Why we love LUCIE ARNAZ ELLEN EASTON An expert to a tea J HENRY FAIR The land in his lens JODY AND MARK ROLLINS Retirees in bloom A BOUQUET OF NATURE-INSPIRED ART
Graff’s
marc hruschka
Visionary gardens
polished gem
JUDGED A
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MAGAZINE
IN NEW YORK STATE 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018
WESTCHESTER & FAIRFIELD LIFE MAY 2020 | WAGMAG.COM
Macri Classica Cuff Watch $21,500
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TRUTH AND FICTION FROM WAG'S EDITOR
PROVOCATIVE POSTS ON POWER thegamesmenplay.com
A NOVEL OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT FROM JMS BOOKS
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CONTENTS M AY 2 0 2 0
36
COVER STORY
Marc Hruschka: A diamond not in the rough 2
WAGMAG.COM
MAY 2020
12 Misadventures of a plant parent
24 Whiskey women
14 This ‘Poppy’ is also a flop
26 Here’s Lucie
16 Capturing the land to save it
28 V is for victory – and vegetables
18 The mystique of the rose
30 A prophet for our times
20 Steeped in tea
32 Retirees in bloom
22 A bouquet of nature-inspired art
E VERY OBJ ECT HAS A STORY
worth telling, worth find ing.
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FEATURES HIGHLIGHTS
HEALTH & FITNESS 42 – How to motivate yourself – and others 46 – Allergies or cold?
TRAVEL 48 – Cruising Amsterdam’s harbor 50 – Traveling in the mind 52 – Have mom, will travel
HOME & DESIGN
22
40 – Sophisticated ease in Greenwich 54 – Caring for plants – and yourself 56 – Forever fresh
FASHION & BEAUTY 58 – Double delight 60 – Makeup gets a museum of its own
FOOD & SPIRITS
28
50
62 – A life lived through dining 64 – A deep dive into DIY wine 66 – An Italian-Indian treat
WHERE & WHEN 67 Upcoming events
PET CARE 68 – Pet Portraits and Pet of the Month
WATCH
30
69 – We’re out and about
WIT 72 – How are you coping with the coronavirus restrictions?
Why we love LUCIE ARNAZ ELLEN EASTON An expert to a tea J HENRY FAIR The land in his lens JODY AND MARK ROLLINS Retirees in bloom A BOUQUET OF NATURE-INSPIRED ART
Graff’s
marc hruschka
Visionary gardens
polished gem
JUDGED A
TOP
COVER: Marc Hruschka. Photograph by Bob Rozycki.
MAGAZINE
IN NEW YORK STATE 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018
WESTCHESTER & FAIRFIELD LIFE MAY 2020 | WAGMAG.COM
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ART Kelsie Mania ART DIRECTOR kmania@westfairinc.com
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PHOTOGRAPHY
COVER STORY: GEORGETTE GOUVEIA, PAGE 36
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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Jena A. Butterfield, Gina Gouveia, Phil Hall, Debbi K. Kickham, Doug Paulding, Giovanni Roselli, Bob Rozycki, Gregg Shapiro, Barbara Barton Sloane, Jeremy Wayne, Cami Weinstein, Katie Banser-Whittle
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Some readers think WAG stands for “Westchester and Greenwich.” We certainly cover both. But mostly, a WAG is a wit and that’s how we think of ourselves, serving up piquant stories and photos to set your own tongues wagging.
HEADQUARTERS A division of Westfair Communications Inc., 701 Westchester Ave., White Plains, NY 10604 Telephone: 914-694-3600 | Facsimile: 914-694-3699 Website: wagmag.com | Email: ggouveia@westfairinc.com All news, comments, opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations in WAG are those of the authors and do not constitute opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations of the publication, its publisher and its editorial staff. No portion of WAG may be reproduced without permission.WAG is distributed at select locations, mailed directly and is available at $24 a year for home or office delivery. To subscribe, call 914-694-3600, ext. 3020. All advertising inquiries should be directed to Anne Jordan at 914-694-3600, ext. 3032 or email anne@westfairinc.com. Advertisements are subject to review by the publisher and acceptance for WAG does not constitute an endorsement of the product or service. WAG (Issn: 1931-6364) is published monthly and is owned and published by Westfair Communications Inc. Dee DelBello, CEO, dee@westfairinc.com
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EDITOR’S LETTER BY GEORGET TE GOUVEIA
“You can’t always get what you want,” The Rolling Stones sang. “But sometimes, you get what you need.” That’s how we feel about our May Visionary Gardens issue. It’s not exactly the issue we planned. Both our When & Where and Watch pages are a bit thin. And yet, it’s the issue all of us need right now as we continue to shelter in place amid the coronavirus. As we hunker down, it’s the perfect time to “cultivate our gardens,” as Voltaire would say, literally and metaphorically. So we have a story about the trend to revive the wartime victory garden by planting summer and fall vegetables for greater self-sustenance. Doug, our in-house Dionysus, shows you how to make wine at home. Cami tells you how to make your homes sanctuaries for plants and cut flowers. Jeremy clues you into terrific takeout (and curbside pickup). Ellen Easton, tea expert extraordinaire, offers everything you ever wanted to know about the beverage (and then some) while helping you personalize a virtual afternoon tea that can be as formal or informal as you’d like. Of course, when it comes to home and gardens, some of us are less green thumbs than all thumbs, as you’ll see in our opening essay in which we explore the perils of plant parenting — particularly for us Athena types, warrior goddesses with mothering issues. This kind of story — in which one thing (plant parenting) really stands in for another (the complex parent-child bond) — is, of course, the essence of WAG: We’re a sophisticated, cultural luxury lifestyle magazine. In times of stress, you can’t lose sight of who you are. But like flora and the fauna that feed on them, you adapt to changing times. And so, as always, we balance the purposeful with the escapist. Jeremy, who does both beautifully, profiles photographer-environmental activist J Henry Fair as well as Mark and Jody Rollins, business retirees who’ve re-bloomed as coaches for would-be retirees. Then Jeremy switches gears to recall his favorite exotic haunts while also introducing us to some of the ladies of the Bourbon Women Association. Debbi, whose ability to transform the world through luxe beauty products and travel gifts remains unparalleled, has a bouquet of them for mothers — who,
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Athena, detail from a silver kantharos in Crete, (440-435 B.C.), part of the Vassil Bojkov Collection, Sofia, Bulgaria. Athena won the heart of Athens, the city that would bear her name, by gifting it the olive tree.
yes, will set sail once again someday. And Barbara recalls an historic Viking River Cruise to Amsterdam, land of tulips. Meanwhile, Phil, who can ferret out an unusual story like nobody’s business, has poppies on the brain as he recalls the intrigue behind the troubled international thriller “The Poppy is Also a Flower” (1966). Gregg catches up with singer-actress Lucie Arnaz, daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, wife of actor Laurence Luckinbill and former Katonah and Connecticut resident. Though Arnaz, who’s scheduled to appear to Feinstein’s 54/Below in June, now makes her home in California, it’s clear she left her heart in WAG country. And Robin brings a smile to your face with a Pet Portrait of Susan Herbert’s book “Impressionist Cats.” Who knew the finicky felines deigned to “pose” for Monet and company? Meanwhile, Katie’s column on botanical art objects and our bouquet of local nature-inspired art will stir those collecting juices. Now may not be the right moment
for new acquisitions. But while we have to have our practicality, we have to have our dreams, too. In a way, our cover subject, Marc Hruschka, synthesizes both. The recently appointed president and CEO of Graff USA — whom we met at the Graff boutique in The Vault, one of The Saks Shops at Greenwich, before the lockdown took place — is remarkably down-to-earth for someone who’s a leader in a dazzling field. He reminds us very much of Edna Ferber’s description of wheat and emeralds in the novel “So Big” (1925). Wheat people are of the land. Emeralds are the artistic folk. Marc — a Westerner who has a 20-acre spread in Texas but also lives in Manhattan — is both wheat and emeralds, a lover of the great outdoors as well as of Graff’s aesthetic, which includes floral- and butterfly-inspired diamonds. Why should we care about diamonds or the arts or anything of decorative beauty in a time of disaster? Because like the land itself, it’s something that lasts, something that has value, something to remind us of better days ahead. A 2018 Folio Women in Media Award winner, Georgette Gouveia is the author of the new “Seamless Sky,” “Burying the Dead” and “Daimon: A Novel of Alexander the Great” (all JMS Books) as well as “The Penalty for Holding,” a 2018 Lambda Literary Award finalist (JMS Books), and “Water Music” (Greenleaf Book Group). They’re part of her series of novels, “The Games Men Play,” also the name of the sports/culture blog she writes. For more, visit the gamesmenplay.com.
LIONESS, INC.
S
Seeing wild animals display affection strikes a chord with us humans. We’ve been there. We’ve done that. Given the harsh environment and everyday struggle to survive in the wild, we are surprised to see glimpses of human behavior in their actions. This cub, in stride, reached up and leaned into his mother, looking for assurance. Solidarity is how they have always survived. Lions are the laziest of the big cats, often spending most of the day sleeping or resting. While lazing around, they can be very affectionate towards one another. While a group of people connected to one another is called a tribe, a group of fish is called a school and a group of owls is called a parliament, a group of lions is collectively called a pride because of their stately quality. Lions are the only cats that live in these social groups called prides. Family units may contain as many as 40 lions, including up to four males, who are responsible for protecting the pride, and a dozen females. All of a pride’s lionesses are related and will mate at approximately the same time. After a gestation period of about 110 days, the females gives birth to 1 to 4 cubs, weighing only 2 to 4 pounds. The cubs are then raised together, sometimes nursing communally. While the image of male lion superiority is ubiquitous in the world, the truth is that the females are the leaders of the pride and its primary hunters. Males rarely participate in hunting unless they are needed. Females fiercely defend their cubs, and while males tolerate them, they don’t always defend
them. With high mortality rates, about 80% of cubs will not survive until adulthood, but those that do may live to be 10 to 14 years of age. Helping humans learn how to live with lions is key to ensuring their survival. In northern Kenya, Samburu warriors, women and children with important local knowledge of wildlife issues are trained to collect data on wildlife sightings and respond to community issues like livestock depredation. In exchange, they receive educational lessons and a leadership role in their communities, creating a network of wildlife ambassadors. Some conservation organizations pay farmers to replace their livestock that have been taken by lions. There are so many fascinating things to discover about lions and all the other creatures that can be found on safari with John Rizzo’s Africa Photo Tours. It’s an unforgettable trip filled with lions, elephants, leopards, zebras and rhinos — all waiting to be discovered by you! Rizzo, an award-winning photographer, leads a team of experienced guides, specializing in safari and tribal tours within East Africa – Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia. His experienced team brings an intimate group of guests of all ages to see the “Big Five” (buffalos, elephants, lions leopards and rhinoceroses) as well as visit with the Maasai, Samburu and Turkana people. It’s a once in a lifetime experience. For more, visit africaphototours.com
WHAT'S TRENDING
WA G S P O T L I G H T S T H E N E W A N D N O T E W O R T H Y
TEA AND SCENT-SIBILITY FOR YOUR BOTANICAL LIBRARY Whether you have a green thumb — or like us are just all thumbs — you’ll be enlightened and entertained by these three offerings from Thames & Hudson. “The Land Gardeners: Cut Flowers” ($60, 256 pages) is a ravishingly refined coffee table book that follows Bridget Elworthy and Henrietta Courtauld, also known as The Land Gardeners, as they revive the Arts and Crafts gardens at Wardington Manor in Oxfordshire, England, and offer tips for creating your own all-season cut-flower garden. Bree Laffey’s “Indoor Green: Living With Plants” ($29.95, 208 pages), new in paperback, shows you how to make the most of your peace lilies and fiddle leaf figs, to name but two of the plants she covers. Erin Lovell Verfinder’s “Plants for the People: A Modern Guide to Plant Medicine” ($29.95, 208 pages) tells you how to cultivate and use everything from dandelion to yarrow. All three are available May 5. For more, visit thamesandhudsonusa. com. Courtesy Thames & Hudson.
Does any tea company do packaging quite the way Tea Forté does? The Massachusetts-based company’s Fleur collection once again evokes the scents of the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx — as well as botanical prints from its LuEsther T. Mertz Library — with what it calls “an array of green, white, black and herbal teas” that “join an organic harvest of peach, blueberry, jasmine and hibiscus, culminating in an elegant quintet of floral blends.” For more, visit teaforte.com. Courtesy Tea Forté.
EYE ON THE ROSE
To smooth and brighten the eyes, Sisley-Paris has added Black Rose Eye Contour Fluid to its Black Rose Collection. Active botanicals include aqueous black rose, red vine and the algae padina pavonica and chlorella. Other ingredients include caffeine, vitamin E and shea oil. For more, visit sisleyparis.com. Courtesy Sisley-Paris.
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HELPING HANDS Working on our homes and gardens can be tough on the hands, not to mention drying with all that hand-washing we’re doing nowadays. Zincuta Ointment is made in the U.S.A. of zinc oxide, beeswax and lavender to help heal chafes, burns, sunburns, abrasions, sores, insect bites, psoriasis, eczema and poison ivy. For more, visit zincuta.com. Courtesy Zincuta.
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Misadventures of a plant
parent BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA
An Athena woman often has depreciated her own mother. She needs to discover her mother’s strengths, often before she can value any similarities to her mother in herself. — Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., “Goddesses in Everywoman: A New Psychology of Women.”
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I am a plant mother. Every morning, when I go downstairs and then outside to pick up the newspaper, I say, “Good morning to the House of the Spirits,” borrowing from Isabel Allende to honor my beloved Aunt Mary, and all my other relations who have gone before. Then I turn to my indoor plants and my garden and say, “Grow for Mommy. Mommy loves you. You’re all beautiful.” And they whisper back, “We will, Mommy. We love you and think you’re beautiful, too.” And thus begins another day, which is not to say that it will necessarily be a good day or that I am a good plant parent. There have been overwatered Christmas cactuses — cacti to you Latin buffs; a pink-striped potted palm from my sister Gina that I named Colin after Colin Kaepernick that is down to its last spindly leaves; a small cactus that I accidentally hit with a window I was cleaning — yes, only I could ruin a cactus; petunias and New Guinea impatiens that were resurrected by the long-suffering handyman Selvin after I left them in the care of a negligent neighbor; and too many “Mr. Poinsettias” than I care to mention. (The only plant that has not died on me, yet, is the easygoing, virtually indestructible red aglaonema, or Chinese evergreen, a pink-green joy.) Gina — a real Artemis, goddess of wild things — has tried to help with assorted books, implements and joint visits to Terrain in Westport, to little avail, although I am always poking and prodding my plants with the water thermometer that she and a Terrain saleswoman said would be essential to me. At least the overwatering has stopped. I have credited my misadventures in plant parenting to what I’ve always seen as zero maternal instinct — unlike our sister Jana, a real Demeter, earth mother. When Jana was a child and received a new doll, she would tenderly put it in her baby stroller. I on the other hand — a real Athena, warrior goddess of wisdom — would line up my dolls in Aunt Mary’s attic, assign each a school profile and then grade them as I instructed them. All too many received Fs, “because you’re stupid,” I would point out, “stupid and unteachable.” They would stare back at me blankly, apparently unfazed by the gravity of their predicament. No wonder they were failing. The real reason for my lack of maternal instinct, however, can be traced to my tangled relationship with my own mother. For reasons that are too complex to delve into here, she did not raise me but gave me over to the care of her immediately older sister, Mary. Over the years, my relationship with my parents would be alternately affectionate, distant and explosive, and I would come to see myself not as a bridge between my mother and my aunt, who had their own fraught history, but as a wedge. Perhaps that’s why when anyone brings up moms and kids — as in stories of balancing homework and working at home in the time of COVID-19 — I get a sinking feeling. “This would be my idea of the Ninth Circle of Hell,” I told a neighbor, also childless, who chuckled in response. No doubt she, who has known me since I was a young woman, has long intuited that while I love keeping house as a
This Chinese evergreen is the only type of plant I ever had that has lasted (so far). Just water once a week, give it plenty of light and you’re good to go.
