WAG November 2019 by Westfair Business Journal

TV anchor uncovers historic scoop

WHATMORE’S LAKE IN WACCABUC: ITS STORIED PAST AND PRESENT With ‘Hamilton’ producer Jeffrey Seller, photographer Josh Lehrer, artist Wendy Shalen, developer Leonard Steinberg, fashion exec Thom Caughlin and attorney Edward Klaris SALLY SIANO Realtor to the stars tells ‘all’

STUDIO JEWELER LORETTA LAM An artistic vision

YALE PAPRIN The passionate collector

fascinating avocations

JUDGED A

TOP

MAGAZINE

WESTCHESTER & FAIRFIELD LIFE NOVEMBER 2019 | WAGMAG.COM

IN NEW YORK STATE 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018

Emmy Award-winning WCBS-TV anchor and reporter Mary Calvi’s book, “Dear George, Dear Mary: A Novel of George Washington’s First Love” (St. Martin’s Press), traces the tale of a real-life romance that happened in 18th-century Westchester County. Its 300-plus pages are devoted to the star-crossed love story of future Founding Father George Washington and Mary Eliza Philipse, the spirited heiress of historic Philipse Manor Hall in Yonkers. From top: John Wollaston’s “Mary Philipse” (circa 1750), oil on canvas. Gift of Martha Baird Rockefeller. Gift of Mary Baird Rockefeller; and Charles Wilson Peale’s “Portrait of George Washington” as a colonel of the Virginia Regiment (1772), oil on canvas. On loan from Washington and Lee University to George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Virginia, estate. Courtesy Historic Hudson Valley.

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NOVEMBER 2019

WAGMAG.COM

CONTENTS N OVEM B ER 2019

Second acts

The lure of the lake

‘Cooking’ up a life that gives back

Passion and purpose

America’s curator

Mr. Entertainment

Rock of (all) ages

Real estate styles of the rich and famous

The Met at 150

Stamp collecting is not licked yet

Natural regrowth The eternal student

A paradise built for two

Fighting for your rights

60 62

COVER STORY

Mary Calvi: A tale of two Marys – two centuries apart

THIS PAGE:

James Monroe Iglehart and Thayne Jasperson in “Hamilton” on Broadway. See story on page 24. Photograph by Joan Marcus.

E VERY OBJ ECT HAS A STORY

worth telling, worth find ing.

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FEATURES HIGHLIGHTS

HOME & DESIGN

68 A Stanwich Road stunner 92 Modern comfort 94 Saying it with music 96 Collecting and editing in home décor

FASHION

76 Colorful yarns 80 Feats of clay 86 Passion for fashion 88 In ‘Bloom’ 90 New for Nordy

TRAVEL

98 Spain’s once and future playground 102 Where consumption is always conspicuous 104 Living it up in London

FOOD & SPIRITS

106 A tasty work in progress 110 Skills that serve 114 Wine tourism takes off in Spain

HEALTH & FITNESS

116 A place for this mom as health advocate 118 Back in the race 120 Hands-on help for carpal tunnel syndrome 122 Moving in new ways

PET CARE

124 At long last love 126 You’ve come along way, Ellie

WHAT'S TRENDING

14 WAG spotlights the new and noteworthy

WHERE & WHEN 128 Upcoming events

WATCH

132 We’re out and about

WIT

144 What passion would you pursue, given unlimited resources?

TV anchor uncovers historic scoop

STUDIO JEWELER LORETTA LAM An artistic vision

YALE PAPRIN The passionate collector

fascinating avocations

JUDGED A

TOP

MAGAZINE

WESTCHESTER & FAIRFIELD LIFE NOVEMBER 2019 | WAGMAG.COM

IN NEW YORK STATE 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018

WAGMAG.COM

COVER: Mary Calvi at Philipse Manor Hall in Yonkers. Photograph by Bob Rozycki. See story on page 72.

