The snows came to New York and the town stopped

Looking south along Central Park West from 68th Street. 2:55 PM. Photo: JH.

February 11, 2010. The snows came to New York and the town stopped. We had twelve solid hours of the white stuff. Schools were closed (had been the day before), businesses shuttered, doctors closed offices and people stocked up at the grocers as if they were hunkering down for days.

I had a doctor’s appointment down at 60th and Madison, which was moved up to an earlier time because he had cancellations. Ironically it was very easy getting around town because there was very little traffic, and the roads were clear because of the city’s plows and the wet surface. It was like a Sunday with the world festooning with Mother Nature’s magic.

The cab ride down Park Avenue (here at 68th Street) on the way to the doc's.

The weatherman was calling it the “Second Blizzard of 2010” although it wasn’t nearly as “crippling” as blizzards go. Carol Joynt, our Washington correspondent had a much more dramatic story to tell with her video and picture. See Washington Social Diary.

Nevertheless, it was a nice kind of day-off for a lot of New Yorkers who found it easy to slow down a bit and take it easy. I had a lunch at Michael’s which was canceled beforehand in anticipation of the drifts that never drifted. I missed seeing my friends Kim and Michael McCarty who were celebrating their dual birthdays over at Michael’s.

When I got out of the doctor's about two fifteen I walked around the corner to take a look at Fifth Avenue in the blizzard:

The Metropiltan Club at One East 60th Street (above) ...

The clock in front of the Sherry-Netherland and Cirpiani (right) ...

The Augustus Saint Gauden's 1903 statue of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman across the avenue (below)...

and her majesty, the Plaza Hotel on Fifth Avenue and Central Park South, which opened three years after the Sherman statue was dedicated (bottom) ...

Last night I went to Tom and Diahn McGrath’s for a dinner benefiting PEN. There were several of these dinners around town. The original guest list was for 20 people attending, for a donation to the cause. Each dinner featured an author of a recently published book. The McGraths’ guest was Hannah Pakula who recently published a biography of Madame Chiang Kai-shek (The Last Empress [1], Simon & Schuster).

These dinners are a real New York privilege. The guest list was made up of interested contributors who were curious to know the what’s and how’s of a writer. Ms. Pakula’s editor, the esteemed Alice Mayhew was present. There sixteen of us at one long table (there were a couple of cancellations). After the first course, Tom McGrath introduced the author and asked her how she came to write this book (which took eight years of research and writing).

Alice Mayhew, Judy Hottkenson, Hannah Pakula, Diahn McGrath, Tom McGrath, and Ellen Chesler.

Hannah Pakula had written two best-selling biographies – one of Queen Marie of Romania (a grand daughter of Queen Victoria) and Victoria, Dowager Empress of Germany (eldest daughter of Queen Victoria and mother of Kaiser Wilhelm). She explained how when this book came about and she began her research, she soon learned that the Chinese, unlike the Westerners, had no reverence for historical family records, and that learning was not easy. Nevertheless she held the table spellbound with her discoveries about this amazing woman who lived out the last half of her life in New York and died at 106 in 2003, living at 10 Gracie Square, right around the corner from this writer (who used to see her when she went out of her thrice weekly rides around town – she liked visiting Grant’s Tomb).

Ms. Pakula’s stories about the woman and her relationships with Western leaders, like Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, Wendell Willkie and others led to a wider discussion at table about China today and its relationship to the United States. There were more questions than answers but it was a very stimulating dinner, as it usually is at the McGraths’ table.

Me and Elaine on number 81 yesterday.

Dinner ended about ten-thirty. I got a ride over to East End Avenue with some neighbors who were at the dinner and whom I hadn’t met before, who lived three blocks south of me. And then after taking the dogs for their late night constitutional, snow having stopped, I changed into something more casual and went over to Elaine’s where the lady herself was celebrating her 81st birthday.

Elaine’s was packed, the tables full, the bar full, of old friends, new friends, regulars and the scribe set, in out of the storm. As I’ve written before, it’s like a club in that people come to Elaine’s for the fare, the drinks and the talk; and they settled in for hours with people coming and going, tables taking on new guests, to fill in for the early-risers who’ve left by 11. And in the middle of it all was the lady herself – unimpressed by the day – enjoying the company of her guests.

Our friend Paige Peterson who lives on Central Park West right across the Park, was out with her digital recording the art work of her neighbors ("I will be your snowman if you'll be my snow, then we both can roll 'em as we get to know ..." bows to Fats Waller).