This Chinese evergreen (red aglaonema) is the only type of plant I ever had that has lasted (so far). Just water once a week, give it plenty of light and you’re good to go.
curator of inanimate objects — a pursuit that never interrupts my thinking, reading and writing — I’ve never been one for taking care of living things with their constant neediness. All that changed in 2009 when I lost my job as senior cultural writer for Gannett Inc. and Aunt Mary’s dementia rapidly accelerated due to disastrous artificial-hip replacement surgery. She came home from rehab March 11, 2010. A tree fell on our house in a nor’easter March 13. And on March 15, I started a new job with Westfair Communications, WAG’s parent company. In six days, my life changed forever, not necessarily for the better. I’d like to tell you that I became like all those Bette Davis and Vivien Leigh heroines whose self-centeredness is transformed by love. But life isn’t “Now, Voyaget,” “Gone With the Wind” or any of those other women’s pictures about fearlessness that I nonetheless took strength from. In my denial, despair and defiance, I came to realize my aunt and I had come full circle: She had delivered me into a brilliant life, and I would shepherd her through her earthly journey’s end. And I would do so by stewarding our home and garden. I would become their caretaker as well and, in restoring both, they would truly become mine and I would restore myself. Over time, I began to see that self in a new light, as a nurturer. “Well, you are the mother of your books,” an usher would later flatter me at church one Mother’s Day, offering me the beribboned carnation that is given only
to mothers after I had demurred from accepting it. Yes, I am, I thought. Like the goddess Athena, who sprang full-blown from the head of her father, Zeus, after he had devoured her mother, Metis — he was afraid Metis would have a son greater than he -- I am the mother of my thoughts and words, my home and my garden. And as that mother, I always buy myself a Mother’s Day gift. “What? You don’t deserve a present since you’re not a mother,” bellows my Uncle Johnny — who’s not a mother either. “Oh, yes I do. And anyway, what’s your point?” I bellow back. Yes, what is the point? “Tell him,” a feminist friend once told me, “that you are the mother of yourself, as we women all are.” But I could not do that before I said goodbye to my other mothers. I can tell you this: It is easier to lose a parent you love than one you are in conflict with. “Death ends a life,” Robert Anderson observed in his play “I Never Sang for My Father.” “But it does not end a relationship, which struggles on in the survivor’s mind toward some resolution, which it may never find.” My aunt died in an ice storm on Groundhog Day, 2011 and while I mourn her loss, I celebrate her and our relationship. Would you be surprised to learn that my mother died nine months later almost to the day, on All Saints’ Day? I think now about the summer before my mother died, ostensibly from breast cancer but really from heart disease and a stroke that had left her mainly bedridden in a nursing home for 16 years. At the hospital where she was recovering from the cancer surgery, I told her I could look after her for a few hours while my sister Gina, her primary caregiver and favorite, stepped out. “She thinks I don’t know how to care for someone, but I cared for Aunt Mary,” I told my mother as I applied a cold compress to her face. “That’s because you loved her,” my mother said. “And do you love me?” she added hopefully. I looked at her then and said the only thing I could: “I love you as much as I ever loved her.” My mother and I never had another significant conversation. And we didn’t have to. So they became part of my House of the Spirits, which I have continued to cultivate along with my garden. But then “we must cultivate our garden,” Voltaire wrote in “Candide.” It isn’t always easy, as the long-suffering Luis, the contractor who saved my house and revived the garden, will tell you. There have been the occasions when he and his men have given haircuts to shrubs that I felt didn’t need them (meltdown). And the time they power-washed the house, leaving a few bleach stains on the lawn (another meltdown). Plants have come and plants have been given a formal compost burial. “It’s really trial and error,” a botanist told me at a New York Botanical Garden luncheon as I bemoaned my poor mothering. Imagine that — trial and error. Perhaps actual parenting is like that, too. And if such is the case, then perhaps it is possible to forgive others and forgive ourselves. Or at least I think that as I go about cultivating my garden — mother of my plants and stories, mother of myself.
MAY 2020
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This
‘poppy’ is also a flop BY PHIL HALL
In concept, how could the film fail? An international tale rich with intrigue based on a story by the creator of James Bond, shot in exotic locations and featuring an impressive lineup of international film stars: What could go wrong? Alas, “The Poppy is Also a Flower” (1966) is barely remembered as the last attempt to sell the United Nations’ good works to a skeptical world via narrative film productions. Indeed, the backstory was better than the film. This story begins in April 1964, when the United Nations Development Fund announced plans to create six 90-minute telefilms highlighting U.N. global initiatives. The world body created a nonprofit called Telsun Foundation to produce the films, and Xerox Corp. provided $4 million in funding. An initial publicity flurry promised the participation of Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger and Stanley Kubrick, but none of these directors would ever become involved. The first three films in this series — “A Carol for Another Christmas,” “Who Has Seen the Wind?” and “Once Upon a Tractor” — attracted A-list talent on both sides of the camera,
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but many critics and viewers complained the productions were preachy and too heavy with U.N. propaganda. The Telsun team, headed by Edgar Rosenberg (better known today as Joan Rivers’ husband), decided that more razzmatazz was need to give the series a degree of style that would not make the U.N. aegis feel that obvious. During this time, the James Bond film franchise was the dominant box office force. Telsun Foundation tapped Terence Young, the director of the first two 007 films, to direct a film, and Young zeroed in on the work of the U.N. Permanent Central Opium Board and Drug Supervisory Body as the source for a great thriller. Young managed to get Ian Fleming, the author of the 007 books, to contribute a story outline to this effort. (Fleming died in August 1964, making this one of his final creative outputs.)
Young told the press that Sean Connery would star in this new film opposite William Holden, Sidney Poitier and Kim Novak. None of them appeared in “The Poppy is Also a Flower,” although an impressive lineup was assembled, including Yul Brynner, Omar Sharif, Marcello Mastroianni, Rita Hayworth, Angie Dickinson, Jack Hawkins, Gilbert Roland, Stephen Boyd and Anthony Quayle. To keep the budget from hemorrhaging, cast members agreed to work for low wages to show their support for the U.N. Some sources claim the actors received one dollar for their work. Young said Eli Wallach was enticed into the film with a free air flight to France and six dress shirts. The biggest casting coup for the film was Princess Grace of Monaco. The former Grace Kelly retired from the screen in 1956 to marry Prince Rainier, and this would mark her first appearance before the camera in a decade. Her Serene Highness opens the film ruminating on the seemingly benign poppy and how the pretty little flower is the source of the opium imprisoning so many young people in drug addiction. She praises U.N.’s effort in fighting opium trafficking — which, in retrospect, was odd because Monaco had yet to join the world body. After the pleasant surprise of the former Grace Kelly’s appearance, “The Poppy is Also a Flower” quickly falls into a connectthe-dots story of international intrigue. In the absence of a glamorous James Bond central figure, the film offers two decidedly less-dreamy U.N. drug enforcement agents played by Trevor Howard and E.G. Marshall — fine actors, to be certain, but not really the 007-brand of espionage machismo. The story opens in the Shah’s Iran, where an undercover American agent (Stephen Boyd) is killed after negotiating the sale of opium with a tribal leader (Welsh actor Hugh Griffith, still wearing his “Ben-Hur” greasepaint makeup). Although Iran was a major source of opium exports, the film depicts the Shah’s government as proactive warriors against this drug traffic — with military and law enforcement officers played by Sharif, Brynner and Hawkins. The dead man’s wife (Dickinson) also turns up in Iran, which is confusing since he was supposedly a bachelor. The Iranians inject a radioactive element into the opium shipment to monitor its travel, and it winds up in Naples where the local police chief (Mastroianni, his English dialogue obviously dubbed) interrogates the drug dealer-turned-aspir-
ing merchant “Happy” Locarno (Wallach), a woman wrestler hooked on Persian dope (Senta Berger), and the freighter captain that transported the radioactive opium (Quayle). To his credit, director Young downplayed the obvious U.N. marketing that marred the series’ earlier films. The film’s marketing highlighted Ian Fleming and omitted the global organization. However, he went too far in the opposite direction, shooting a 007 film without a two-fisted macho James Bond at its core. And the big-name cast became a burden rather than a benefit, with the A-listers creating a spot-the-star game reminiscent of other 1960s extravaganzas like “How the West Was Won” and “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.” Plus, not every star was right for his or her role: The finale on a train to Paris featuring everyman Marshall punching down oversized Harold Sakata (the brutish Oddjob from “Goldfinger”) while Hayworth walked about in a narcotized haze carrying a yapping Poodle was among the craziest climaxes ever filmed. When “The Poppy Is Also a Flower” was finished, no one quite knew what to do with it. ABC-TV gave it a one-time broadcast in April 1966, marketing the film as “The Poppy is Also a Flower” but inexplicably ran a print with the title “Poppies are Also Flowers.” Strangely, the film was in U.S. theaters one year later, but few people paid for something they already saw on TV. In other countries, the title was switched to more sellable banners. It was “Danger is Wild” German poster art for in Great Britain and Australia, “The Poppy is Also a “Flowers of the Devil” in Spain” Flower.” Courtesy the author’s collection. and “Operation Opium” in France and Scandinavia. Ten minutes of footage was added for overseas theatrical screenings, but the Princess Grace opening was deleted when it was put on the big screen. It has turned up on home video and DVD as “The Opium Connection.” No matter what it was called, it was not welcomed. Film Daily cruelly remarked, “The best that can be said about this picture is that it’s junk but hardly habit-forming.” The failure of “The Poppy is Also a Flower” ended the U.N.-Telesun film output. The final two films in the six-production series were never made. Today, “The Poppy is Also a Flower” exists in poor 16mm duped prints available on YouTube and cheapo DVD labels, a cruddy shadow of its once-impressive pedigree. The poor poppy has wilted beyond recognition.
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capturing the land to save it BY JEREMY WAYNE PHOTOGRAPHS BY J HENRY FAIR
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From the time he first picked up a camera, the photographer and activist J Henry Fair told me in an email exchange last month, he knew that it would be his tool to tell stories about man and nature. Born in Charleston in time to witness the race riots, the former New Rochelle resident says he was “socialized with the great American story” and uses pictures to tell stories about people and things that effect others. “Exploring the winding tidal rivers of the low country in a small jon boat certainly affected my sense of nature as the source of all the earthly bounty we enjoy.” Through photography, Fair has been able to illustrate that earthly bounty — and alert us to our abuse of it. His acclaimed book, “Industrial Scars: The Hidden Costs of Consumption,” now in its second edition, tells the story of the impact of the consumer lifestyle on the natural systems that support life on the planet. His most recent book, the first of the “Coastline” series, “On the Edge: From Combahee to Winyah” was published a year ago to lavish reviews. The series is a portrait of the coasts before the major impacts of climate change and ocean rise take effect. Through words and pictures, Fair illustrates beyond reasonable doubt that just as these realities council a move of infrastructure away from the ocean, coastal population density and infrastructure investment on the shore are rapidly increasing. He started out with a pocket Instamatic and a Polaroid, but the first real camera that required his technical knowledge and understanding was an old German-made Kodak Retina that he “liberated” from his father. These days, he is pragmatic about
Right: Burnside, Louisiana. Left: Brunswick, Georgia. Georgia photograph courtesy Southwings.
cameras and says what he uses most often is a smart phone, since he hates carrying a big camera. But if he really wants to take a “good” picture, he’ll use a big camera with a big lens. And those cameras change constantly, depending on his need and the current technology. One of the most intriguing, most striking features of Fair’s photography, is the contrast between the beauty of his photographs and the inner dangers they seek to portray. I want to understand what it is, that perspective, or ‘eye’, or even trick which makes the detritus in “Industrial Scars,” say, so very beautiful and appealing. Given this inherent beauty in so many of his photographs, how does he reconcile ugly subjects with stunning images? He says he wants his photographs to work on multiple layers. “First, they must be beautiful, but then the irony of making something beautiful out of something terrible comments on the irony of life in the modern world, where each of us, no matter how conscientious, must realize that we’re stealing from our grandchildren by not living a sustainable life.” He says the constant study of art teaches him how the masters stimulate the emotions of the viewer through lighting, composition and color. “My enduring fascination with industry and decay led me to photograph ruins and old machines and toxic sites,” he explains, adding that he was “looking for a way to tell a story about the environment.” Fair started to sneak into refineries to make pictures of the inner workings, hoping to highlight the disastrous effect of hy-
drocarbons on our bodies and environment. “This was before the climate crisis was a worldwide news item and before 9/11,” he elaborates, “so the level of paranoia in the United States was not so high.” Being from Charleston, which Fair points out has suffered the impact of hurricanes through its history, and later living near Glen Island (“in the days when I was an avid sailboat racer”), has made him constantly aware of the ocean and weather, as well as their effect on our lives. Some of his favorite images in “Industrial Scars” came from the Mississippi River Industrial Corridor just after Hurricane Katrina. For his “Coastlines” project, he has also carried out an exploration of his current hometown, New York City, which like many of the world’s great cities is under the threat of ocean rise. The big question is, Are people listening? “In our modern era of social media and ever more limited echo chambers, most people seem to hear only what confirms their existing beliefs. My desire is not to preach to the choir but to create compelling art that helps to explain and prompts curiosity about the complex science behind the interruptions we are causing to this incomprehensibly complex planet, which has provided us clean air, clean water, regular rainfall, fish in the ocean, etc., all for free.” It is a powerful argument. To reach the widest possible audience, Fair says he wants his art to be in the public sphere. Last year, his exhibit with the European Union at the Berlin Museum of Natural History was seen by 800,000 people and the television portraits done by major German networks were seen by millions. He divides his time between New York and Berlin, but in these lockdown days he is enjoying sleeping, cooking and eating, renovating his apartment, shooting a still-life series, as well as writing, scanning and archiving, An exhibit and teaching engagement in Singapore in March were canceled owing to the coronavirus but have been rescheduled for September, while coastal photo projects in various places have been put on hold. In “normal” times, he travels constantly, though nearly always for work. “Limiting my environmental footprint drives much of my decision-making in this regard but also dictates how I live my life,” he says. Is he always photographing? “Often, the limitations of the smart-phone camera prevent my photographing,” he acknowledges, “but I am always looking.” For more, visit jhenryfair.com.
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The
mystique of the rose BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA
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“Rosebud”: In “Citizen Kane” (1941), it is the mysterious last word of Charles Foster Kane, the name of his childhood sleigh and symbol of the childlike happiness he traded for corrupt fame, wealth and power.
It is the most popular flower, the go-to for birthdays and pageant queens, anniversaries and dignitaries, introductions and curtain calls. And yet, the rose — seemingly ubiquitous on Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day; the official bloom of the United States and several of its states, including New York — is never a cliché, never out of place. Such is its power that one can have the same heady effect as a dozen. Can you say that about any other flower? What is it, then, about the rose? “What’s in a name?” Juliet opines to her Romeo. “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” But would it play or sing as well, Juliet? It’s hard to think of Victorian poet Ernest Dawson substituting chrysanthemums in his line “they are not long, the days of wine and roses,” which the ne’er-do-well Jamie Tyrone quotes extravagantly in Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” and which became the title of a 1962 film and song about an alcoholic marriage, “The Days of Wine and Roses.” Or Tennessee Williams’ choosing a primrose for his 1950 play about love and lust, “The Rose Tattoo.” Or Frank D. Gilroy making daisies the metaphor for a broken marriage in the 1964 drama “The Subject Was Roses.” Hard to imagine, too, Mama Rose belting out to daughter Gypsy Rose Lee that “Everything’s Coming Up Petunias” in the musical “Gypsy” (1959). Or the band Poison wailing “Every Carnation Has Its Thorn” in 1988. (Actually, roses — which include some 300 species and thousands of cultivars — often have prickles but not thorns.) No, “rose” is a crisp, clipped name for an enticing but self-protective blossom that is sometimes so tightly petalled it cannot be pollinated and bear the berry-like rose hip fruit used in everything from jam to tea. And while its petals can be crushed and steam-distilled to extract an oil found in some of the greatest fragrances — including Chanel No. 5, Dior’s J’Adore, Jean Patou’s Joy and, particularly, Yves Saint Laurent’s Paris — the rose remains at a remove. It is this duality — beckoning yet eluding, carnal yet pure — that has made the rose a protean metaphor since ancient times. (The word “rose” comes from the French, winding its way back through Latin and Greek to Old Persian.) In the ancient world the rose was associated with Aphrodite (Venus) and her lover Adonis, whose fatal gouging by a boar was said to turn the rose red. (Roses dot Sandro Botticelli’s 1484-86 egg tempera painting “The Birth of Venus.”) Once the Roman Empire became Christian under the Emperor Constantine the Great (313), the rose became a symbol of Jesus and the martyrs. In the Middle Ages, it was particularly associated with Mary, the mother of Jesus, with the set prayers and beads devoted to her known as the rosary. (Many a rosary will be said in honor of her during May, the month of Mary.) The late medieval period also saw the War of the Roses (1455-87), with the red and white roses representing the feuding Lancaster and York branches of England’s Plantagenet dynasty respectively. (Think “Game of Thrones,” only with better material.) The rose never lost its place as an emblem of power. The Empress Joséphine, wife of Napoléon, sought to cultivate every species at her château Malmaison, just west of Paris. These blooms were captured in three volumes of exquisite botanical prints by the artist she patronized for this purpose, Pierre-Joseph Redouté. Long a favorite of Italian, Dutch and Flemish Old Masters, the rose would remain a subject for 19th-century French painters like Henri Fantin-Latour, Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir and Paul Cezanne. By then, though, it was prized mostly for its visual appeal. Indeed, when Umberto Eco came to title his 1980 best-selling mystical mystery, he called it “The Name of the Rose,” “because the rose is a symbolic figure so rich in meanings that by now it hardly has any meaning left.” But there is still one meaning associated with the flower — love. In “The Juggler of Our Lady,” a medieval legend adapted by cartoonist R.O. Blechman, Cantalbert is a hapless monk who has nothing to offer the Virgin Mary at Christmas except his one ridiculed talent — juggling. Alone in the chapel at night, he juggles and juggles before her statue. He juggles onto exhaustion. And then a miracle at morn: A hand from heaven emerges and offers him a single rose.