NOVEMBER 2019

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ELLIMAN ON THE MARKET Dee DelBello

Dan Viteri

PUBLISHER dee@westfairinc.com

GROUP ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER/CREATIVE dviteri@westfairinc.com

EDITORIAL Bob Rozycki MANAGING EDITOR bobr@westfairinc.com

Mary Shustack SENIOR WRITER/EDITOR

ART Fatime Muriqi ART DIRECTOR fmuriqi@westfairinc.com

Kelsie Mania ART DIRECTOR kmania@westfairinc.com

Sebastián Flores ART DIRECTOR sflores@westfairinc.com

PHOTOGRAPHY Anthony Carboni, Sebastián Flores, Fatime Muriqi, John Rizzo, Bob Rozycki

Jena A. Butterfield, Olivia D'Amelio, Gina Gouveia, Phil Hall, Debbi K. Kickham, William D. Kickham, Doug Paulding, Jennifer Pitman, Giovanni Roselli, Bob Rozycki, Gregg Shapiro, Barbara Barton Sloane, Jeremy Wayne, Cami Weinstein, Katie Banser-Whittle

PRINT/DIGITAL SALES Gina Fusco SENIOR DIRECTOR OF PARTNERSHIPS gfusco@westfairinc.com

Anne Jordan Duffy ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER/SALES anne@westfairinc.com

Lisa Cash, Barbara Hanlon, Marcia Pflug ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Olivia D'Amelio EVENTS COORDINATOR odamelio@westfairinc.com

Marcia Pflug PROMOTIONS/SPONSORS DIRECTOR mpflug@wfpromote.com

CIRCULATION Brianne Smith CIRCULATION SALES bsmith@westfairinc.com

Sylvia Sikoutris CIRCULATION MANAGER sylvia@westfairinc.com Robin Costello ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGER rcostello@westfairinc.com Hastings-on-Hudson, NY | $1,089,000 | Web# 5087814 5-BR, 2.5-BA | Approx. 3,290 SF | Designer Kitchen | Cul-de-Sac Satoshi Maezono M: 914.629.9551

WHAT IS WAG?

Billy Losapio ADVISER

Irene Corsaro ADVISER

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.

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elliman.com 101 KING STREET, CHAPPAQUA, NY 10514 | 914.238.3988 © 2019 DOUGLAS ELLIMAN REAL ESTATE. ALL MATERIAL PRESENTED HEREIN IS INTENDED FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY. WHILE, THIS INFORMATION IS BELIEVED TO BE CORRECT, IT IS REPRESENTED SUBJECT TO ERRORS, OMISSIONS, CHANGES OR WITHDRAWAL WITHOUT NOTICE. ALL PROPERTY INFORMATION, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO SQUARE FOOTAGE, ROOM COUNT, NUMBER OF BEDROOMS AND THE SCHOOL DISTRICT IN PROPERTY LISTINGS SHOULD BE VERIFIED BY YOUR OWN ATTORNEY, ARCHITECT OR ZONING EXPERT. EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY.

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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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Financing by

WAGGERS

T H E TA L E N T B E H I N D O U R PA G E S

ROBIN COSTELLO

OLIVIA D'AMELIO

GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

GINA GOUVEIA

PHIL HALL

DEBBI K. KICKHAM

FATIME MURIQI

DOUG PAULDING

JENNIFER PITMAN

JOHN RIZZO

GIOVANNI ROSELLI

GREGG SHAPIRO

MARY SHUSTACK

BARBARA BARTON SLOANE

CAMI WEINSTEIN

COVER STORY: JEREMY WAYNE, PAGE 72

NEW WAGGER WILLIAM D. KICKHAM is a Bostonarea attorney specializing in plaintiffs’ personal injury law and criminal defense. Prior to practicing law, Bill was a public affairs manager and media spokesperson for a major bar association and served as editor-In-chief. He also executive produced and hosted his own cable TV show for nine years. His motto: “Rich is not how much money you have. Rich is who you have beside you.” He can be reached at kickhamlegal.com.

Oops! In our October story on Ben Mandelker (“Hey! Stuff Crappens”), we misidentified the location of Harrison Edwards, his mother Carolyn’s public relations and marketing firm. It’s in Armonk.

