Wednesday, July 17, 2024. Very warm outside at 9:45 p.m. and storms predicted. Anything to cool us off for a few. It was a typical business day in Manhattan with four lane roads now reduced to one lane roads all over town.
I went down to Michael’s to have lunch with Joe Armstrong who is in from his home in Texas for the next few weeks. Joe is originally from Texas but had a long educational experience in New York where he got to meet the world and they got to meet him. He was mainly in the publishing business and a major contributor to the media. He’s also one of those guys who are described as “knowing everybody.”
He frequently had a table at Michael’s over the years, at the same time I was present at mine, three tables away. We can easily forget such realities but restaurant tables are very often political in certain restaurants where the power brokers preside.
It was very impressive to see on a very hot traffic-jammed day. The energy is UP. Its lunch hour is an aspect of business for a lot of people; lots of things come together at a Michael’s lunch. And yet to the guests it just looks like an attractive and interesting looking set of diners enjoying the excellent menu in a comfortable (art collection) atmosphere.
Jackie Onassis came up in conversation. Joe’s and her relationship came out of book publishing. Jackie loved her business in publishing and was indeed proud of the number of books she’d published. Her enthusiasm for her work was her center at that point in her life. It might have grown had it not been interrupted by fate.
Michael’s GM and in-residence photographer, Steve Millington, couldn’t resist getting a shot of me and Joe in conversation. Actually the entire meeting was duly celebrated for us both to be back in that room at the lunch hour midweek in New York.
Meanwhile, Joe goes from here up to Hyannisport to stay with one of his Kennedy friends. It’s someone’s birthday and good for sailing. And then from there is more traveling to see the world he knows, no doubt taking messages with him to deliver to others; greetings of joy.
Meanwhile here, traffic in the city was in a jam here there and everywhere. However, I also had a dinner date last night … with Mary Hilliard. If you don’t know Mary, you know her work and have seen a lot of it on the NYSD. She has a brilliant eye for catching a “moment” in personality that flatters or intrigues.
We met up at Sette Mezzo. The place was jammed by 6:30. “Is this the only restaurant opened tonight?” Mary asked in observing the crowd waiting to be seated. I like it for the noise, being one whose only housemates occasionally bark. At Sette sometimes it’s so noisy you realize no one can hear what anyone is saying at the next table.