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ste ped in tea
BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA
A woman is like a tea bag: You can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water. — Eleanor Roosevelt Ellen Easton was born for hot water. Mornings, she rises early to walk one of the now mainly deserted thoroughfares of Manhattan before like-minded others stir, then returns to her apartment to follow New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s mandate to self-isolate in this time of the coronavirus and begin a day of writing and editing. After a career in real estate, Easton, who was raised in Westchester County, “decided to follow my heart” and become a writer. She was advised then to write about something she knew well, something she was passionate about. That something was tea. Unlike grab-and-go coffee or high-pressured cocktails, tea, Easton says, is soothing, at once solitary and social. It is a genteel way of navigating the day — and starting a revolution. “Afternoon tea was born in friendship,” says Easton, who is the author of “Afternoon Tea: Tips, Terms and Traditions” and “Tea Travels for the Holidays” (both Red Wagon Press) as well as the “Tea Travels” column for the culinary website What’s Cooking America. “One of the most important aspects of afternoon tea has been its empowerment to women,” she adds, noting that it was an 1848 tea party in Waterloo, New York, that established the suffragists’ and abolitionists’ movements. “It’s one of the few industries that enabled them to work.” Last month, Easton was scheduled to talk about “The Artistry of Afternoon Tea: Ritual, Etiquette and Fashion” at Lock-
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wood-Mathews Mansion Museum in Norwalk, an event that like so many others was cancelled due to COVID-19. She looks forward to returning next year. In the meantime, Easton says, you can enjoy a cuppa with a friend on the phone or online. (Bigelow Earl Grey Green Tea, with its citrusy notes of bergamot, is a favorite. Indeed, she says the Fairfield, Connecticut-made Bigelow, whose president and CEO Cindi Bigelow was the subject of a WAG cover, makes the highest quality tea, along with Republic of Tea.) Or you can have a virtual afternoon tea party. (See sidebar.)
ALL ABOUT TEA
But first, more on tea and the role Easton’s maternal line has played in its success around the world. Tea is a roughly 5,000-year-old beverage created in China originally for medicinal purposes — although when it comes to tea’s therapeutic properties, the jury appears to be still out. “Just because something is natural and organic doesn’t mean it’s healthy,” Easton says. All tea comes from the Camellia sinesis, a type of evergreen shrub native to East Asia, with white tea being the purest, followed by green, oolong and red/black, the last being the most oxidized. These types result from how the leaves are processed, she says. “Tea is an infusion, but not all infusions are tea,” Easton adds. So while rooibos — made from the robust leaves of Aspalathus linearis, a South African red bush — is a popular herbal “tea” nowadays, particularly with those looking for something high in antioxidants, it is not actually tea. An herbal infusion that Easton particularly likes is the bluish one made with the butterfly-pea flower (Clitoria ternatea) of Southeast Asia. These herbal infusions are good for those who must watch their caffeine intake. Tea has the same amount of caffeine per pound as coffee, but the yield per cup is different, with about 50 cups of coffee per pound as opposed to 150 to 200 for tea. So tea has as much as 75 percent less caffeine per cup than coffee. That cup, by the way, should be ceramic (porcelain, earthenware, bone china) or at least glass. “Paper is a last resort,” Easton says. “You need a mug.” Never brew tea in a metal pot, as the alloys in the metal interfere with the enzymes in the tea. The idea of brewing tea in a silver pot was purely political, she adds, stemming from 18th-century England’s rule of India with its abundance of tea plantations and silver mines. However, your sterling silver teapot is perfectly good for keeping the water hot as it acts as a thermos, Easton says. She herself uses a saucepan, bringing the water to a light bubble (what the Chinese call crab eye) for white tea, a bigger bubble (fish eye) for green or oolong and a “full roiling boil” for black. The Chinese call this old man’s tea, because by the time you make it, youth has presumably fled. Follow the vendor’s instructions for brewing tea your first time out with a brand, she says, adding more tea for a stronger brew or more hot water for a weaker one. As for when to add milk or cream, there is no right or wrong way, she says. When tea was first introduced to Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, milk was used to temper the continent’s soft-paste ceramics so the hot tea wouldn’t crack the pot.
TEA IN HER VEINS
Listening to such nuggets from Easton is like taking a tea master class. Clearly, she is, ah, steeped in tea, which runs through her
blood. In the 1830s, a group of her maternal ancestors introduced tea plants from China and India to Ceylon, establishing one of the first tea estates in what is now Sri Lanka. A group of cousins came to Harlem and founded The National Urn Bag Co. in the late 1800s. The company, which became one of the largest distributors in the United States, invented the first industrial tea bag in 1913. “That,” Easton says, “revolutionized the sanitary process of mass tea distribution.” (American tea importer Thomas Sullivan is among those credited with introducing the actual tea sachet, his silk tea pouches proving irresistible for dunking in 1908.) Another branch of the maternal line served as father-and-son lord mayors of London under Queen Victoria. Almina Herbert — Countess of Carnavon and onetime mistress of Highclere Castle, the setting for “Downton Abbey” — is a distant relative. No doubt the countess presided over many an afternoon tea, as did Easton’s great-grandmother. One of the first female photographers, she hosted an open house Sunday afternoon tea in the Oklahoma Territory in the 1890s. Easton’s mother, Reva Paul, a confectionary artist known as “the Monet of sugar art,” taught professional chefs and, in the 1980s, created a private label confectionary line for Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue. Is it any wonder then that her daughter would be creating the Waldorf Astoria’s and Plaza’s afternoon teas programs in the 1990s and the first decades of this century respectively? Easton also devised the etiquette program at The Plaza. While she has served as a consultant for the Fairmont, Hilton, Ritz-Carlton and Taj hotels, Easton says she most enjoys introducing tea to underprivileged children and helping abused women start their own cake businesses. It brings the empowering aspect of this most genteel beverage full circle, while suiting Easton to a “tea.”
Tea expert Ellen Easton hopes to offer her afternoon tea lecture next year at Norwalk’s Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum, whose conservatory is pictured here. Courtesy Sarah Grote Photography.
Courtesy Ellen Easton.
A VIRTUAL AFTERNOON TEA We Americans often confuse afternoon and high tea. Despite its hoigty-toigty name, high tea was really a workingman’s supper, another invention of the Industrial Revolution, served from 5 to 7 p.m. Afternoon tea was an 1840 creation of Anna Russell, seventh Duchess of Bedford, who, feeling a might peckish between lunch and dinner at 8, would have tea, sandwiches and cakes brought to the salon off her bedroom in the late afternoon. Soon she was inviting friends to share this and conversation. That’s hard to do in the days of social distancing. But you and your friends can create a virtual afternoon tea party. Tea expert Ellen Easton says you’ll want to make three courses of goodies to fill a three-tier curate stand, if you have one. Begin with three types of finger sandwiches — cucumber with mint butter on white bread, chopped egg on grain and smoked salmon with dill on dark. (Though consumed first, the sandwiches go on the second tier of the stand, their crusts trimmed.) Next are the biscuit-sized scones, to be served with clotted cream and fruit preserves. (They go on top of the stand and should be covered to remain warm.) The bottom tier and last course are reserved for the petite sweets — fruit tarts, lemon poppy seed cakes, shortbreads, fruit gelatins and chocolates, the last being introduced to the tea in 1904. Not up for such a formal tea? Devise a menu of your favorites. Lay your table with your tea set or china, silver and linens. Accent it with some flowers from the garden, arrayed perhaps in an extra teapot. Ultimately, afternoon tea is not just about foods and wares. It’s also about ritual, etiquette and fashion, yes, but most important, sharing. So put on your best tea-length dress or spring suit and get ready for your Skype or FaceTime close-up. For more, see Ellen Easton’s “Afternoon Tea: Tips, Terms and Traditions.” And look for her columns at whatscookingamerica.com
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A bouquet of
nature inspired art
BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA
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When the going gets tough, the arts are usually one of the first things to go. Not by choice, of course. But in challenging moments, many assume that the arts are an extra, some frippery they can do without. Yet it is precisely in these moments that we need culture. “The arts are essen-tial to any complete national life,” British Prime Minister Winston Churchill told the Royal Academy on April 30, 1953. “The state owes it to itself to sustain and encourage them…Ill fares the race which fails to salute the arts with the reverence and delight which are their due.” And President John F. Kennedy noted, “I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft.” We may all wait a long time for that. Meanwhile, we’d like to offer a print tour of nature-inspired art, a bouquet as it were, to encourage, comfort and distract as you anticipate visiting museums and galleries — and perhaps collecting some of these pieces — in better days. We begin with The Donald Gallery at South Presbyterian Church in Dobbs Ferry whose “Ten Artists Open Up at the Donald” was to feature artists who made a monetary donation to appear in the show and exhibit during the now-canceled RiverArts Studio Tour. The exhibit, a fundraiser for gallery renovations, would’ve spotlighted a number of works that explore nature. “Mary’s Flower Pot” by Linda Friedlander offers a cheery, light-dappled hint of wicker furnishings and lazy spring and summer afternoons on the patio. “Ventilated Tomatoes #1” by Carol Perron Sommerfield, who co-curated the show with Gina Bratter and Donna Thompson, makes you want to rip open the plastic and dive into the tomatoes’ juiciness, preferably on Friedlander’s patio. The breadth of nature-inspired art is such that its styles encompass many periods. Nora Galland’s “Viburnum” is redolent of the botanical illustrations of Pierre-Joseph Redouté that Marie Antoinette and Empress Joséphine alike favored. Thompson’s “By Bird’s Light” offers viewers a modern take on the panoramic Hudson River School of 19th-century landscape painting, complete with a cheeky skirt and a pair of shoes left near a park bench, suggesting a dip by water’s edge. Marie Bourdain’s “Nap on the Hudson” is a humorous abstraction of a resting female figure with her straw hat over her face, although it will take you a moment to find her. For more, visit southpres.org/ donaldgallery. When we think of floral art, we tend to think in two dimensions. The Clay Art Center in Port Chester never does. The center was scheduled to show the still life centerpieces of ceramic artist Anat Shiftan this month, but “Anat Shiftan: The Garden” has been rescheduled for later in the year. In the meantime,
we can savor the pristine beauty of her work, which the center says, “asks the viewer to question the legacy of nature, the botanical and our material culture.” For more, visit clayartcenter.org. David Licata offered an abstract, three-dimensional take on nature in his recent “Fragile Nature, River Studies in Glass” at Kenise Barnes Fine Art in Larchmont. Licata, an art educator who has taught at the Bedford and Scarsdale high schools, is also a weaver of glass, twisting and torching rods of it to create sculptures that are attached to walls or suspended from ceilings like so many shimmering necklaces. It’s an alchemical effect, seemingly turning glass into metal. His show was accompanied by an exhibit of lush, evocative landscapes by Thomas Sarrantonio and Amy Talluto, both of Ulster County, that captured the idea of nature returning to life. Future exhibits at Kenise Barnes Fine Art play with nature as well. Slated for the gallery’s Kent location in June, “Iris Blue Each Spring” will feature abstract paintings by Canadian artist Janna Watson as well as sculptures by Denver’s Julie Maren, including painted acorn caps from her “Biophilia” series. At the Larchmont location in June, KBFA plans to offer “The Philosophy of Tea — Melanie Parke,” showcasing the Michigan artist’s take on tea, cut flowers and garden vistas beyond. And couldn’t we all use some tea and sympathy about now? For more, visit kbfa.com.
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Still life centerpieces by ceramic artist Anat Shiftan (pictured on these pages) will be at Port Chester’s Clay Art Center later this year. Courtesy Anat Shiftan.
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Whiskey women
BY JEREMY WAYNE
Attendees at Bourbon Women’s 2019 SIPosium conference enjoy a tasting excursion in Louisville, Kentucky. Courtesy Bourbon Women Association. 24
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Spirited Women Wanted!, says the flier for the recently launched New York branch of Bourbon Women, an association of women bourbon drinkers founded a decade ago by whiskey supremo Peggy Noe Stephens. A Kentucky scion and a brand and identity marketing guru, Stevens has been involved with the bourbon trade all her professional life. She founded the Bourbon Women Association after identifying the need for women to have a voice in the industry, not only because of her own connection to bourbon, but on account of the sheer numbers of women who enjoy bourbon in what is still viewed as a traditionally male preserve. “A whole segment of the human race was being neglected,” Angela Zivica, branch ambassador for the New York chapter of the Bourbon Women Association, told me on a recent phone call, describing Stevens as the industry’s “North Star.” “She’s been all over and has worked with everybody,” Zivica adds. “She was the first female bourbon master taster in the world and is the guiding light for like-minded women, who come together to enjoy our brown spirits.” It was when she was first approached about the annual bourbon SIPosium, held every August in Louisville, Kentucky, that Zivica — herself the brand director for Jefferson’s Bourbon, a position she has held for the last six years — first became aware of the association. “I went down and saw it all first-hand. It was all about education, seminars and learning, with spirited, off-site meetings. I felt it was very similar to the beginning of ‘Tales of the Cocktail’ (the international cocktail foundation).” There were two important differences, however, since the SIPosium involves just one spirit — bourbon — and is all women. “I realized this interest wasn’t just happening in Kentucky. There was already a chapter in Chicago, one in Indiana, another in D.C., and I thought, How sad that we don’t have it in New York.” This was the catalyst for her opening a chapter in New York City. With the “good graces” of Stevens and Sarah Barnes (Bourbon Women’s managing director,) the chapter launched last August. The inaugural event was held last October at the Liquor Lab in SoHo, a venue where people come together to learn about a couple of specific brands and make cocktails for themselves — all very hands-on. A second event, which had been planned for the Kings County Distillery in Brooklyn in late March, was inevitably delayed because of the coronavirus. But as soon as travel restrictions are lifted and the world begins to normalize, Zivica expects to reschedule. Whenever she was in Kentucky for Jefferson’s, Zivica says she was aware of how people had been drinking bourbon for generations, how there was a kind of kindred spirit about it. “It made me really jealous — in a good way,” she observes. “I wanted to bring that feeling to New York.” At the same time, she realized instinctively that a New York drinking experience would be quite distinct from a typical Southern one and she wanted to establish something that would fly, as she puts it, in the Northeast. What she had also noticed was that, in the South, bourbon is either drunk neat or on the rocks, or occasionally used in cooking — a slug in the braised brisket or the scallops, per-
haps. But New York, “at the forefront of all things trending,” Zivica knew, was all about cocktails. The other great thing for the New York chapter, Zivica says, is that while everyone knows the famous brands, or the “stronghold Kentucky bourbons,” as she puts it, bourbon has been “popping up everywhere.” It doesn’t just have to hail from Kentucky to be considered bourbon (unlike, say, real Champagne which can only come from Champagne, France, or Parmigiano Reggiano which can only come from Parma, Italy). There are some “fabulous” distilleries right here in New York, she points out — Taconic Distillery, the Finger Lakes Distillery, Kings County Distillery, to name but three. Another of her aims is to highlight their discrete approaches to distilling bourbon. She wants to share best practices and have her members appreciate that bourbon doesn’t only have to come from Kentucky to be meaningful, or memorable, or simply to taste good. Post-coronavirus, following the rescheduled visit to Kings County, there will be an overnight trek up to Taconic (in Stanfordville, just north of Millbrook, New York), taking in the beautiful scenery of Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties, maybe incorporating some camping or picnicking. “Better than just sitting around a whiskey-tasting mat,” says Zivica, and you’d find it hard to disagree. Bourbon Women come from all backgrounds, although a sizeable number of the New York chapter are actually themselves daughters of Kentucky women. Bourbon is something they have always had in their families. “These girls grow up, move on, go to college and end up in New York, but still want some link with home. They strive for that connectivity,” explains Zivica. Some are experts, industry professionals, while others are completely new to bourbon. She says she uses the word “expert” in air quotes, because to be a member you don’t need to be a connoisseur or have any kind of bourbon heritage. Indeed, in many ways, Zivica says, the less you know about the brown spirit the better, because you are then open to new experiences, to trying new brands, especially in the New York chapter, which tends to be pretty open-minded. “There is none of the ‘If it’s not 10 years old, it’s not bourbon to me’ mindset,” she adds. The annual SIPosium, meanwhile, provides an opportunity for women of all ages, and from a variety of backgrounds, to connect. Back in New York, she hopes members might also get together informally for book club meetings ( J. R. Ward’s “Bourbon Kings” series? J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye”?), exploring tasting menus or perhaps attending new restaurant openings, although this may be some way down the line. The New York membership, which currently stands at more than 30, is growing, up from 12 at last October’s event. Membership dues are straightforward, set at $50 a year, with some events ticketed and others free of charge. “In the end,” says Zivica, “it’s all about drinking bourbon in ways we love.” That could be neat, in a cocktail, or any other way you can think of. She throws out a few more ideas. “Over ice, as a winter toddy, over ice cream. With bourbon, the world is your oyster.” For more, visit bourbonwomen.org
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Here’s Lucie
Lucie Arnaz. Photograph by Michael Childers.
BY GREGG SHAPIRO
Lucie Arnaz is rooted in showbiz. The daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz (“I Love Lucy”) and wife of actor Laurence Luckinbill, the singer-actress has been performing since she was a child, appearing alongside her mother in “The Lucy Show” in the early 1960s and on “Here’s Lucy” from 1968 to 1974. Over the years, Arnaz has appeared in a variety of movies and TV shows, including starring in her own sitcom. Some of her greatest successes, however, occurred onstage, where she starred in the Broadway musical “They’re Playing Our Song” and was featured in several touring companies, including most recently playing Berthe in the national tour of the “Pippin” revival. For someone with such a pedigree, the former Katonah resident — now a Palm Springs, California, resident — could not be kinder or more fun to talk to. I recently had the pleasure of interviewing her about her career: Lucie, you are scheduled to perform in concert June 3 through 6 at Feinstein’s/54 Below in Manhattan. I’d like to begin by asking you who you consider to be your inspirations when it comes to singing. “Oh, my God, the list is long. (laughs) It’s kind of eclectic. I would say people who pay attention to lyric as much as their pretty voices. You always want to sing on pitch and have a pleasant sound. But it’s the people who sell the stories that I’m impressed with. That could be any number of people, from Willie Nelson to Rosemary Clooney.”
