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Looking
west across The Hudson River towards New Jersey. 1:00 PM. Photo:
JH.
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There
was a book party for Gov. Ann Richards last night
and the book she wrote with Dr. Dick Levine, I’m
Not Slowing Down: Winning My Battle with Osteoporosis at
Jean-Luc restaurant at 507 Columbus Avenue at 84th Street.
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Ann
Richards greeting the wellwishers
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I took a taxi
across about 7 o’clock. A lot of people on the sidewalks
along the way; people coming home from work, the gym, on their
way out to eat, wheeling their babies and toddlers in carriages
and strollers. Conversation with the cabdriver about New Yorkers
as pedestrians and the chances they take – risks is a better
word – compulsively crossing against lights, often wheeling
their children ahead of them. It’s scary to watch. You think:
my god how can they take such risks with their children’s
lives.
I recalled once seeing a mother and child getting
hit by the taxi in front of us. The cab had
slowed almost to a snail’s pace (even though it had
the right of way) evidently thinking the woman was going
to pull back. But no, she casually (really!!) moved forward
and the bumper of the car hit the stroller and the child
was knocked over into the roadway along with the stroller
(and NOT the mother). It has stayed in my memory, like
a film rolling in slow motion. I can still feel the terrible
anticipation of catastrophe before my eyes. I don’t
know what happened to the child but I’ll never get
rid of the feeling that the “accident” was
entirely the result of the woman not bothering to wait
for the “WALK” sign.
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Ann
Richards and
Richard Levine, M.D.
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That’s
what was going on in my head until we got onto the 85th Street
transverse through the Park, thick and verdant and over to West
86th Street. It was just sundown and there was a pearly gray and
orange cast to the light.
There was a small crowd in front of Jean-Luc, many
with cameras. I’d been told that Renee Zellweger and Dan
Rather and Liz Smith and Tommy
Tune and Billy Crudup (all native Texans)
were going to be there. Inside I didn’t see any of the above,
but I did see another Texas boy, Joe Armstrong,
and then the governor in the middle of the throng, shaking hands.
I’ve written this before, I know, but I can’t help saying
it again: it’s a thrill to see Ann Richards in person. She’s
Everywoman (Texas style), the chief, the guv, the daughter, the grandma,
the girl. The sight of her just gives you a little rush of exuberance.
Exuberance; that’s the word. Safe with Ma. She looks just like
she does on television (if you’ve ever seen her), bright and
sharp, with that feathery coif of silvery white hair, meeting and
greeting with an ole Texas girl graciousness as delicious as ice
cream and apple pie.
I knew all this beforehand of course, and had decided to hit the
party just get another gander.
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Click
on image to order
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Off-camera,
away from the throngs and the madding crowd, I can
testify she’s just the same, with a meat-and-potatoes sensibility,
a beautiful common sense. Country girl and sophisticated intellect
too, she’s very very smart but never above your head. The
kind of smart you’d want someone to be if you needed someone
to steer you clear of trouble. And she loves the jokes and repartee
of banter among pals.
I’d brought along my Digital (JH was over in Brooklyn) and
I’m not much good at it. Dr. Dick, co-author was also present.
Richard U. Levine M.D. is a professor of Obstetrics and gynecology
at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University,
as well as attending physician at the New York Presbyterian Hospital
where he’s vice-chairman in the department of Obstetrics and
Gynecology. You’ve seen his picture on the Diary many times
as he and his wife Ellen Levine (editor-in-chief
of Good Housekeeping Magazine) are very active members of
the New York social and cultural scene.
I took just a few photos and hit the road because it was such a beautiful
night, I wanted to walk back to the East Side by going through the
Park before dark. I’m going through one of those times of heightened
interest in the beauty of the city. Like last night, I walked this
time through some blocks in the West 80s that I’d not been
down for quite sometime. These streets are all heavily tree-lined
now; the trees, in some instances, towering two and even three stories
high creating an demi-umbrella over sidewalk and roadway. |
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The
goody bags
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I
entered the Park just up the block from the American Museum
of Natural History at West 81st and Central Park
West, walking back the Diana Ross Playground sitting off to
the left in a spacious grotto of its own. The Park is astonishingly
beautiful. And serene. Like entering a vast green refuge of
woods, forests and fields. People everywhere. Dogs of all sizes,
shapes and breeds; runners, cyclists, rollerbladers traveling
at good and steady speed along the roadways. And yet not crowded.
None of it.
In the field extending several hundred yards across from the Delacorte
Theatre there were teams playing softball.
I stopped just beyond the Delacorte to take a shot of Fort Belvedere
and the towers of CPW to the south of it. And then the pond from
its eastern edge. And then the walk that goes over Cedar Hill leading
down to 79th Street and Fifth Avenue. Everyone, everything, everywhere,
at peace in this great refuge.
On Madison and 79th I hopped another cab back home.
I didn’t know what I was going to get when I opened
Ann Richards’ book, not having a particularly
intense interest in the matter of osteoporosis. But I opened it anyway,
because it was hers. It’s autobiographical ... “I was
born in my parents’ bedroom in a little community called Lakeview
...” and because that distinct voice that provides those distinct
rushes of exuberance was immediately in my mind’s ear, I kept
reading on. It’s about life, and among other things, the osteoporosis,
and Ann Richards. You’ll keep reading on too. And be glad to
have known the lady, I should add. |
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In
Central Park looking south towards Belvedere Castle. 7:40 PM.
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Looking
west across the park. 7:43 PM.
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Walking
east towards Fifth Avenue. 8:00 PM.
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