WAGMAG.COM

NOVEMBER 2019

KATIE BANSER-WHITTLE

5,000 YEARS OF CIVILIZATION REBORN

A journey through 5,000 years

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EDITOR’S LETTER BY GEORGET TE GOUVEIA

Welcome to our “Fascinating Avocations” issue, in which the line between what we do to live and what we love to do is often imperceptible. To be sure there are people whose professions and hobbies have clear boundaries. Intellectual property lawyer Ed Klaris, “Hamilton” producer Jeffrey Seller, developer Leonard Steinberg and fashion executive Thom Caughlin are among those who find that their homes in Waccabuc’s enchanting Whatmore’s Lake area offer a refreshing, outdoorsy yin to the competitive yang of their Manhattan careers. For others, the seeds of their avocations were planted by their vocations. Seller’s partner, photographer Josh Lehrer — who actually began his professional life as a “Showtime” executive on photo shoots — has become such a steward of their northern Westchester property that it has fired him to become an environmental activist and capture environmental subjects through his lens. Wendy Shalen became a master of various genres to teach art. Now she’s a full-time artist who also teaches on weekends and draws inspiration from her Whatmore’s Lake home. They’re some of the members of the Whatmore’s Lake Association — see Phil’s introductory story — who’ve given WAG an exclusive view into this private community, and we thank them for their graciousness. They are by no means, however, the only ones who find their day jobs feeding their other passions. Yale Paprin, president of Yale Realty Services Corp. in West Harrison — who told us that real estate investors and developers are naturals for art collecting — invited us into his home for an entertaining tour of his Modern and contemporary art collection. WCBS-TV anchor Mary Calvi told Jeremy that it was the reporter in her — as well as her role as first lady of Yonkers — that led her to write “Dear George, Dear Mary,” about the ill-fated romance between George Washington and local Tory heiress Mary Philipse. She’s not our only budding authoress. Real estate diva Sally Siano dishes in her juicy memoir “It’s a Great Life!,” which we will be serializing online come January. Sometimes, one person’s vocation can help restore another’s avocation, as in guest Wagger Cindy Catterson’s story about orthopedist Frank Ennis getting skittish knee patient Ken Harris back into triathlon shape; or change the lives of untold others, as in Mary’s poignant story of Wilton High School senior Navod Jayawardhane’s electronic Food Pantry Box at the Jefferson Valley Mall in Yorktown Heights. Elsewhere, we have good old-fashioned hobby-hobbies. Our philatelic Phil, an avid stamp collector as a child, wonders where this pastime has gone in the digital age and finds to his relief that it’s not, ahem, licked yet. Mary weighs in with Elise Goldschlag’s Flying Fingers Yarn Shop in Tarrytown, helping to revive a once popular pursuit that’s trending among men as well as women. (Tennis star Novak Djokovic posted photographs of himself learning the craft during a French Open rain delay.) Speaking of tennis, it’s a favorite avocation of Philippe de Montebello, who’ll receive the Katonah Museum of Art’s Himmel Award

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NOVEMBER 2019

One of WAG’s avocations is supporting nonprofits. Here we are at the Sept. 28 “Dancing With the Angels” Gala at Greenwich Country Club, which benefitted The Fearless Angel Project.

this month. The co-host, with Paula Zahn, of Thirteen-WNET’s NYCARTS and former director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art — which celebrates the big 150 next year (see related story) — also enjoys concerts and a good summer jigsaw puzzle. Where he finds the time, however, with all his other artistic pursuits is anyone’s guess. But that’s the thing about avocations: One alone will never do and, when it does, it’s a grand passion to which you dedicate your life, usually in the hope that it will lead to its next chapter. A 2018 Folio Women in Media Award Winner, Georgette Gouveia is the author of the new “Burying the Dead” and “The Penalty for Holding,” a 2018 Lambda Literary Award finalist (both 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 at thegamesmenplay. com. On Nov. 30, JMS Books publishes her revised and expanded “Daimon: A Novel of Alexander the Great” and, in January, her novel “Seamless Sky.”

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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

THE LATEST ON LEONARDO

Didn’t get to see “Leonardo da Vinci’s St. Jerome” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, commemorating the 500th anniversary of the protean artist’s death? Missed “Leonardo: Genius and Beauty,” exploring his cosmetic discoveries, at the Italian Trade Commission? You’re just in time for Ben Lewis’ “The Last Leonardo: The Secret Lives of the World’s Most Expensive Painting” (Ballantine Books, $28, 363 pages). The work —“Salvador Mundi,” depicting Jesus in Renaissance dress — is the subject of a great deal of controversy, with some experts questioning whether it is a Leonardo. And where, oh, where it has disappeared to after being sold at Christie’s in 2017 for a record $450.3 million? The controversial, elusive “Salvador Mundi” (1500), oil on walnut.