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Wow. “Right? It’s all over the ballpark. I guess it’s the actor in you. You want to tell a story. You want to be that person in the story. Why am I singing this? Who am I telling it to? Why do I need to say it?” Every year it seems like there are more and more revivals on Broadway. With the passing of Neil Simon and Marvin Hamlisch, don’t you think it’s time for a revival of “They’re Playing Our Song”? “Oh, my God. It’s hilarious that it’s been 40 years and they’ve never done a revival of that show. Many people love it. It’s an odd thing to me. I don’t really understand it myself. Last February we did a one-night-only 40th original cast reunion with Robert Klein and me, our original conductor and a 22-piece orchestra. Even Debbie Gravitte, who was one of my backup girls, came back and did that. Hugh Panaro played one of the three guys. We sold out the Music Box Theatre in New York. It was such a thrill to hear them react to that show again. I’m 40 years older. Except for the lines where he (Vernon) says, ‘I didn’t know Jewish girls had major problems’ and she (Sonia) says, ‘Well, they do after you turn 30’ — I had to do a very special line reading on that (laughs) — that’s the only thing that didn’t still work. It’s a story of two people trying to work together and fall in love and all of their idiosyncrasies train-wrecking. It’s a great show. I don’t know why they haven’t revived it.”
You mentioned that you’ve done other musicals and, a few years ago, you played Berthe in the national tour of the revival of “Pippin,” singing “No Time at All,” which is one of my favorite songs. What was that experience like for you? “You know the revival of ‘Pippin’ that it was, right? The acrobatic revival of ‘Pippin.’ It was all that other stuff, too. My part was the dance trapeze number. For me, doing it at 63 years old and coming to it completely flabby and untrained. I didn’t have those muscles at all. It’s not a swinging trapeze. You go up 20 feet in the air with a trapeze partner and you hang upside down and he holds me just by my pelvis with no net, no wires, nothing. Hang over the stage. Do this gorgeous thing. I had to train to do that in the same amount of time that we were rehearsing the national tour. It wasn’t like, “Come here a month early and get into training.” No, no, no. You start rehearsal for the show and every day I had like 10 minutes that I could work with the guy and learn it. It’s not like the dance captain where he can say, ‘Take these steps and practice them at home.’ “Accomplishing that was as thrilling as singing Stephen’s (Schwartz) wonderful music. It was as thrilling as tap dancing alongside Tommy Tune in ‘My One and Only.’ It was as thrilling as being in ‘Mack & Mabel’ with Jerry Herman playing the piano. There have been some great moments in my life and I’m so grateful to have had those opportunities. They just come out of the blue. I didn’t ask for that. I didn’t even know they were doing the ‘Pippin’ national tour. I got a call from the producer. He said, ‘We’re putting together the national tour of the Broadway version.’ I was a Tony voter at the time and I had seen that show. I said, ‘Barry, you’re not asking me to do the grandma number are you?’ (laughs) He asked, ‘Does it scare you?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Do you want to do it?’ ‘Yes.’” Did Andrea Martin have any advice or suggestions for you? “No. By the time I met Andrea, I was already two weeks into rehearsal. She’s an inspiration. The fact that she could do it, and I saw two other ladies, including Tovah Feldshuh and Annie Potts do it, and Priscilla Lopez. You can be trained to do it. It’s not impossible. They gave me hope. To do that for seven months was thrilling.” 2020 marks the 40th anniversary of the Neil Diamond remake of “The Jazz Singer, “which also co-starred Laurence Olivier. Is there a special memory of that movie that you’d like to share? “That was a thrilling time for me. I left ‘They’re Playing Our Song’ to go do that. I had to leave the Broadway show and say goodbye to that whole thing to get a chance to work with Neil Diamond, who was not an actor, but he’s Neil Diamond, for God’s sake. To be around him every day and sit in a Winnebago with him at lunchtime and watch him compose that music on his guitar. It was a dream come true. And then you’re working with, arguably, the greatest actor that ever lived, Sir Laurence Olivier. But I only had one true speaking scene with Sir Larry. It makes me laugh, because people ask, ‘What was it like working with Laurence Olivier?’ I say, ‘Well, I wasn’t really working with him.’ They say, ‘You did that wonderful scene with him.’ I say, ‘Yes, I said, How do you do, Cantor Rabinovitch?’” He grabbed his collar and tore it and said (in a Yiddish accent), ‘I haff no son’ and he left. (laughs) That was my scene with Laurence Olivier. I got to be on the set. I would stay. I had my 35mm camera around my neck and I would take pictures. He gave me full access to shoot him in the dressing room or whatever I wanted to do. I got to know the guy more than I got to act with him. It was a dream come true.” The sitcom “Will & Grace” filmed a tribute episode to “I Love
Lucy” in November 2019 to be aired this spring. What do you think about that? “I was in it. It’s one of the last shows of their final season. It was delightful. I never do stuff like that. Max Mutchnick, the producer and writer, called me and told me what they were intending, and the great fondness the whole cast and writers and producers have for ‘I Love Lucy.’ They always have had tremendous respect for the show. They did an amazing, fun, but crazy accurate tribute to three or four of the episodes all mixed together with one focal point episode that allows you to jump into all the others. It was truly magical. It was stunning what they were able to do. I had one little cameo walk-on. I had a great time. I love those guys anyway. I love those actors. They’re decent, wonderful, funny people. I’m excited to see it all put together.” Are there any other upcoming theater, film or television projects about which you’d like to tell the readers? I’m not doing a lot of television. It was unique for me to even do the ‘Will & Grace’ cameo. I don’t spend a lot of time looking for TV shows. I spend most of my time on the road now singing, directing once in a while. When a ‘Pippin’ comes along for me, it’s like, ‘Oh, I have to.’ Mostly, it’s the music world for me. I am going to co-produce the Cate Blanchett/Aaron Sorkin film about my folks that Amazon Studios is producing. We’re in the process of talking to directors now. It should be happening in the next year or so.” Seeing as how this interview is for WAG, I was wondering how long it was that you lived in Katonah and what it was that drew you there? “We bought our property in 1983. We had purchased a huge chunk of farm land with a tiny 1860s house and an enormous barn and grain cornfields way north near Albany as an investment and found ourselves fixing up the house and trying to vacation there, but it was just too far away. And then Larry said he had seen a note on the bulletin board at one of his kids’ schools that mentioned a 15-acre property for sale in Katonah, New York. He said it was much closer to New York City and he had memorized the phone number. “So, we went to see it that very weekend on our way back into the city. We first fell in love with the abundance of huge old trees, and then the 4-acre pond, the rolling meadows, the Cape Cod house with big bay windows on each side. It was like an Andrew Wyeth or Currier & Ives painting. It was our Tara. A week later we owned it. We renovated it into a spectacular big rambling barn-like manor with our office over the garage so I wouldn’t have to commute and could be there for the kids. We have never loved a property more. We only moved to Connecticut because the Westchester taxes were completely unpredictable and it became untenable. It broke our hearts.” What did you like best about living in Westchester County? “Its proximity to New York. We had few real friends in that area except parents at our kids’ school. But just living in the beautiful countryside and participating in 26 years of the changes of season up there was unforgettable and one of the highlights for me was having my first published stories and interviews in (WAG).” Finally, what do you miss the most about living in Westchester County? “Living at 4 Flintlock Ridge Road.” Lucie Arnaz is slated to perform at 7 p.m., June 3 through 6, at Feinstein’s/54 Below, 254 W. 54th St. Cellar in Manhattan. For more, visit 54below.com.
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V IS FOR VICTORY — AND VEGETABLES BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA
It was agricultural scientist George Washington Carver who came up with the idea of a victory garden — growing fruits and vegetables to sustain and buoy the home front, an idea that took off in World Wars I and II. Today the idea of a victory garden — or a cooperative garden for those who find the term “victory garden” too militaristic — is catching on again as Americans worry about food insecurity in the age of the coronavirus. But how do you turn farm to table into backyard to table? For answers, we turned to Luis Colchado, owner of Colchado Landscaping LLC, with more than 20 years experience in Fairfield and Westchester counties, and a subcontractor with Sweet Earth Co. in Bedford. (Truth in advertising: Luis is also our contractor.) First, he says, you must place your vegetable bed in a sunny spot near a water source. “Sun (eight to 10 hours daily) is one of the essential factors for you to create strong, healthy vegetables, free of fungus.” In addition to a water source for easy daily irrigation, you’ll need a compost box for your organic fertilizer, which you will use once a week. Waste such as vegetable peels can also be used to nourish your crop, he says. For a family of five, a garden bed of about 1,076 square feet will suffice. Place a 4-foot fence around it to keep out pests, with one gated opening so you can cultivate the plants. Place aromatic plants around the perimeter to deter pests further. The next step is to create five boxes for your vegetables. Each should be 30 feet long by 4 feet wide by 1 and ½ feet deep. “We usually make the boxes with pressure-treated wood to keep the garden safe, because if you were to use untreated wood, they would not last.” Put gravel in the bottom of each box, followed by a black landscaping liner to drain excess water. Then fill each box with a mixture of
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Local vegetable gardens can give people a sense of accomplishment and security as they did in wartime. Photographs courtesy Colchado Landscaping LLC.
black topsoil, peat moss and compost. Now you’re ready. May is a good time to plant your summer yield. Plant rows of seeds, allowing for a little space between each plant and noting what you’ve planted in each box. You can plant different vegetables in one box, Colchado says, but you must note what’s in each box so the next season you can practice crop rotation to ensure strong plants. Among the vegetables that do well in our area are summer squash or zucchini, beans, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and cucumbers. (Once you’ve harvested these in summer, you can plant your winter root vegetables.) Alternate rows of vegetable plantings with aromatic herbs to keep insects away from your vegetables — basil with tomatoes, for instance — although you’ll want to watch for insects to protect your herbs as well. Be patient. Gardening is a long, unpredictable, labor-intensive process. But ultimately, the rewards can be great, particularly at a moment when we’re being asked to contribute. For more, call 914-424-9620, 203-715-8484 or visit colchadolandscaping.com.
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WEAR
FASHION
is a piece of mythical reality, as beautiful as the Sahara Desert.” Perhaps more important, Pasolini (192275) — who lived through some of the most troubled moments in Italian and world history — speaks to our own time, in his criticism of both the right and the left; and his warnings about the evils of consumerism, the pitfalls of globalism and the manipulation of new media, which in his day was television. “Pasolini had a very vibrant person, persona, but his voice, his tone is humane and tender,” Giasson says. “It is the voice of a poet.” The addition of costumes from Pasolini’s films to the show were, he adds, an afterthought, but they “ended up being one of the most unifying things in the exhibit.” Indeed, they are the perfect entrée into the director’s intellectually rich fiction and nonfiction, particularly his Arthur Rimbaudinspired poetry, as well as his films, with their fascinating yet sometimes off-putting blend of compassion and barbarism. Created out of wool and other natural materials by Danilo Donati for Farani Sartoria Teatrale, the costumes are at once modern — mod even — and contemporary, humble and luxurious, serving subjects that represent in part the Western canon, including Greek mythology (“Medea,” “Oedipus Rex”), the Christian Bible (“The Gospel According to St. Matthew”) and Costumes designed by medieval literature (Giovanni Boccaccio’s Danilo Donati at “The Decameron,” “The Canterbury Tales” of Farani Sartoria Geoffrey Chaucer, whom Pasolini played in Teatrale. Courtesy Farani the film). Sartoria Teatrale. Giasson and his Purchase College team have juxtaposed the costumed mannequins that take pride of place in the museum’s cavernous Theater Gallery with intriguing clips from the films that enable the viewer to see the costumes come to life. (Readers can do this for themselves by calling up clips from the films on YouTube.) For the doomed Theban Queen Jocasta in “Oedipus Rex” (1967), Donati created a short cape made of golden shells, to indicate the queen’s wealth. Her raffia-like ensemble suggests not only the natural materials that would be available in ancient Greece but something that might be found on today’s runways, natural fibers being a big trend. Similarly, Callas’ kohl-rimmed eyes, so expressive as she plots a horrific revenge on the husband and patriarchy that use and discard her in “Medea” (1970), would not be out of place on the red carpet today. The costumes and makeup in Pasolini’s films, which one YouTube poster described as “a real joy for the eye,” speak not only to fashion’s ability to borrow from every period and place but to the timeliness of Pasolini’s subjects and themes. For more, visit Neuberger.org.
A PROPHET FOR OUR TIMES BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA
“Pier Paolo Pasolini: Subversive Prophet” — an exhibit of writings, photographs, movie clips and costumes that weave together the life and philosophy of the complex, controversial Italian film director — is on view at the Neuberger Museum of Art through May 31. At present, the museum is closed due to the coronavirus and its resulting disease, COVID-19. But we wanted to present some of the costumes from the show — organized by Patrice Giasson, the museum’s Alex Gordon curator of the art of the Americas — to offer you a taste of the exhibit and a tangible way into the director’s dense duality. Pasolini was an early fascist who became a communist, an atheist who would later describe himself as a “Catholic Marxist,” a gay man brought up on morals charges who would create strong roles for such powerhouse female performers as Anna Magnani and Maria Callas, with whom he had an intense relationship. His brutal Nov. 2, 1975 murder on a beach in the Roman district of Ostia — like something out of Tennessee Williams’ “Suddenly, Last Summer” — remains a subject of open-ended controversy some 45 years after it was identified as a mob killing. Not surprisingly, Pasolini found a kindred spirit for his duality in the hurly-burly of New York, which he described in a 1969 New York Times interview as “the most beautiful city in the world. I love the huge mingling of the enormous amounts of people, races. The mixture of cruelty and innocence. New York
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WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
HOME & DESIGN
RETIREES IN BLOOM BY JEREMY WAYNE
“After a 38-year career, I’m happy to announce that I’ve officially decided to retire and begin a new stage of my life,” wrote Westchester County insurance supremo, Markham Rollins III, on his blog, back in December 2018. Until his recent “retirement,” and I put the word in quotation marks advisedly, Rollins was a fourth-generation insurance broker, working at the Rye Brook insurance company founded by his great-grandfather in 1910. Rollins and his brother in turn bought their own father out of the business when he retired at 65, and together the brothers kept the business going. But when his father passed away, aged 80, Mark Rollins really started to think in earnest about his own retirement, because, frankly, his Dad’s hadn’t gone too well. “He struggled with it,” says Rollins touchingly. “He lost his identity, his huge community of people, and he wasn’t really sure of what to do with the 40 hours of free time, which came his way each week. He lost his way.” Mark’s wife, Jody, whose corporate background was a good foil to his own less structured one, was starting to think about her own future, too. “I was always told that when you retire, you sit back, you take it easy and you enjoy the fruits of your labor,” Mark says. But he and Jody quickly discovered that the opposite was going to be true, – and from that realization flowered Retirement Transformed, a coaching service to help retirees get the most out of the next chapter of your life. Jody herself spent 30 plus years in a Fortune 200 financial services company, managing teams, driving strategy, managing profit and loss and dealing with customers and claims. The couple married 10 years ago and have six children between them, Jody’s three daughters and Mark’s three sons, from former marriages. And however hard they have worked at their respective careers, what is clearly evident from Mark’s Facebook page is all the hard work that has also gone into making theirs a harmonious, happy family. (At least one key to success in pre-COVID days, offers Mark — Sunday dinners where mobile phones are banned from the table.) The couple retired officially, rather endearingly, on the very same day (Dec. 31, 2018) and jumped into their new project full-time. “Well, I say full-time,” says Jody, “but while we are working together building this business, I am also involved in a company called SheEo (a global community of women radically transforming how female innovators are financed and supported), and I also mentor at a nonprofit called Women in America.” And as if all of this were not enough, Jody has decided to go back to school and is getting her applied cognitive psychology degree at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
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Mark mentions how he and Jody bring different skill sets to the table. “I’m an entrepreneur,” he says, “so I build things, make things happen — trial and error, trial and error.” That was the way he grew his business. “I was a salesman. We ran a great company, great strategy. But Jody, on the other hand, comes from corporate America, where there’s got to be a process, an order and things have to make sense. So when we sit down to discuss the business, I’m like, We’ve just got to try this, and Jody is like, But what if doesn’t work?” And, somehow, they thrash it out until conclusions are reached and strategies devised. Mark says Jody brings skills to the business, skills that he doesn’t necessarily have and, because of their distinct talents, they’re not trampling on each other’s feet. Each has his or her own particular area to deal with. When I suggest that they are “masquerading” as retirees, since indeed they are busier than ever, Jody is quick to point out that, given they have six kids between them, she doesn’t feel that anyone would say they are “busier than ever.” However, she does acknowledge that traditional retirement (which they tried briefly) didn’t really work for them. They found that aimless days, “every day a Saturday,” didn’t play well in their health and well-being mindfulness, that as they connected with prospective clients, both older and younger people considering retirement, the typical image of floral shirts, shorts and margaritas held little appeal. And as they
Jody Rollins and Markham Rollins III. Photographs courtesy Tris Anderson Photography. Mark and Jody Rollins at home on a recent Zoom call. Photograph by Madeline Specht.
went out to focus groups and looked at surveys and came into contact with people with similar mindsets, in situations like theirs — people about to retire or just retired — it only seemed to confirm a need for the Retirement Transformed product. Mark expressed how the word retirement originally implied the end of one’s working life and therefore the end of one’s usefulness. The first known use of the word in its current sense was in 1550, he told me, and was almost a synonym for expiration, or death. Jody added, “quite honestly, we wanted to remove the word ‘retirement’ completely.” She likes the Spanish word for retirement, jubilación, which conveys joy, celebration and a certain richness in one’s later years, but admits they are stuck with the word “retirement” because of search engine optimization and “all the other ways people find you around the world.” That said, she would like to create a movement, where people aren’t looking to retire traditionally, but instead share wisdom, stay active, grow their minds, search out new friends and experience, travel and, of course, spend time with family. While this might seem obvious to many, the Rollinses are convinced that in most cases it has to be taught. The Retirement Transformed program itself can be accessed in several ways, including an online course, for purchase, which can be done as self-learning, at the client’s own pace. It comes complete with hours of video, dozens of worksheets and practical “How Tos.” Online teaching goes through several phases, including reflection, physical wellness, relationships, spouse/partner relationship and mental wellness. Then a vision is defined and a plan developed. The Rollinses also do one-on-one coaching, an even higher-end product for clients who really want a one-houra-week call, every week, for 14 weeks, to go through the same process but also to be held accountable, with pretty strict guidelines, supplemented by additional material and insights not found in the online course. A live workshop which they used to offer has been temporarily replaced by Zoom calls but will likely return once the pandemic is over. Still incredulous at their energy and commitment, I probe again to see what motivates the couple. “I realized that after retirement we might have another 30 years ahead of us,” says Jody. “And if we were to have had written our obituaries right then, they would have been robust, what with our careers, managing a blended family, our involvement with philanthropy in the community — all of those buckets would have been filled to the brim. But if we took a traditional form of retirement, then 30 years from now — going out to lunch, playing golf, having a few vodkas tonics — we weren’t sure what our children would be able to write about us.” As things stand, the only problem their kids will have down the line, is fitting it all in. Because Mark and Judy Rollins, it strikes me, will achieve as much or more in their very fulfilled “retirements” as most of us will manage to achieve in a lifetime. For more information, go to markhamrollins.com.
