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Last
night was the annual Library Lions Dinner at The New
York Public Library. They honored as
this year's Lions: Art critic, historian and Picasso
biographer John Richardson, artist Jim
Dine, poet Billy Collins and Audra
McDonald. Benefit chairs were Lord
and Lady Black, Mr. and Mrs. Oscar de la Renta, HRH
Princess Firyal of Jordan and Lionel
Pincus, Mrs. Randolph Hearst and Mr.
and Mrs. Felix Rohatyn. Cocktails were held
in the Astor Hall (in the front of the Library) and
dinner was served in the Celeste Bartos Forum downstairs. Gayfryd (Mrs.
Saul) Steinberg and designer David
Monn turned the hall into an autumn wonderland
with banks and bowers of leafy, colorful branches seemingly
growing out of every corner and archway, the tables
decorated with large bowls of russet and golden mums
and harvest fruits and vegetables, and all smelling
of spices and berries, like the wine mulling on a late
November night. A very warm November night, as it was
this year. More on this later in the week. 7:15 PM.
Photo: JH.
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Harrumph
and grumble grumble. Last Friday afternoon
there was a terrible automobile accident and fatality on
Park Avenue and 71st Street. A taxi somehow lost control,
went off the road onto the sidewalk in front of 730 Park
Avenue and plowed into a man and killed him. The man was
completing his fortieth year as a doorman of the building
next door and was due to retire shortly. He’d just
come around the corner to chat with friends while on his
break.
There was a second car involved, one which somehow or another hit
the taxi. The newspapers said the police tested the taxi driver for
drugs and alcohol although they didn’t test the woman driving
the other car.
I wondered to myself if they tested for cellphonemania, the social
disease that grows more rampant by the hour and threatens to destroy
our entire society, our cities, our homes and ultimately ourselves.
Although there is a cure and it’s cheap: No Phone While Driving.
Or in the roadway.
There was a second terrible accident just
around the corner from 71st and Park, on 72nd and Lex,
two nights later, on Sunday at approximately seven o’clock.
A taxi coming down Lexington Avenue and turning onto
72nd Street, due west, slammed into the side of another
taxi coming from I don’t know where (because it
ended up facing west/northwest).
The second taxi had flipped over and its weight crushed the top.
There was a third car involved too – a large car, a truck or
SUV which was facing east with a large gash in its left front fender
and headlight.
I was on my way to Swifty’s for dinner with a friend and arrived
on the scene moments after the collision. There were firetrucks and
ambulances and stretchers and policecars. Traffic on the corner is
relatively light at that time of the day on Sunday. Lucky there weren’t
more cars on the road when it occurred.
I don’t know what happened. It was impossible to re-create
the incident just from the position of each of the three cars. I
wondered once again about that rampant social disease: was someone
(or even all) of the drivers on the phone?
What are the odds these days?
On Friday afternoon walking up Madison Avenue about
three, in front of the Carlyle was a woman standing in the middle
of the right hand uptown lane, talking on her cell phone and quite
incidentally waving her arm for a cab. I say “incidentally” because
common sense told me she was at risk; and when I looked down the
avenue I spotted no cabs coming her way. Didn’t matter, I could
tell, because she was really into her phone conversation (“so
then what’dja do after you left Bergdorf’s?”),
and laughing and having the best time with some one Out There.
Meanwhile the traffic was heavy on Madison Avenue and moving rather
slowly, slowly enough so that as the cars came near the cellphonemaniac,
they veered into the middle lane to avoid hitting her. Which
was very thoughtful, in a way. The same thing you do when you come
upon a double-parked car: you don’t drive directly into it.
Didn’t matter for this lady though; she never even noticed
... until ... along came a twenty-five foot long tractor trailer,
mega, with motor sputtering and heaving roars. Moving slowly.
I stood watching the pretty lady in the little white tee, black slacks,
black strapless slingbacks, dark glasses, having the best time. Would
she move for the big diesel which was moving toward her about fifty
feet to the south of her, with no lane to move into?
