that is.
Baker says Teddy showed no signs in his book of being introspective, which is never surprising for people with so much physical energy. The last time I saw him was about ten years ago. It was on a Saturday afternoon in the summertime at the Bathing Corporation where he’d come with his sister to lunch. He was massively overweight, sweating and bilious, yet wearing shorts which were almost not big enough for all that excess. He looked very uncomfortable in his stride although he moved along quickly like a man on a mission.
Reading Baker’s excellent review of the book, I realized that the Kennedys as we have known them – that astonishingly glamorous and vigorous (Jack’s word) American family, have now all left us with the exception of the youngest sister – although older than Teddy -- Jean Kennedy Smith. For those of us who witnessed their entire lives lived before our eyes, it casts a far different light on this remarkable family. And, in the final analysis, as it is with the rest of us, it began and ended with the Mother and the Father. Rose and Joe. For them, Teddy turned out to be the son they would have expected him to be. And as it is with many of us, the tone and the lines were theirs.
Back to Business. A black-tie gala was held Thursday night to commemorate Mystic Seaport's "America and the Sea Award" honoree, William "Bill" Koch. A renowned businessman, art collector, philanthropist, and winner of the famous America's Cup, Mr. Koch was recognized on this night not only for his prowess as a sailor, but also for his love of art and wine.
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