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Margriet McGowan 203.253.6235
Carol Zuckert 203.561.0247
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A
diamond not in the rough
BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA PHOTOGRAPHS BY BOB ROZYCKI.
There’s a reason that the standalone fine jewelry department at The Saks Shops at Greenwich is called The Vault. It contains some of the most glorious pieces anywhere by some of the biggest names in gems. Pre-COVID-19, shoppers would fly in from around the world just to make their selections. Holding pride of place at the back and center of the store with a glass and amber boutique accompanied by an elegant gray room for trying on its creations is British-based Graff, celebrating 60 years of crafting precious stones into works that are often inspired by nature. It is there that we meet Marc Hruschka, the recently appointed president and CEO of Graff USA, along with Graff store manager Stanley Luongo and sales associates Yuko Uchibori and Yasuko Luzzi. Painter Felicity Kostakis, WAG’s February cover subject, and Romona Norton — co-chairs of the Bruce Museum’s “Art of Design” fundraiser — are also on hand. Delightful as this is, things weren’t supposed to happen this way.
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WAG was scheduled to cover Hruschka’s talk with Jill Newman, a contributing editor to Town & Country magazine, at the seventh annual “Art of Design Luncheon” March 12. But what was it that the poet Robert Burns said about the best-laid plans of mice and men often going astray? The coronavirus had hit WAG country and the luncheon was rescheduled for September, with Hruschka once again slated to take part. But he and his team gamely and graciously agreed to meet with us. (This was before the tristate order to self-isolate.) Such is Graff’s commitment to the Bruce. “From a brand perspective, if you look at the history of Graff and the design of Graff jewels, we’ve always seen jewelry as art,” Hruschka says, seated in the gray salon beneath a white floral design. “It feels as if it’s a natural fit with the Bruce.” With a bone structure and physique as cut as any faceted diamond and 25 years in the luxury industry, Hruschka nonetheless displays a down-to-earth and easygoing manner as he discusses the process that turns precious stones — rubies, sapphires and emeralds but most famously diamonds — into Graff creations. The diamonds are primarily sourced from Africa. “Every stone is touched by a Graff,” Hruschka says of this family business. “(Founder Laurence) Graff and his son Francois (global CEO) have the most exquisite eye for what is unique and special.” The stones are cut and polished at three locations — two in Africa with the primary one in Antwerp, Belgium — before being shipped to the London atelier where they inspire gouache designs. The stones are then placed on paper and clay maquettes to see how they will look and sit on the body; mounted on hammered and beaten gold or platinum; and finally plated and polished. The stones are actually polished several times in the creative process. At The Vault, they dazzle in cases and on the earlobes, necks, wrists and fingers of the ladies in attendance. Few Graff diamonds, however, have sparkled like the record-setting Graff Lesedi La Rona, which at 302 carats is the largest square emerald-cut diamond in the world. (It’s also the name of the company’s new collection of six fragrances at Harrods in London and due here later in the year.) As grand as the Lesedi La Rona is, the eye is equally beguiled by the company’s botanical and butterfly inspirations. Besides Laurence Graff’s interest in fragrance and wine — the 11-year-old Delaire Graff Estate in South Africa includes a vineyard, where Graff wine is made and distributed, art from his personal collection, a spa, a restaurant and lodging — Hruschka says that “Mr. Graff has always included some examples of
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nature in his themes — flowers, with peonies being his favorite.” He notes that last year at Switzerland’s Baselworld jewelry expo, Graff presented its Peony Collection, which included a watch that looked like a diamond bracelet, arranged in a complex herringbone design. The peony “petals” glided aside to reveal white, pink and yellow pavé diamond dials. “Whether peonies, king of flowers in China since the Tang Dynasty, heralding good fortune and a happy marriage, or Carissa blooms, Greek for ‘beloved,’ a native of South Africa with its pure, white, five petal blossom, both have flowered in fruitful collaborations between the designers and craftsmen at Graff,” Sarah Hue-Williams observes in an article for Graffiti: The Graff Magazine that’s illustrated with a floral suite of drop diamond earrings (18 carats), an open choker (54 carats) and a bracelet (seven carats). But the company’s signature is the butterfly. As Hue-Williams writes: “This iconic motif has featured prominently in Graff’s history and, over the decades, the House has continued to delight with butterfly creations in many different guises,” as in a V-shaped diamond butterfly necklace (45 carats) and drop earrings (10 carats). But will jewelry lovers care about this in the time of the coronavirus? Hruschka thinks they will want to hold on to something of value. “They will look at brands with legacy.” Legacy is important to Hruschka. He is proud to work for a luxury jeweler that has such continuity, overseeing 10 of its 60 stores worldwide. “There are only a handful of global brands that remain family owned and have that vertical integrity,” he says. Perhaps one of the reasons this means so much to Hruschka is that he himself grew up in the business in Seattle and Texas. “My dad was a master jeweler. My mom trained in design. I went to work with my father. He put me to work in those quiet moments. I grew up with filings and dust.” Still, he says, “I never thought I’d be in it for a career.” And yet, he has made a career in the luxury industry, mostly with such luxe jewelry brands as Cartier, Chopard North America, John Hardy, Tiffany & Co. and Van Cleef & Arpels as well as with Chanel and Montblanc. He loves the tactile quality of jewelry — “having that tangible object.” Perhaps that’s what this Westerner also savors in the great outdoors. (A Greenwich resident for 15 years, he now divides his time with his wife and four children between Manhattan and a 20-acre spread in Austin, Texas.) What he really loves about jewelry, though, can’t be put into a box with a bow and worn: “We help people celebrate the moments in their lives. It’s an honor to be part of that.” For more, visit graff.com, saksfifthavenue.com and brucemuseum.org.
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WAY
HOME & DESIGN
SOPHISTICATED EASE IN GREENWICH PRESENTED BY SOTHEBY'S INTERNATIONAL REALITY
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A Dutch Colonial new build on Indian Harbor Road gets a sophisticated upgrade — complete with extensive landscaping; a pool; a sport court; a Control4 smart home system; a patio with a built-in gas grill; and a heated three-car garage. Meanwhile, an inviting covered terrace with a fireplace adds an outdoor room to the approximately 8,364-square-foot property. The heart of the interior is a fabulous kitchen with an oversize center island and built-in banquette that opens onto a spacious family room. With its custom built-ins, the office allows you to work from home with ease. The second floor consists of a master suite with two walk-in closets and a luxury bathroom, four additional bedrooms, three more baths and a laundry. A great lower level features high ceilings, a wine cellar, a media room, a playroom, the sixth bedroom with bath — there are five full baths and two halfbaths in all — and a gym. A possible furnished option is available for this $4, 950,000 house, which is steps from the train, schools and coastline. For more, contact Tracey Koorbusch at 203-561-8266.
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HOW TO MOTIVATE YOURSELF — AND OTHERS BY GIOVANNI ROSELLI
about your particular topic, find someone who knows more and has more experience. Soak up as much information as you can from this expert. Offer to help him or her in any way you can.
PRACTICE How do you get to Carnegie Hall? “Practice,” the old joke goes. It goes for everything in life. And, at this point in time, you have plenty of time to practice. So: • Practice in front of your mirror. • Practice in front of your friends, family and anyone who is willing to sit in front of you either at a safe distance in person or virtually. • Practice by filming yourself and reviewing it and have others review it as well.
PERSIST, BE PATIENT AND PAY YOUR DUES
Motivational speaker-trainer Giovanni Roselli addresses a group. Courtesy Roselli Health & Fitness.
“The way you overcome shyness is to become so wrapped up in something that you forget to be afraid.” — Lady Bird Johnson, manager, investor, beautification advocate and former first lady of the United States
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HEALTH & FITNESS
It’s obvious that we have all been affected by COVID-19 in many personal and professional ways. I make my living presenting corporate wellness, fitness education and keynote presentations in front of large groups, as well as in one-on-one interactions through my fitness coaching. Needless to say, both of these industries have been in a complete shutdown and it will be a slow crawl back. With this downtime, and since I often get asked how you get into public speaking, I’d like to share what I’ve learned about this and the best ways to break in. The world as we know it will change and who knows how events, speeches and presentations will be affected. What you will find is that a lot of what I’m mentioning for public speaking is also applicable to other walks of life. It is still ironic to me that I’ve gotten to a point in my life and career where I
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present and speak on a regular basis. I could not have been any shyer growing up. Additionally, I had a huge fear of public speaking. Fast forward many years later, I present and speak on a monthly basis, providing continuing education for the fitness community and corporate wellness seminars/keynotes. So how the heck did I get here? Throughout our lives, we are often drawn to situations that make us confront our fears. As I entered the fitness industry and jumped down the rabbit hole of movement-based training, I became so engrossed and passionate about it, it helped take away my fears.
FIND YOUR ‘THING’ The best presenters in the world have honed their skills in their particular interest. Get to know your product/subject so you can be comfortable and confident describing it. Think about all the experts that you can: There’s a good chance you will say that they are known for something specific. They have done their due diligence to become true experts and have found much success in their lane of focus.
FIND MENTORS As you work hard and stay focused on learning as much as you possibly can
Starting out, you need to be knocking on a lot of doors. Reach out to organizations and affiliations that you can see yourself working with and adding value to. Have a PDF outline of what you will offer complete with learning objectives. Try to get yourself on video so the potential client has something to refer to visually as well. If you are looking to represent companies or products, they may not need or want any additional employees at the moment. Keep holding yourself to the highest standard possible, keep getting a deeper understanding of your lane of interest, wait and keep yourself on the top of their minds.
GOTTA START SOMEWHERE To summarize: • Get really good and knowledgeable about what you want to do. • Find a mentor who can help you grow and learn from him/her. • Start practicing as much as you can. • Put yourself out there. • Have the perseverance, patience and work ethic that puts you in the right places at the right times. Is it fair to say that every single one of these points apply to going after anything in life? Now is not the time to get lazy and down. Now is the time to set yourself up to be better than before. On a side note, if anyone is struggling with his fitness and/or nutrition regiment given the current set of circumstances, please feel free to reach out to me at Gio@GiovanniRoselli.com and I will be happy to assist you with my virtual online coaching program.
SMART HOMES FOR SENIORS
For millions of adults around the country, taking care of parents and other loved ones is a fact of life. Millions of Americans act as family caregivers for their aging parents, providing support in all kinds of ways -- cooking and cleaning, offering rides to appointments, or managing caregivers, who assist with activities of daily living. Whether you live next door or around the corner, caring for an elderly relative can be challenging – physically, financially and emotionally. Technology is now making it much easier to stay in touch with elderly loved ones and monitor their care from a distance. Barbara Faruggio, a registered nurse/home care planner with Westport-based Task Home Care Services Inc., says that in order to age in place successfully, a senior has to be able to engage with others, remain healthy and stay safe. “If you skip any of these, you run the risk of depression, isolation and poor health.” Solutions like Alarm.com’s Wellness Platform offer caregivers peace of mind. “Integrated with Alarm.
com’s Interactive Security Service, Wellness offers family members peace of mind,” says Nick Santarsiero, founder and CEO of Property Protection Consulting LLC, “by combining hardware and software to benefit caregivers and aging adults alike.” Unlike an emergency pendant or other standalone devices, Wellness connects a broad range of sensors and devices around the home to monitor overall quality of life. Machine-learning algorithms analyze activity data to understand routines and patterns, detect changes that may indicate a risk or issue and proactively alert loved ones and caregivers. Unlike emergency pendants, Wellness uniquely reports changes in sleeping and eating patterns, bathroom visit frequency and medication adherence, as well as emergencies. The solution connects security sensors, lights, locks, thermostats and video, as well as bed sensors, alert buttons and sensors for medicine cabinets and refrigerators, enabling discreet but comprehensive
For more, contact Property Protection Consulting at 866-991-7233.
monitoring of the home. Plus, the Wellcam sports a 180-degree Wi-Fi camera, Bluetooth speaker, activity monitoring sensor, two-way calling and integration with Alarm.com’s existing ecosystem. “Once enabled,” Santasiero says,”this allows family members or caregivers to drop in on the camera anytime to see how a loved one is doing while the audio can be used for checking in on a loved one in a “Dad, everything alright?” scenario. “For baby boomers, this can work to provide the physical infrastructure necessary to ensure healthy independent senior living in later years,” Faruggio says, adding that it’s likely the ‘smarter” choice. “Collectively these eye-catching features – motion sensors that respond to a range of medical conditions, voice activated technologies, smart thermostats and automatic lighting are allowing our aging population to enjoy both high living standards as well as easy access to care in their own homes, where they’ve spent a lifetime gathering memories while remaining connected socially as they age.” Sponsor Content from
ASSISTED LIVING AND MEMORY CARE AT THE CHELSEA AT GREENBURGH The Chelsea at Greenburgh provides a home-like environment for residents who are cared for and cared about. Located just off I-287 and the Sprain Brook Parkway, the Town of Greenburgh offers the perfect balance between the quaint villages of the Rivertowns and the city conveniences of White Plains, 119 and Central Avenue. The Chelsea offers brand new, upscale apartments with large windows and high ceilings, gourmet meals served in a restaurant-style dining room, a 24-hour emergency response system and a registered nurse on site daily. Our signature Lifestyle Program has something for everyone on a daily calendar of activities including outings for shoping and entertainment. There are beautiful sitting rooms and common spaces to chat with new friends. Enjoy quiet time with a book or computer in our library. Have coffee or tea in our lobby lounge any time. Our beauatiful new building also has a fitness center, landscaped courtyard, patio, pub and full service beauty salon. The Chelsea at Greenburgh offers the perfect blend of privacy and community involvement. You can take part in as much or as little as you like and feel perfectly at home in your own apartment, decorated with your own treasured possessions. We have a special program for those with Alzheimer’s disease and other memory impairments, The Country Cottage, that features 24/7 care, a separate dining room and a secure environment, all supervised by a Certified Dementia Practitioner. We look forward to taking our place in the local community. We've already forged partnerships with regional first responders--police, fire and EMS--along with local civic leaders, volunteers and professional colleagues in the senior care industry. We feel at home here on Dobbs Ferry Road and hope our future residents will feel the same way. In lieu of visits and in-person tours while Coronavirus restrictions are in place, we are offering Virtual Tours. Call now to arrange one, 914-275-0010. See the full range of services provided by The Chelsea at Greenburgh and other Chelsea communitieis by visiting chelseaseniorliving.com.
WE’RE OK. HOPE YOU ARE, TOO.
It’s a brave new world at Chelsea Senior Living, but we’re figuring it out, keeping our residents safe and in touch with their families. It’s what we’ve always done, company-wide, 365 days a year.
Until we can welcome visitors again, call to reserve a Virtual Tour!
914-275-0010
ASSISTED LIVING & MEMORY CARE • COMING IN 2020
715 DOBBS FERRY ROAD | GREENBURGH, NY 10607 chelseaseniorliving.com
ALLERGIES OR COLD? BY DAVID ERSTEIN, M.D. (Editor’s note: Allergy season hit just as the coronavirus was scheduled to peak in the New York metropolitan area. While this article is about the difference between allergies and the common cold, you should know the symptoms of the coronavirus. The most common are fever, fatigue, dry cough and difficulty breathing. If you are short of breath, call your doctor immediately.)