Of course not: she was on the phone darling; what’s she supposed
to do?
Finally, within twenty feet of her, the truckdriver
laid on the horn, one of those big fat
flat bleaters that echoes off the side of buildings.
And she moved. Yeah, she had to ... from the center of the lane to
within a three feet of the curb, still having the best time on the
phone.
What amazed me most was her clear disinterest in any and all traffic
coming directly in her path. Did she really think it would all just
move away from her until the taxi she was waiting for came along?
Maybe. That’s part of the disease: I’m here and you’re
not. Which makes sense (I couldn’t see who she was talking
to).
It’s funny in an absurd sort of way. Except when you see (with
your heart in your throat) a person (man or woman) pushing a child
in stroller, while on the phone, and rushing against a light and
oncoming traffic. Yeah, really.
It’s a menace, that’s for sure, causing deaths and maimings
daily all over the planet. People are unaware that talking on the
telephone is a major distraction to all the senses and 90% of the
time most of us are at least mildly disoriented. The rest are brain
dead. Waiting for the accident to happen. Will it be them or the
other guy? |
My
friends Clay Barr, Charlotte Ford and Diana Feldman are holding
their annual Holiday Shopping Spree this week in
Louis Sherry Room of the Sherry Netherland Hotel at 59th
Street and Fifth Avenue all this week -- Monday through Friday.
OMNIPRESENTS is the name of their catalogue company and that pretty
much says it. Many corporations and individuals who have long lists
hit this Sale for their cornucopia of gifts. And these Mama Santas
will be there along with lots of little elf-ettes to help you make
quick decisions for long lists.
For your mother, brother, father, sisiter, in-laws, children, grandchildren,
assistants, cleaning ladies, manicurists, boyfriends, girlfriends,
you-name-it-, they've got something that's perfect, beautiful,
classic, even corny and funny at prices that will bring a sparkle
into those shoppers' eyes of yours. Go see for yourself and tell
'em New York Social Diary sent you and you get an extra thanks
from us.
This is real ONE STOP SHOPPING, I kid you not ...
Monday, November 3rd -- 10 a.m. through 6 p.m.
Tuesday, November 4th -- 10 a.m. through 8 p.m. (for you
after office folks)
Wednesday, November 5th -- 10 a.m. through 6 p.m.
Thursday, November 6th -- 10 a.m. through 6 p.m.
Friday, November 7th -- 10 a.m. through 6 p.m.
and if you don't think those girls have had it with holiday shoppers
and are ready to run screaming from the place !!!
For
more information call 1-800-317-GIFT
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Family "Foto" Blanket
Custom
knitted portrait blanket with rod pocket for hanging in
100% washable mercerized cotton. Send photographs of your
baby, dog, cat, horse, house, etc. and it becomes a treasured
family heirloom!
50" x 75" Portrait blanket, $600. Includes one
photo of one to three people. Extra photographs added,
up to nine, $75 each.
36" x 54" Portrait blanket. Can include a photo
of one or two people, $300. Extra photos of individuals
added, up to four, $75 each.
Name
and date included. Color choices: wine, navy, green, or
black, with natural background.
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Leather
Holders
A. Leather envelope photo
album holds 40 4" X 6" photos,
$50.
B. Leather picture frames, 8" X
10", $100; 5" x 7", $85;
4" x 6", $70.
Available in green, red, royal blue, British tan, or black.
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Brushed
Beauty
D. Brushed silver plate and
bergundy leather travel alarm clock,
3" x 2", $35.
E. Brushed and polished silver plate
oval pen holder, 3" tall, $25.
F. Brushed silver plate vase and frame,
3" tall, $30.
G. Brushed and polished silver plate
tape dispenser, 2-3/4" sq., $30.
H. Shiny chrome clock with Roman numerals,
3" square, $30.
I. Tubular chrome flashlight, 5" long,
$25.
*May be engraved for an additional $8
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