SIP AND SEE TO END HUNGER

Simple Vodka is a product with a purpose — to help end hunger in America. Each bottle produced gives back 20 meals to American hunger relief programs, nationally and locally — one drink equaling one meal. Since launching in 2017, the brand — a gluten-free potato vodka sustainably produced in Idaho — is set to hit the 1 million meals donated mark this year. Simple Vodka is available in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Texas and California as well as online for $26.99. For more, visit simplevodka.com. Photograph by Bob Rozycki.

COCKTAIL ANYONE? The holiday season is often all about home entertaining, so gather around the sleek Erland Round Cocktail Table to toast the festivities. From Brooklyn-based Matthew Fairbank Design, the table’s a study in style at once classic and contemporary. Featuring a modern white marble top over traditional lathe-turned wooden legs in oak or walnut, the design is available in three sizes ($8,780 for the 42”W x 42”D x 16”H option). For more, visit mfdnyc.com. Courtesy Matthew Fairbank Design.

‘BEE’ SMART Be eco-friendly — and chic, to boot — with the Stripey Bee Metal Straws from Joanna Buchanan. The Wilton-based designer’s clever take on trending away from plastic features reusable, food-grade stainless steel straws with zinc, brass and glass bee accents. A portion of the proceeds from all of Buchanan’s bee-themed collection goes to helping those dedicated to educating, advocating and saving the bees. Set of four plus a cleaning brush, packaged in a gift box, is $76. For more, visit joannabuchanan.com. Courtesy Joanna Buchanan. – Georgette Gouveia and Mary Shustack 14

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SECOND ACTS

S BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

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THERE ARE PEOPLE WHOSE JOB/CAREERS AND HOBBIES REMAIN SEPARATE PURSUITS. FOR OTHERS, THEIR VOCATIONS ARE THEIR AVOCATIONS. BUT STILL OTHERS FIND THAT THEIR VOCATIONS HOLD THE KEY TO EXCITING NEW CHAPTERS IN THEIR LIVES. Lots of performers have clothing and perfume lines. Few have devoted themselves to fashion with the single-mindedness of Spice Girl-turned-fashion designer Victoria Beckham. Indeed, such was her identification with fashion that when the Spice Girls staged their reunion tour in 2007 — “I wanted my children to see that Mummy was a pop star,” the former Posh Spice was quoted as saying in news.com.au — Beckham bent it like a model, posing on a runway instead of singing a solo. As with others who successfully transition from one career to another, Beckham started slowly. There were catwalk appearances, brand ambassadorships, guest shots at fashion editing and limited edition collections of jeans, perfumes and eyewear that continue. By the time she launched her eponymous label in 2008, albeit quietly, she had already been working in fashion for eight years. Though it would take a few years, her brand of high-end and affordable dresses, separates and handbags would earn her the respect of a notoriously fastidious industry. The turning point came in 2014, when she guest-edited French Vogue and appeared on an academic panel at the Parsons School of Design in Manhattan. The moment when she stepped on the stage as Posh Spice in 2007 wasn’t a return but a farewell. Among the most famous crossovers was that of Arthur Conan Doyle, the doctor who is best-known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Doyle actually began writing short stories while he was at the University of Edinburgh Medical School (1876-81). It was there that he clerked for Joseph Bell, the surgeon whose powers of observation and deductive reasoning inspired Holmes. But the Baker Street detective was still 10 years in the future. Doyle became a ship’s doctor, practiced privately and flirted with ophthalmology, with mixed results. And at first it appeared that his career as a fiction writer, begun while

Victoria Beckham.

Sherlock Holmes’ “Sitting Room,” the Sherlock Holmes Museum, London.

he was still practicing medicine, would offer no greater rewards. But “A Study in Scarlet” (1886) — his first story featuring Holmes and his sidekick, John Watson, M.D., named for Doyle’s medical colleague James Watson — earned good reviews and, perhaps more important, $3,371 in today’s money. It was the beginning of a wide-ranging literary career that would find Doyle ambivalent toward his greatest creation — whom he even killed off (“The Final Problem”) only to bring him back (“The Hound of the Baskervilles”). And thank goodness he did for Holmes and his circle have spawned innumerable iterations down to the wildly successful PBS “Masterpiece Mystery” series “Sherlock,” with Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role and Martin Freeman as Watson. One of the most telling qualities of those