TELLING THE DIFFERENCE
WELL
HEALTH & FITNESS
Every year, about 50 million people in the United States experience allergies, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. On top of that, the average healthy adult catches two to three colds. For many, however, the real trick is telling the difference between the two conditions, which share many overlapping symptoms. Sneezing, coughing, congestion and runny nose are a few of the symptoms characterizing both seasonal allergies (also called hay fever) and colds. But the rise of each condition is quite different. A cold, also dubbed “the common cold,” stems from virus droplets infected people shed when they cough or sneeze. Meanwhile, an allergy is the immune system’s overreaction to a substance (called an allergen) in the environment, such as in the air or in food. In the case of spring allergies, a key allergen is pollen, which prompts the immune system to release chemicals into the bloodstream known as histamines that lead to bothersome symptoms. Think it doesn’t matter which you have, since symptoms of both colds and allergies create low-grade misery either way? Think again. If you don’t know whether you’re suffering from a cold or allergies, you can’t seek targeted treatment and may not find relief. Additionally, you should be aware if a cold is the cause so that you can take measures to prevent its spread. (With allergies, which aren’t contagious, spread isn’t a concern.)
Since symptoms of allergies and colds can seem identical, how can you figure out which one you’ve actually got? Take note of these key differences: • Seasonal allergies typically strike during the spring and early fall months, but colds usually strike during the fall and winter months. • Severe colds can also include headache, fever and body aches, but allergies usually don’t. • Allergies can also cause itchy eyes, an itchy roof of the mouth or rashes, but colds typically don’t. • Colds typically last from 7 to 10 days, but allergies can linger for weeks, months or longer, depending on how long the allergen is present or untreated.
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While allergies and the common cold have some similarities, they are quite different, says David Erstein, M.D.
What may not be different between colds and allergies — despite misconceptions — is the color of mucus or nasal discharge. With either, your mucus may run clear or it may be tinged yellow or green. You can’t, therefore, use this as a deciding factor.
WHEN TO SEE A DOCTOR Cold symptoms that linger up to two weeks might mean your cold virus has morphed into a more serious condition, such as bronchitis, pneumonia or a sinus infection. If symptoms don’t improve with treatment, or you have a fever or breathing problems, it’s wise to see your doctor. One key aspect colds and allergies have in common that can lead to problems is they both allow bacteria or viruses to pool in the sinus cavities and airways, which can create a “breeding ground” for more serious infections. If seasonal allergies seem like the obvious problem, it’s still a good idea to visit a doctor. Allergists, whose medical training focuses on this area, can use blood tests, skin prick tests and other tools to pinpoint your specific allergen(s). Once that happens, you’ll be able to take simple measures that effectively prevent allergy symptoms, such as avoiding or minimizing your triggers. Alternately, or to enhance these tactics, you may be advised to take over-the-counter medications to relieve allergy symptoms. These include antihistamines, decongestants, nasal sprays or eye drops. Allergy shots, which expose you to tiny amounts of your problem allergen and gradually increase the amounts, help desensitize your immune system to the substance. These shots can spell long-term relief for those whose troubling symptoms — which once may have been mistaken for a cold — are truly allergies. David Erstein, M.D., with Advanced Dermatology PC (New York & New Jersey), is board-certified and fellowship-trained in allergy and immunology and has helped thousands of patients successfully manage their allergies. For more, visit advanceddermatologypc.com.
Now Op en! Join us and be among the first to learn about Memory Care The Artis Way. Our unique Memory Care communities are designed to foster independence in an enriching and supportive neighborhood setting. Our model of care emphasizes a customized, caring approach that respects the unique needs of your loved one.
Wherever you are in your Memory Care journey, Artis is here to support you!
Schedule a personal tour by calling 914-236-4824 or visiting TheArtisWay.com/WAG Artis Senior Living of Briarcliff Manor: 553 North State Road, Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510 Check out our other nearby community in Chestnut Ridge.
CRUISING AMSTERDAM’S HARBOR BY BARBARA BARTON SLOANE
WANDERS
TRAVEL
Biking, busing, tramming or hoofing it, Amsterdam is a city easy to get around in. It has beauty, charm and hundreds of canals connected by 500 pretty bridges — and flowers everywhere. These 17th century canals enjoy the honor of having been added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2010 and they’re perfect for a romantic stroll. Long before the coronavirus rocked the travel industry, I had the great good luck to visit Amsterdam and attend Viking River Cruises’ historic launch of 10 Viking Longships as the line expanded into a new era of European river cruising. This was an auspicious occasion because, for the first time ever, a river cruise company was launching 10 ships all at once. As that wise gentleman, Mark Twain, once said, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines and sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” That is precisely what happens on a Viking Longship. Although my stay aboard the Viking Aegir was brief, I nonetheless was able to debark a few times and explore parts of Amsterdam, experiencing some of its special treasures and causing me perhaps to dream? Yes, indeed I did.
AMSTERDAM — MY SHORT BUT SWEET VISIT In Amsterdam’s medieval center, there stands the Gothic basilica Nieuwe Kerk, the coronation church for Dutch royalty. Its intricately carved oak alter was stunning and the stained-glass windows handsome despite no sun shinning through that day. I sat in a pew hoping that perhaps I’d hear some notes from the massive, gilded organ. After some 20 minutes or so, my optimism was rewarded
An Amsterdam canal. Courtesy Sloane Travel Photography.
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with the thunderous peal of Bach’s Organ Fugue in G minor. Could there be a more perfect end to my Gothic church visit? Another outing took me to the Amsterdam School Museum Het Schip, so-called because its shape somewhat resembles a ship. Designed by architect Michel de Klerk, the museum is a former apartment building (1919-21) that remains both an important symbol of dignified housing for the working class — revelatory for its day — and the city’s finest extant example of Brick Expressionism. The Amsterdam School also paid a great deal of attention to the applied arts, designing in such a versatile and expressive way that the style is often seen as the Dutch version of Art Deco. Inside the museum, there’s a charming little post office and an interior that is decorated with furniture and objects that were available to the working class in the ’20s. At Concertgebouw, (Royal Concert Hall), opened in 1882, I attended a concert of Brahms, Chausson and Ravel with violinist Tosca Opdam and pianist Victor Stanislavsky, their music at times bold and regal, at other times poignant and tender; at all times rendered gorgeously by this world-class duo. Although our ship had no plans to stray afar of the ceremonial christening and launching — which was by turns decorous and dazzling — we did take a brief cruise down the Ijsselmeer River to Hoorn, an ancient harbor town founded in 716. This is a pretty community with monumental building façades and inviting sidewalk cafés. Sadly, no sidewalk sitting this day — way too cold. However, the experience of leisurely making our way down the river was picturesque.
THE GODMOTHER For more than 4,000 years it has been a maritime tradition for each ship entering service to have a ceremonial godmother who is entrusted with the guidance of the ship to her destinations. In Amsterdam, there were 10 godmothers, one for each of the ships to be launched. Distinguished, remarkable women are historically chosen to become godmothers and this time was no exception. The group was drawn from representatives of a number of Viking’s valued partners and significant port and privileged-access destinations. They gallantly smashed Champagne bottles against the ships’ hulls, after which there was a post-christening reception held in the Amsterdam cruise terminal. We guests then enjoyed a divine dinner and a maiden voyage around Amsterdam’s harbor. As evening drew near, I thought on the words of a poem by Hendrik Marsman called “Memory of Holland:” The sky hangs low and slowly the sun by mists of all colors is stifled and greyed, and in all the regions the voice of the water with its endless disasters is feared and obeyed. With the Viking Longships' meaningful and heartfelt ceremonies and the godmothers’ blessings, there will be no endless disaster. The mists were banished, the gray skies cast out and, at close of day in the far distance, a rainbow appeared.
For more, visit vikingrivercruises.com.
FREEDOM
to find your hidden talents
Imagine having the luxury lifestyle you deserve without the concerns of living alone or maintaining a home. At The Bristal, we are committed to helping seniors stay independent while knowing that expert care is there if needed – delivered by a team who treat you like family. Every day you’ll enjoy a vibrant community, countless social events with new friends, and the unmatched services and amenities you’ve come to expect from The Bristal. SCHEDULE YOUR VISIT TODAY!
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914-215-5420
For a list of all locations in the tri-state area, visit: THEBRISTAL.COM
AN ENGEL BURMAN COMMUNITY
Licensed by the State Department of Health. Eligible for Most Long Term Care Policies.
WANDERS
TRAVEL
TRAVELING IN THE MIND BY JEREMY WAYNE
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“Not now, when it’s all over. When it’s behind us.” So says the foxy Miss Debenham to suave Col. Arbuthnot, refusing his proffered kiss, in Istanbul at the start of Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express.” The “it,” of course, is the upcoming, planned murder of the child kidnapper, Ratchett, on board the luxurious train. But Mary Debenham’s words might also sum up our own feelings now toward travel itself, in the age of coronavirus. Trains are halted, airplanes grounded, hotels shuttered, vacations canceled or indefinitely on hold, our best-laid travel plans in tatters. Man proposes, God disposes. But while plans are one thing, dreams are not so easily disposed of. Where are yours taking you? Right now, I’m “California Dreamin,’” driving out to Malibu in a rented convertible (red for preference), heading north along Pacific Coast Highway. I’m dreamin’ too of Big Sur, of the Sierra Nevada mountains, of the clean, sparkling air of Yosemite. I’m even fantasizing about the cities, the trolley-cars and steep streets of San Francisco (stopping for a chicken at Judy Rogers’ legendary Zuni Café), and the sidewalks of Beverly Hills, swaggering down preposterous Rodeo Drive in the sunshine.
Top: Dingle, Ireland. Photograph by Suhail Parvez. Right: Hong Kong sunset view. Photograph by Simon Zhu.
Hope, they say, is a good breakfast. So, while I’m waiting, hunkered down in my little corner of the world in Westchester County, waiting for “normal” to return, I’m enjoying the full breakfast buffet of the imagination. This involves Hockney-esque blue swimming pools; palm-fringed, crescent beaches of blinding white sand; crystal clear waters; Jamaica sunsets; scuba diving in the Maldives and sipping Blue Hawaii cocktails in the Kocomo of my mind. But don’t go getting the wrong impression. I’m not just a shallow beach bum or vacation couch potato. When COVID-19 is consigned to history, I want to learn the tango in Buenos Aires; revisit the Prado in Madrid to see those Goyas and Velazquezes that no online resource can ever do justice to; swim with the dolphins in Maui, or in Dingle Bay, Ireland — provided I can fit into a wetsuit, after days at home spent eating, with precious little exercise. I want to go shopping for all sorts of things I don’t need in the peerless, medieval souk of Fez, Morocco, or the Mutrah market of Muscat, Oman. And, for sure, I want another beignet and a French 75 at Antoine’s in New Orleans, once we can travel as free citizens again. In my younger and more vulnerable years (to pinch Nick Carraway’s opener in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s great “The Great Gatsby,”) I used to say the time to book a vacation was the day after you returned from one. But the internet will feed any fantasy. Yesterday, playing around on skyscanner.com, I found a one-way fare of $82 from New York to Paris in June, with a
90-minute layover in Lisbon. That’s a layover I can live with — a custard tart for breakfast in the Lisbon airport and arriving into the City of Lights in time for a late lunch. Paris is going to need our tourist dollars after the crisis and we’re certainly going to need a shot of Paris, if we’re fortunate enough to make it through this. I’m already dreaming of the Île Saint-Louis on an early summer’s day; inhaling the damp, steamy whiff of the Metro stations; snagging a table on the terrace at the bustling corner brasserie, the sweet, drug-like waft of Gitanes in the air. I’m saving up to eat a “numbered” duck, the classic dish at the famous Tour d’Argent restaurant. And I want to take a dinner cruise on a Bateau Mouche along the Seine, in a perfectly-cut suit, like Cary Grant in “Charade” — fat chance. I want Audrey Hepburn to ask me to protect her. (Steady on, we’re getting a bit carried away here.) And let’s not forget Italy, because Italy never forgets us. We are forever in its thrall. As soon as the State Department — theirs, or ours, or both — permits it, I’ll be back for the opera in Parma, one of the world’s most enchanting small opera houses; to take the vaporetto to the islands of the Venetian lagoon (themselves no stranger to the plague, down the centuries); to window-shop the Via Condotti in Rome: or simply to fly down the Italian autostrada between Milan and Florence, at a legal 80 m.p.h., the joy of the open road. The Greek islands? You bet. Oh, what I wouldn’t give now for an erroneous Greek shipping timetable, a missed ferry, an overcooked souvlaki in a badly lit tavern. What bliss those little nuisances seem now, grounded in Westchester, here for the duration. But what I’m really dreaming of is the pretty harbor of Patmos in the northern Dodecanese, already bustling at dawn; boozy, summer’s day lunches on the island of Corfu, under a vine-covered pergola; the great caldera of Santorini — at any time, on any day. I hanker after Asia too — pink gins at the downat-heel Savoy hotel in Yangon, Burma; temples in Bangkok; oolong tea, sipped in a verdant, Taiwanese tea garden. When the world is going about its business again, I want to take the Star Ferry at least one more time, from Kowloon to Hong Kong island, without fear of getting sick, and to walk down humming Pedder Street in Hong Kong Central, eyes ever skyward at the architectural wizardry of it all. And I would like to visit the battlefields of the Somme, somewhere I have never been, except online and in photographs, to see the cemeteries of the First World War. Pristine rows of simple white crosses, interspersed with the occasional Jewish star, as far as the eye can see, a still reminder that even the worst epochs do, eventually, pass. Today we are battening down. Tomorrow, per aspera ad astra — “through hardship to the stars.”
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HAVE MOM, WILL TRAVEL
WANDERS
TRAVEL
1.
BY DEBBI K. KICKHAM
Mom’s travels — whenever she gets to them — will be all-themore-fun with these great Mother’s Day gifts: 1. Multitask with a mask — “Haruharu” means “everyday use” in Korean, and I can think of no better routine than a daily dose of a Haruharu mask. I recommend the $12 Wonder Four-in-One Starter Kit featuring Honey Green Aqua Bomb. Follow it up with the Wonder Honey Green Aqua Bomb cream, $24, and Mom’s good to glow anywhere in the world. haruharu.com 2. A rosy journey — I’m crazy about the rose-gold Fortis Pro carry-on luggage, featuring built-in external USB port and then you can BYOB — Bring Your Own Battery. $209.99. Combine it with the three-piece packing cube set that is a must-have for the traveler who demands organization. $29.99. ebags.com/brand/ ebags 3. Close-knit — From St. John comes the stylish-and-stunning Nuda jersey turtleneck in soft peony. It’s perfect for any spring fling at home in the world. $295. Stjohnknits.com Get a grip — The SportsChic Vegan Tote in bronze makes every journey a “gilt” trip. Available in seven spring colors, the versatile bag features a pebble-grain exterior that’s UV protected and waterproof, and it easily slips under the seat during flights. $119. Sportschic.com 4. Dream cream — Cirem is the name of a new American luxury skincare brand (with impressive clinical trials) that rivals its European counterparts. My favorite product is HCR 3-inOne Serum, containing hyaluronic acid, vitamin C and retinol that began as a humble bottle for which Los Angeles-based pharmacy-goers went wild. $195. CIREM.com Have bracelet, will travel — Like Audrey Hepburn, the
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globetrotters at Jet Set Candy believe “Paris is always a good idea.” Why not charm mom with a trés adorable Paris Perfume charm? The mini version comes in solid gold ($248) and can be worn on a chain or bracelet. The standard size comes in solid gold ($998), sterling silver ($148) and gold vermeil ($198) and features a tiny fleur de lis on a chain around the “bottle’s” neck. Oh, and there’s a lagniappe for purchases over $150 — a mini colored enamel compass encircled in sterling silver ($48 value). jetsetcandy.com Pillow talk — I always bring a satin pillowcase to my hotel room, and the ones made by Savvy Sleepers are dreamy, so soft for your skin and hair. $42 for standard size. savvysleepers.com Pair yours with a pure silk eye mask for your peepers, and you’ll slip into sybaritic slumber. The eye mask is a collaboration with New York aesthetician Joanna Czech, who hails from Poland. $48. Joannaczech.com 5. Super sleep — Treat mom’s lips to Laneige’s super Apple Lime Lip Sleeping Mask. It delivers intense moisture, hyaluronic acid and minerals to make mom’s pucker perfect. $20. Laneige.com Go With Margaux — Let mom walk easier with Margaux’s oh-so-comfy shoes. The brand offers an extended size range, multiple widths and made-to-measure sizing so that every woman can find her perfect fit, regardless of size. The popular leopard loafer is the cat’s meow! $275. Margauxny.com Keep it safe — The award-winning Block Island sunscreen has made the Environmental Working Group’s “Best Beach and Sport Sunscreen” for five years running and has no parabens, sulfates or phthalates. $19.99. blockislandorganics.com For more about Debbi, visit Debbikickham.com.
WARES
HOME & DESIGN
CARING FOR YOUR PLANTS — AND YOURSELF BY CAMI WEINSTEIN
As home becomes our refuge during the COVID-19 crisis, we have both a lot of stress and time on our hands. Caring for the plants in your home and gardens takes on new meaning. Most of us are used to rushing past a wilting plant that needs water on our way to work, the gym or socializing with friends and then lamenting how poorly it’s doing. Now is the time to care for our plants and gardens and they will give back to you with lush growth and beautiful blossoms. They can clean your air, while their growth and flowering brings a smile to our face. Though easier than caring for a pet, plants still need time and consideration. Caring for plants requires finding the correct lighting in your home. If your home is dark, you can always boost plant growth with grow lights, which are great for apartment dwellers. When our younger son moved into New York city he missed working in our gardens in Westchester County. He loved planting everything from bulbs to perennials and setting up the hummingbird feeders. Once in the city, he immediately brought a couple of his houseplants with him, then started bringing in some new ones. He researched plants that were healthy for apartment dwellers and bought them along with some midcentury modern decorative pots to plant them in. He also found that many plant shops would transplant them into containers free of charge as long as you bought the plants and containers from them. Figuring out how much light your plants require and watering consistently is more than half the amount of work it will take to have healthy plants. Although I am not the best plant parent, I have figured out over the years plants that I do well with. The top of my easy-to-care-for plants are cactuses and succulents, followed by orchids, African violets, Christmas cactuses and asparagus ferns. There are many more plants that are easy to care for. These are just the ones that I have particular luck with. Now with extra time on my hands, I am going to try a few more that are a little more difficult to manage. During the cold winter months many people force spring bulbs such as hyacinth, daffodils and tulips. They are a welcome sight and, once blooming, can brighten a coffee table or, eventually, a dinner party. I sometimes use potted spring plants as dinner party flower arrangements on my table and then transplant them outside in my gardens for a pretty show the following year. This works well with hyacinths, hydrangeas and daffodils. I was just out in my garden
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looking at the many spring bulbs popping up that are from years past, and their flowers brought a smile to my face. Caring for your plants is also a great way to destress. Researching plants and plant care can be a great way to relax. It can also be a fun family activity that not only shows how important it is to care for the earth but a learning experience as you try different growth methods. If you like flowering gardens, the benefits are also immense for bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. We always add flowers to our gardens to boost the arrival of these fellow flower fans. We have a lot of deer that we are constantly dealing with so we really don’t grow any vegetables, but vegetable gardens are also a fun experience for both adults and children alike. (See story on Page 28). This is the time to turn lemons into lemonade. If you have to stay home, try to enjoy the time and put that extra time to good use. There are many online nurseries that will ship plants and seeds. I have already put my first order in and I’m looking forward to my spring planting. Enjoy making your home a place of refuge, adding plants and flowers to both your home and garden. You may find that you actually relax. For more, call 203-661-4700 or visit camidesigns. com.
Plants and flowers brighten the day, particularly in these stressful times.
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WHAT’S NEW AGAIN
HOME & DESIGN
FOREVER FRESH BY KATIE BANSER-WHITTLE
Spring is here and summer is coming. Seasonal fruits and vegetables are among the most anticipated delights of warm weather. But the time for locally grown fresh asparagus and luscious strawberries only lasts a short while. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could enjoy that colorful abundance all year long? Indeed, thanks to the ceramicist’s art we can, at least visually. That’s because for thousands of years, potters have been making all sorts of objects decorated with and even in the shape of fruits and vegetables. Their naturalistic and sometimes amazingly realistic creations are both practical and beautiful. Four thousand years ago, Mexican potters made utilitarian vessels for carrying and storing liquids. Shaped like the more fragile dried gourds and squashes they replaced, these ceramics were earthenware, unglazed clay fired at low temperatures. (Think flowerpots.) Artisans throughout Asia also made pottery vessels in the shapes of fruits and vegetables, from simple household wares for daily use to highly sophisticated, richly decorated examples in porcelain. Porcelain is a white clay that can be fired at very high heat. It produces articles that are lightweight and delicate yet very strong. Porcelain wares were highly prized in Europe, but European ceramic makers could not produce them in any quantity until the early 18th century. It was then that they finally learned the secret of porcelain manufacture — a variety of clay called kaolin. All over Europe, potteries began producing ceramics in a wide range of styles and shapes to satisfy the ever-growing desire for tableware and ornaments. Whether impressive porcelain or utilitarian earthenware, buyers could choose from a cornucopia of long-lasting pottery fruits and vegetables to use in the kitchen and adorn the table. In mid-18th century England, Chelsea and Worcester were the leading porcelain manufacturers. Their luxurious wares included porcelains with hand-painted fruits, flowers and vegetables along with sculptural forms such as cauliflowers, pears, artichokes, cabbages and asparagus. These motifs appeared on tablewares, tea wares, perfume bottles and decorative objects like candlesticks and vases. About the same time, Josiah Wedgwood — while working with Thomas Whieldon, who played a key role in developing Staffordshire pottery, and later on his own — created colorful glazes that were applied on pottery press-molded tea wares. Favorites designs included cauliflowers, pears, apples, melons and especially pineapples. In the 18th and early-19th centuries, a fresh pineapple was an expensive rarity. It became a symbol of lavish hospitality, like offering fine Champagne and unlimited Beluga caviar to your guests today. Upwardly mobile hosts who couldn’t afford to buy their own pineapple could rent one. Or they could have a permanent luscious
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Minton majolica monkey teapot and cover (circa 1865), English. Sold for $1,200 at Skinner Inc.
tropical fruit in pottery form. George Washington’s mother, Mary Ball Washington, was among the fashionable ladies who served guests from pineapple-shaped teapots. The next bumper crop of fruit- and vegetable-themed ceramics came in the mid-19th century, with exuberant Majolica wares from dozens of makers all over Europe. The traditional technique for making majolica starts with a red clay earthenware shape dipped in a white glaze, fired, decorated with colored glazes and fired a second time. Majolica originated in the Middle East in the nineth century. It began to be imported into Europe through the Spanish island of Mallorca. The Italians named the new type of pottery after the place they obtained it from and soon began to make their own versions. Italian majolica quickly became widely admired, reaching its artistic peak during the Renaissance. Majolica enjoyed renewed popularity in the Victorian period. The finest and rarest majolica featured tin-glazed examples from England’s Minton works. These luxury items were exquisitely hand-decorated in a revival of the Italian Renaissance style. More abundant, more affordable and much collected today is the mass-produced, lead-glazed majolica from the many Staffordshire factories in England. Additional colorful wares came from potteries as far away as Scandinavia and Portugal and as close to home as Tarrytown and Greenport, New York, and Trenton, New Jersey. From the 1850s to the 1900s, reasonably priced majolica wares offered a rich harvest of fruit and vegetable patterns, particularly berries, in a rainbow of glazes. A rapidly expanding yet ever more accessible world offered an endless variety of good things to eat, admire and immortalize in ceramic form. The bounty and beauty of spring and summer are captured in the artistry of ceramics for year-round enjoyment. Collectors and decorators today can choose from antique and vintage examples or modern and contemporary ones, to suit every taste, décor and budget. Bon appétit! For more, contact Katie at kwhittle@skinnerinc.com or 212787-1114.
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DOUBLE DELIGHT WEAR
FASHION & BEAUTY
BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA
Lots of beauty products claim to perform miracles. But we’ve found one that, if not miraculous, certainly lives up to its billing as the number one face serum in the world. It’s Double Serum by the French beauty brand Clarins, which turned 66 March 15 — and looks good for its age. We first discovered the product, which appeared on the market in its first through third iterations in 1985, when we had a Clarins facial recently at Bloomingdale’s White Plains. It was one of the few facials we’ve ever had that felt like an instant facelift in the best possible sense of the word. We tried the Double Serum, now in its eighth iteration, on our own and experienced the same results. Curious, we looked at the ingredients and saw that the serum is as botanical-loving as we are. The key ingredient is turmeric, an ancient ant-iinflammatory and antioxidant known for its restorative properties. Banana, avocado, myrothamnus and red jania help the skin regenerate. Teasel, goi berry, beautyberry and horse chestnut are used for oxygenation. Mary’s thistle, kiwi, oat and orthosiphon nourish, while leaf of life, marsh samphire, quinoa and cocoa tree hydrate and huang qi, mango tree, ginger lily and edelweiss protect. The extracts are used in a dual chamber hydric, lipidic suspension system that delivers two-thirds water-based ingredients and one-third oil based ingredients in an environmentally friendly pump bottle. All this makes your skin feel smoother and firmer and look brighter. We like to combine this day and night with Clarins’ Eye Contour Gel, which definitely helps with our dark circles and puffiness. For more, visit clarinsusa.com.
Courtesy Clarins.
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WEAR
FASHION
MAKEUP GETS A MUSEUM OF ITS OWN BY FATIME MURIQI
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Have you ever wondered how cosmetics first started? A multibillion-dollar industry that makes liberal use of botanicals and healthy ingredients can be traced back thousands of years to the ancient Sumerians (lipstick) and Egyptians (eyeliner and shadow, of course) — and times when beauty wasn’t as interested in health. This history is just one aspect of cosmetics you’ll delve into at the upcoming Makeup Museum in Manhattan. Cosmetics for drag, makeup artists like Pat McGrath, glitter, 1970s culture, different kinds of lipsticks — it’s all there. And we can’t wait to visit. Alas, we’ll have to hold on a little while longer. The museum was set to open May 1 with “Pink Jungle: 1950s Makeup in America,” but the launch is now delayed due to the pandemic. We’re sure cosmetics lovers won’t mind. After all, they know a well-made face is always worth the wait. For more, visit makeupmuseum.com.
Model Dovima, photographed by Richard Avedon for the October 1955 cover of Harper's Bazaar, with a classic 1950s cat’s eye, complete with bright green eye shadow.
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A LIFE LIVED THROUGH DINING BY JEREMY WAYNE
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WONDERFUL DINING
FOOD & SPIRITS
Like T.S. Eliot’s Prufrock, I often feel as I have measured out my life in — coffee spoons — restaurant coffee spoons, that is. As regular readers of WAG may have seen in my potted biography at the front of the magazine, I began my “professional” career at age 6, when I invented a game called Restaurants, played at English teatime, in which I would “order” cheese on toast or scrambled eggs, which my late mother would then patiently cook and serve. She was a good as well as gracious cook, a rare combination indeed, and she doubled as a pretty waitress, smiling contentedly with a mother’s love and indulgence when the precocious budding critic within me awarded the restaurant 10 out of 10 — which he invariably did. Around the time I turned 9, we took a family vacation to Spain. At a restaurant in Seville, one of those rather dispiriting “tipico” restaurants designed for tourists, where the laminated plastic menu appeared in several languages, each indicated by its national flag, the typically Spanish entrées featured fish and chips and roast chicken. The chicken came in two portion sizes — either a whole chicken or a half. “I’ll have the whole chicken,” ventured squeaky-voiced, obnoxious little me, without having even been asked. “Jeremy,” my father said gently, looking down at me querulously through his black-rimmed specs, “is that wise?” He reasonably suggested that a whole chicken might turn out to be overly large. Wouldn’t it make sense to start with half a chicken? Then, if I was still hungry, he would happily order me another half. Eminently fair and sensible, but little Jeremy did not agree. “I want a whole chicken,” I said, my voice becoming a little squeakier and my little foot stamping under the table. “Let’s just start with a half, like Daddy says,” put in my mother, in that annoying way parents have of making it sound as if they are the parent and you are just a child. “No,” I said, “absolutely not. It must be a whole chicken and, if not, I’ll… I’ll….” In fact, I did not have a clue what I would do, but suddenly, inspiration grabbed me by the collar of my little pastel blue polo shirt and I jumped up, out of my chair, ran the length of the room and out of the restaurant and into the black Andalusian night. I don’t recall how I was reunited with my family but I do know that I came to no harm and my tantrum was
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quickly forgiven. I also know that, forever after, when I was in a restaurant with my parents, and chicken was on the menu, I would be asked whether I intended ordering the whole bird or just the half. Key moments in my life have been punctuated by restaurants. My first paycheck, earned teaching English during my gap year at a firm of French aeronautical engineers, was blown at La Grande Cascade, the glorious 19th century restaurant located in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. It was a dinner I will never forget. When I arrived in Oxford, England, as an undergraduate — lonely, nervous, knowing nobody — I passed a glorious, circular neoclassical building at dusk on my first day. There through the ground floor windows I could see what looked like people dining, each table set with a beautiful table lamp — such a magnificent setting. “Aha,” I thought to myself, delight replacing anxiety,
Selection of dishes at Chutney Masala. Courtesy Chutney Masala.
were also nearly ascribed to the length of my career on the magazine, when my managing editor saw the size of the lunch bill. Restaurants have always been there for me, a major part of my “professional” career, but also, as for all of us, as places to celebrate special occasions and to buoy us up when we are feeling, as the Italians say, sotto. Until March of this year, when suddenly, restaurants were no longer there, at least not as we knew them. With the arrival of the pandemic, a temporary measure allowed restaurants in the tristate area a window to open with some restrictions, such as additional spacing between tables, but that window was short-lived. No industry, however, is more resilient or more resourceful than the restaurant industry, and now with virtually all establishments prevented by law from serving guests on the premises but permitted to sell takeout food, scores of restaurants in the region — some of my favorites among them — are selling food and restaurant dishes to go.
“with a restaurant like this right in the center of town, I am going to get on just fine in this rather daunting place.” The following day, I learned that the building was in fact not a restaurant at all, but the Radcliffe Camera, the magnificent reading room which is now a part of Oxford’s famous Bodleian library. I met my future wife in London’s famous Ivy restaurant, when we found ourselves seated next to each other at a charity dinner. And in July 2000, we marked my appointment as restaurant editor of Condé Nast’s Tatler by ducking into a newly opened restaurant — Alain Ducasse at the Essex House on Central Park South in Manhattan — to dine. The prix fixe lunch for two, which included a bottle of white wine from Long Island but did not include tax or tip, came to a monstrous $540. “Long Island, but short finish,” I remarked wryly on the wine, in my first Condé Nast column, and those last two words
Here are seven of the best: 273 Kitchen — This charming Greek restaurant in Harrison, does — guess what? — a whole lemon chicken to go. For me, it’s a no-clucker, sorry, no-brainer. 273 Halstead Ave., 914-732-3333, 273kitchen.com Roc-N-Ramen’s gyoza dumplings, steamed gua bao buns and ramen all lend themselves to takeout and successful reheating at home. And the communityminded folks at R-N-R just couldn’t be kinder or more accommodating. 19 Anderson St. in New Rochelle, 914365-2267 rocnramen914.com If you’re hankering for Italian, Rosie’s Bistro Italiano in Bronxville is offering a complimentary bottle of house wine to go with your vodka-laced Penne Russo, succulent Vitello di Martini, or any other of the myriad dishes from its long menu, for curbside pickup evenings except Tuesdays. 10 Palmer Ave., 914-793-2000 rosiesbronxville.com Indian cuisine is the best food for takeout in my opinion, as good the next day as the evening before, and the tandoori plates, gluten-free curries and wonderful breads at Navjot Arora’s Indian restaurant, Chutney Masala in Irvington, never disappoint. 76 Main St., 914591-5500 chutneymasala.com Curbside pickup and delivery are available all day at Hartsdale stalwart, O Mandarin Chinese Cuisine. The Sichuan hotpot tastes as good at home as it does in the restaurant. 361 N. Central Ave., 914-437-9168 omandarin.com Cantonese meets contemporary in this 1840 Tarrytown townhouse. While now is not the time to enjoy the elaborate interior, the Goosefeather’s dry aged beef potstickers and whole roast duck, from the restaurant’s reduced menu, are terrific takeout dishes. 49 E. Sunnyside Lane, 914-829- 5454, goosefeatherny.com Walter’s Hot Dogs is open for business, via Uber Eats, GrubHub and Doordash delivery, in White Plains at 186 Mamaroneck Ave., 914-397-9406, as well as at the original Mamaroneck site on Palmer Avenue. waltershotdogs.com
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A DEEP DIVE INTO DIY WINE BY DOUG PAULDING
WINE & DINE
FOOD & SPIRITS
I have always been a dive-into-the-deep-end kind of learner. I learned to ride a bike by climbing on my sister’s bike on a small hill and standing up on the pedals and I was off. I learned to play hockey on the ponds and bogs of Massachusetts with considerably older players. And I learned to make wine by visiting Prospero Equipment Corp. in Pleasantville and meeting with the winemaking guy. At the time, I was writing for an international food and wine magazine and had been a regular reviewer on its wine- tasting panel. Prospero is for real and supplies large scale commercial winemakers with equipment and can also outfit the newbie home winemaker’s needs. I told the winemaker/sales representative there I had visited many wineries and had observed the process many times but had never overseen a batch of wine. In the age of Covid-19 and social isolation, I have a great at-home project for you — winemaking. It’s educational, it’s fun, it’s scientific in a microbiological kind of way, it smells wonderful and it’s a great way to stimulate some home schooling within the family. Plus, when you’re done, you have a product you can enjoy for years to come. Prospero’s winemaker talked me through the process, drew some pictures with notes and suggested a small book on fermentation. For around $700, I was back in my car with everything I needed, including a couple of five gallon pails of Chardonnay juice, a five gallon pail of Merlot juice and another with Cabernet Sauvignon juice — all from crushed and pressed grapes. I am told you make a better wine by buying the grapes and overseeing the process from the start but I opted to skip that process. I got home and brought everything into the kitchen, washed the five-gallon glass carboys where the fermentation would happen and filled two of the carboys with the Chardonnay. Two other carboys were filled with a Merlot-Cabernet blend. I added the recommended yeasts in the appropriate amounts. I attached a rubber stopper to each carboy, and added a purchased glass gas pressure reliever that allows for CO2 to be released while not allowing ambient air into the process. I went to bed that night with each carboy sitting expectantly in the kitchen. The next morning I opened the bedroom door and was hit with the smell of fresh fermentation. I walked down the stairs and it was alive. Each of the four carboys was actively fermenting, turning the sugars in the juice into ethanol (alcohol) and carbon dioxide. The juice inside the containers was energetically bubbling throughout the fermentation process, filling the house with a lovely active winery smell. At a point in time, when the fermentation slows and the steady bubbling
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Making good homemade wine begins with overseeing crushing and pressing the grapes. Or, like WAG’s Doug Paulding, you can skip this part of the process, buy the wine juice and go straight to fermentation.
slows to a trickle, it’s best to rack the wine. Racking is removing the wine from the carboy and removing the dead yeast cells. Yeast cells consume the sugars in the juice and end up dead in the process. If the wine is left in contact with these dead yeast cells, it can have an adverse effect on the taste. Additionally, secondary natural opportunistic yeasts can move in, ruining the wine. This fermentation process takes several days, but each day I was enjoying the microbiology before my eyes. I cleaned out a bunch of empty bottles I had bought and prepared for the bottling. I used a siphon-type small-hose-process to move the wine into the bottles and, with an inexpensive hand corking machine, I compressed the corks, slid each into the throat of a bottle and released it, creating that tight wine bottle seal. All wines, especially wine blends, need to sit for a while postbottling to rest and allow flavors within the bottle to merge and blend. And the results? I wasn’t expecting something brilliant and ethereal. But my first winemaking effort did work. I have tasted commercially available red and white wines that aren’t as good as mine. And I have opened some at parties and watched as guests pour and taste and there have been no twisted-up faces. There are also commercial winemaking operations with all the equipment and a winemaker on staff for you to go there and make your own wine under the supervision of a pro. The City Winery in Manhattan and Westchester Homemade Wine Center in Yorktown Heights will guide you through every step in their facilities. They require you to make a full barrel of wine. They provide the 720 pounds of grapes of your choice and teach you the crushing, pressing and fermentation before the barrel aging and bottling. A barrel will make 240 bottles of wine. Several visits to the complex are required for each step of the process and some of the procedures would benefit from a friend or two to assist. It wouldn’t be difficult to find someone to share the process, the expense and ultimately the wine. In any event, this will take you deeper into the world of wine. Who says self-isolation can’t be satisfying to the palate? Cheers. Write me at doug@dougpaulding.com.
CELEBRATING LIFE, LOVE, & THE POWER OF FLOWERS SINCE 1925 4th Generation, Locally Grown & Locally Owned
www.BlossomFlower.com 914.304.5376
AN ITALIANINDIAN TREAT BY RAJNI MENON
Rice is a staple part of the diet in many cuisines of the world. It can be savored just plain or by adding meat or vegetables along with spices in India. In other parts of the world, rice is cooked with squid ink, lentils or green tea. In Sicily, rice is used in making these gorgeous, golden, deep fried balls filled with cheese and herbs called arancini. Here’s a dish combining Sicilian and Indian flavors — Masala Halibut with Arancini. For more, visit creativerajni.com.
WHAT’S COOKING?
FOOD & SPIRITS
Photograph by Aditya Menon.
MASALA HALIBUT
ARANCINI
THREE COLOR PEPPER SAUCE
INGREDIENTS: 3 tablespoons coconut oil 1 teaspoon turmeric powder 1 teaspoon Kashmiri red chilli powder or paprika 2 teaspoons kosher salt 1 teaspoon black pepper powder 1 teaspoon cumin powder 1 tablespoon coriander powder 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon onion powder 1 fillet of halibut skinned and cut into medium chunks 4-5 spinach leaves
INGREDIENTS: 1 cup Arborio rice 2 cups vegetable stock 1 cup black raisins 1 1/2 cups water 1/2 cup grated Parmesan 1 cup grated Fontina 1/2 cup chopped parsley 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon white pepper 1 egg 3 cups breadcrumbs 4 cups vegetable oil
INGREDIENTS: 1 red bell pepper 1 orange bell pepper 1 yellow bell pepper 3 cloves garlic 1 1/2 teaspoons Himalayan pink salt 1 1/2 teaspoons white pepper powder
DIRECTIONS: 1. In a bowl mix the coconut oil, salt, spices and combine well. 2. Add in the halibut chunks and marinate them for 1 hour. 3. Heat a nonstick pan and sear the halibut on both sides without adding oil. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes. Set aside. 4. Add spinach for garnish.
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DIRECTIONS: 1. In a medium size pan, cook the rice with the vegetable stock, salt and white pepper. Once cooked, spread the rice on a baking tray. Let it cool. 2. In a mixing bowl, combine the grated Parmesan, grated Fontina, raisins and parsley and set aside. This is the filling for the arancini. 3. Once the rice is cool, add in the egg and combine well. Make a ball about the size of your palm and slightly push in the middle with your finger to make a dent. Place some of the filling in the dent and seal it gently with more rice. 4. Coat the rice ball in breadcrumbs and set it aside. Continue making rice balls until the mixture is finished. Place them in the refrigerator for 35 to 40 minutes 5. In a deep pan, heat the vegetable oil. Once hot, deep-fry the rice balls until golden brown.
DIRECTIONS: 1. Preheat the oven to 475 F. 2. Clean the bell peppers and pat them dry, placing them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Wrap 3 cloves of garlic in aluminum foil and place them on the same tray. Bake for 40 minutes. 3. Once done, place the peppers into three different bowls and cover them with plastic wrap. After 10 minutes, remove the wrap and the skins from the peppers as well as the seeds inside. Set the roasted peppers aside. 4. Remove the skin from the roasted garlic, mash it with salt and pepper and set it aside in another bowl. 5. Purée the roasted peppers separately with garlic, salt and pepper. The three pepper sauce is ready.
WAG
WHEN & WHERE
MARKING MAY The merry month of May, which is Gifts From the Garden month, is filled with unusual celebrations like Garden Meditation Day (May 3), Wildflower Week (week two) and Pick a Strawberry Day (May 20). Three dates, however, are uppermost in the general public’s minds this month. The first is Cinco de Mayo, which commemorates the Mexican Army’s victory over the French Empire on May 5, 1862 at the Battle of Puebla. It is a day of more significance for Americans than Mexicans, a celebration of Mexican-American culture and relationships since 1863, marked by Mexican foods and enough beer and guacamole to rival Super Bowl Sunday. Though saluting motherhood goes back to ancient times, modern Mother’s Day was an early 20th-century initiative of American peace activist Anna Jarvis, who grew to regret its commercialism. This year, remember mom with a bouquet of peonies from the garden, a breakfast tea in bed and other simple tokens of your love on May 10. Last May, WAG’s own Phil Hall told us how Georgia teacher-activist Moina Michael helped popularize wearing a poppy to remember soldiers fallen in World War I after she read Col. John McCrae’s poem “In Flanders Fields.” Remember our war dead May 25 by sporting a poppy – and reaching out to our veterans and active-duty servicemen and women.
Cactuses are native to the Americas and grow all over Mexico. Here a kind of flowering opuntia, or prickly pear cactus. Celebrate Mexican-American friendship on Cinco de Mayo (May 5).
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OLIVER! “Oliver! Oliver! Never before has a boy wanted more.” — from “Oliver!”, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart Oliver is a handsome young Chocolate Labrador mix looking for more — love, that is. He’s a big, goofy guy who enjoys roughhousing and playtime with his canine friends. Oliver’s early days were unfortunately spent with a backyard breeder, so he is still learning his manners and needs guidance. But his antics will keep you laughing and, although he requires an adult-only home, with training and consistency he will blossom. To meet Oliver, visit the SPCA of Westchester at 590 N. State Road in Briarcliff Manor. Founded in 1883, the SPCA is a no-kill shelter and is not affiliated with the ASPCA. The SPCA is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 1 to 4 p.m. Sundays. To learn more, call 914-941-2896 or visit spca914.org.
Courtesy SPCA.
PURR-FECT PAINTINGS BY ROBIN COSTELLO
PET OF THE MONTH
PET CARE
Fine art and pet lovers everywhere will delight in an irresistible new book featuring Impressionist masterpieces lovingly recreated with a feline twist. “Impressionist Cats,” (62 pages, 32 illustrations $12.95), which Thames & Hudson will publish June 2, is the latest in the “Cats in Art” series by painter Susan Herbert. Set up as a catalog for the fictitious “Fishbone Museum,” the book features page after page of Impressionist classics — with cats substituted for the human models. No matter who your favorite Impressionist or Postimpressionist painter is, you’ll be charmed by Herbert’s appropriations. Which will be your favorite — cats strolling in a field of wild poppies (Claude Monet); Tahitian cats sunbathing (Paul Gauguin); kitty card sharks (Paul Cezanne); a mother bathing her kitty (Mary Cassatt); fat cats bellying up to the bar (Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec); balletic felines at the Paris Opera (Edgar Degas); a catty blue-eyed selfportrait (Vincent van Gogh); or cats boating on a river (Pierre-Auguste Renoir)? “With their pensive brooding, or mischievous expressions, these cats convey the playfulness, melancholy and sheer vitality of the Impressionist painters,” the publisher notes. “At home or out dancing, bourgeois or intellectual, charming or steeped in despair, these Impressionist cats appear as if caught by
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Cover of Susan Herbert’s “Impressionist Cats.” Courtesy Thames & Hudson.
the artist spontaneous and unprepared in their favorite Parisian haunts, or enjoying everyday hobbies and activities.” Even finicky felines would have to agree that it’s the purrfect match of subject and artists. For more, visit thamesandhudsonusa.com.
WAG
WATCH
RUNWAY READY It was all smiles as 49 models, ages 3 to 9, took to the runway with sass and style at Breast Cancer Alliance’s annual “Kids for a Cause Family Fun Day.” The young fashionistas showcased outfits curated by co-chair Kathy Morrissy and her store, Hoagland’s of Greenwich, and Threads & Treads. Funds raised went to support breast health services for underserved women throughout Connecticut and Westchester County. Photographs by Elaine Ubiña. 1. Jack Soterakis, Dr. Stacy Zarakiotis and Konstantina Soterakis 2. Reese and Reid Cling 3. Julia Schur 4. Kelly and Murphy Baird 5. Ryan Cassin, Serena and Savannah Shaw and Brooke Bertrand 6. Suzanne Zakka, Molly Schiff, Kathy Morrissy, Scottie Bonadio, Yonni Wattenmaker and Magali Swanson
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CIRCUS OF LOVE The Ty Louis Campbell Foundation (TLC) raised more than $100,000 at its seventh annual gala, a vintage circus-themed fundraiser. The sold-out March 7 event transformed part of the Hyatt Regency Greenwich into a circus. The annual gala is TLC’s largest adult-centered fundraising event of the year, with 100% of the proceeds going directly to funding new research treatments for children who are currently battling aggressive cancers. 7. 8. 9. 10, 11. 12.
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Anthony, Riley and Stacey Damiano Jeff and Trish Arnold Melissa and Michael Divitto Chris Tine and Michael Divitto Cindy and Gavin Campbell Russell and Suzie Panzer
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WAG
WATCH
SISTER ACT
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The Hudson Gateway Realtor Foundation, the charitable arm of the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors, recently presented a check for $2,500 to My Sisters’ Place in White Plains. For more than 40 years, My Sisters’ Place (MSP) has been Westchester County’s pioneering leader and resource in the field of domestic violence and human trafficking. MSP provides a continuum of direct services for adult and child victims (shelter, counseling, legal services and education), effectively responding to the needs of families and individuals in crisis.
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1. Stephanie Liggio, Robert Shandley, Eleanor Cotter, Carly Levin, Terri Crozier, Sander Koudijs and Carol Christiansen
SWEET SURPRISE The frontline health care staff at Saint Joseph’s Medical Center, which is battling the coronavirus pandemic, received a sweet surprise on March 26 in the form of 32 trays of freshly baked cookies, courtesy of the Junior League of Bronxville. The Junior League of Bronxville (JLB) established the Feeding the Frontlines campaign in response to its members’ desire to help respond to the COVID -19 crisis. The campaign is using social media and the power of community connections to raise funds.
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2. Just a few of the frontline health care staff at Saint Joseph’s Medical Center in Yonkers
MATCH DAY
On March 20, seniors at New York Medical College School of Medicine, along with graduating medical students across the nation, learned where they’ll be residents for the next several years, via a livestreamed event. NYMC medical students were matched at all of NYMC’s major local partner hospitals, including NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan; St. Joseph’s Health in Paterson, New Jersey; Lenox Hill, Greenwich and Stamford hospitals; and Lincoln, Westchester and Richmond University medical centers. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
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Ashanti Dunmeyer Brianna Balansay Evelyn Orlando Katherine Harwood Mia and Ashley Spad Natalli Bertolotti Patrick Kennedy
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WAGVERTISERS M AY 2 0 2 0
Africa Photo Tours – 9 africaphototours.com
Prutting & Company Custom Builders - 53 prutting.com
Artis Senior Living of Briarcliff Manor - 47 theartisway.com/wag
R & M Woodrow Jewelers – inside front cover, 1 woodrowjewelers.com
ArtsWestchesters - 61 artsw.org Neil S. Berman - 29 bermanbuyscollectables.com Blossom Flower Shops - 65 blossomflower.com Briggs House Antiques - 29 briggshouse.com The Chelsea at Greenburgh - 44, 45 chelseaseniorliving.com The Club at Briarcliff Manor – back cover theclubbcm.com Euphoria Kitchen & Bath - 61 euphoriakitchens.com Georgette Gouveia - inside back cover thegamesmenplay.com Gregory Sahagian and Son, Inc. – 31, 55 gssawning.com ONS - Orthopaedic & Neurosurgery Specialists - 11 onsmd.com Property Protection Consulting - 43 ppcalarms.com
Giovanni Roselli - 57 giovanniroselli.com Royal Closet - 55 royalcloset.com Skinner Inc. - 3 skinnerinc.com Smith, Buss & Jacobs, LLP - 39 sbjlaw.com Sothebys International Realty – 34, 35 sothebyshomes.com/greenwich onlywithus.com/whiteglove St. Regis Residences – Rye – 5 srresidencesrye.com The Bristal Assisted Living - 49 thebristal.com The Kinsington - 61 thekesingtonwhiteplains.com Tranquility Spa - 5 tranquilityspa.com Val’s Putnam Wines and Liquors - 59 valsputnamwines.com
Our WAG-savvy sales team will assist you in optimizing your message to captivate and capture your audience. Contact them at 914-358-0746.
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MAY 2020
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WE WONDER: HOW ARE YOU COPING WITH THE CORONAVIRUS RESTRIC TIONS ?
Janice Doskey
Aleah Figueroa
Anisia Figueroa
Danielle Hall recruiter Tarrytown resident
President, Buzz Creators Inc., Somers resident
“The first week I devoured the 24 news until I felt myself shrink into a tiny cartoon character wielding a feeble sword against the hidden enemy. The second week I devoured cookies, cake, brownies and cupcakes, made by my own hand. When the going gets tough, the tough make buttercream. The third week Zoom devoured me, day after day, hour after hour, until all I could see were little boxes on the hillside of my brain before it shut down. The fourth week I got up, skipped the news, drank coffee, (the resurrection beverage, thank you gods for this), sat outside on my porch and wrote a poem. Hope lives.”
“I would say I’m coping fairly well, having just moved out of my family’s house for almost a year now. I have learned how to be by myself for long periods of time. Fortunately for me, I’m one of the essential workers, working at a residential (home) so I still get to live a fairly ‘normal’ life with some of my regular, scheduled routines. All in all, social distancing is most important right now and I practice as best I can while at work, too.”
“I cope with the coronavirus by trying my hardest to maintain a routine and get out of my room. I wake up, make breakfast, have coffee and then set up my laptop and iPad to do what work I have to do remotely. Some days I have no work, so I try to cope with that by still moving to the kitchen to just watch videos or play games. I try to remember that we do come out of this, so I am still looking into plans for the future – job searching… considering that I am going to be graduating.....”
“I haven’t had a difficult time adjusting to everything. I’m lucky I get to work from home. I try to stay active and workout since the gym is closed. It’s definitely getting harder now that’s it’s getting warmer. The weekends are the toughest. I can’t wait until we’re able to go out for dinner or for a drink. I’ve found that I’m saving a lot of money, which definitely is a plus.”
“At Buzz Creators, we are fortune enough to be able to do our jobs 100% from home and be just as effective. On a daily basis, we are using video conferencing to meet as a team and ensure every client is getting the support he or she needs. From hospitality and restaurants to medical to lawyers and financial services, every single industry is being affected, and we are guiding them on how to best promote themselves, while also managing how to be helpful to the community and sensitive during these intense times of uncertainty...”
Meera Agarwal
Claudia Atkinson
Akilah Figueroa caretaker Mount Kisco resident
confectioner/owner, La Petite Occasion Confections Mahopac resident
Michele L. Kim
Carolyn B. Mandelker
“Painting and a lot more.”
“I love to cook most every evening anyway regardless of the quarantine. I have kept track and want to do a quick quarantine cookbook when this over, (with recipes for) barbecue chicken, chicken soup with spinach and tortellini, pot roast with mashed potatoes and roasted carrots, my before fantastic carrot cake and a befire scrumptious torte made with Saltines.”
“Nothing much has changed for me. I’m still working as before. I just try to keep my self clean and healthy for when I return home to my son. It’s definitely kind of scary but unfortunately I need to work to provide for my family.”
“I’ve been baking a lot and (doing) limited, scheduled runs to the grocery store.”
“Health and business are good, so doing well. I’m discovering that haircuts are best left to the professionals, ‘business casual’ has taken on new meaning, and I suspect that interior designers will experience a post-COVID boom thanks to Zoom.”
executive producer and director of development, Rule of Three Media Katonah resident
youth care counselor Mount Kisco resident
artist Rye resident
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real estate agent Bedford resident
MAY 2020
student Mount Kisco resident
Christina Rae
CEO, Harrison Edwards Inc. Armonk resident