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who turn an avocation into a vocation is that they have a wide range of interests. Doyle not only embraced different genres but was a keen sportsman. The same could be said for another writer who started out in a different career — John Grisham. Like Doyle, Mississippi lawyer Grisham meandered about his chosen field, before settling on criminal law. Like Doyle, he gave it about 10 years. And like Doyle, he would find the catalyst for success in his second career in the details of his first. He was milling about a courthouse in 1984 when he became intrigued by the case of a 12-year-old girl who had been beaten and raped. Watching the moving trial, Grisham began to imagine what would have happened had the victim’s father murdered her attackers. His musings would become his first novel, “A Time to Kill,” which would provide a breakout role for Matthew McConaughey in the 1996 movie version. But all that was in the future. Grisham’s first success was his second book, “The Firm” (1991), which became a hit Tom Cruise movie and established the pattern of bestsellers and star-studded movie adaptations. What, however, would Grisham — or Holmes, for that matter — make of Michael Scott, who is certainly a “colorful” character? The first CEO of Apple (1977-81), Scott — a physicist by training — would take the

company from founder Steve Jobs’ garage to Wall Street. (He would also be tasked by colleagues to get the eccentric Jobs to bathe more frequently.) Ultimately, Scott would amass a collection of gems to rival that of the House of Windsor, including a 1,730-carat ruby crystal from Myanmar, home of the best rubies, and the world’s biggest tanzanite (242 carats), set in a white gold tiara with 1,000 diamonds. But this is no rich man’s investment tale. Because Scott couldn’t wear any rings in the early days of fragile computer punch cards, he longed for a green garnet when his Apple days were over. When he had the selected ring appraised before making his purchase, he discovered it was a fake. That wasn’t going to happen to him again. But it’s more than that. Color drives him. It’s why he keeps a koi pond at his surprisingly modest ranch-style Silicon Valley home. And it’s why he turned his living room into a stateof-the-art lab to study some 2,600 minerals. “Color brings out all kinds of emotions, just like smells do,” he says in an installment of PBS “Nova’s” “Treasures of the Earth: Gems.” “I enjoy the complexity or understanding how things work. To me, color sets what mood I’m in.” In other words, like Beckham, Doyle and Grisham, he’s a “multifaceted” individual.

THOSE LOOKING FOR NATURAL BEAUTY, HISTORY AND CREATIVITY NEED LOOK NO FURTHER THAN WHATMORE’S LAKE IN WACCABUC. FROM ITS COLONIAL PAST TO ITS IMAGINATIVE PRESENT, WHATMORE’S LAKE HAS BEEN HOME TO ARTISTS, LAWYERS AND DIPLOMATS, OFFERING THEM AESTHETIC AND ATHLETIC REFRESHMENT ALONG WITH A SPIRITUAL BALM. THEY IN TURN HAVE BECOME PASSIONATE STEWARDS OF THE LAND, FORMING THE WHATMORE’S LAKE ASSOCIATION. RECENTLY, MANY OF THE EIGHT FAMILIES THAT MAKE UP THE ASSOCIATION INVITED WAG IN FOR A LOOK AT THE PLACE THEY CALL HOME. SO TURN THE PAGE AND TAKE A JOURNEY OF THE MIND TO LOVELY WHATMORE’S LAKE.

W THE LURE OF THE LAKE BY PHIL HALL

View of Whatmoreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Lake.

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TWENTY YEARS AGO, STEPHEN SHALEN AND HIS WIFE WENDY WERE IN SEARCH OF A NEW RESIDENCE WITHIN WESTCHESTER COUNTY. “WE WERE LOOKING FOR A MORE SECLUDED AND QUIET PLACE,” RECALLS SHALEN, A PARTNER WITH THE NEW YORK LAW FIRM CLEARY GOTTLIEB. The Shalens’ journey took them to Waccabuc, the smallest of the hamlets within the town of Lewisboro and, arguably, the one with the most colorful history. Its name is derived from the indigenous Algonquian language word Wecpauquag, meaning either “at the end of” or “at the far place.” The original white settlers in the area were unable to accommodate the Algonquian name and dubbed the place Long Pond. In 1776, Enoch Mead, a member of the wealthy Colonial Mead family, rode on horseback from Greenwich with his bride through the area and fell in love with the surroundings. The Meads settled a homestead where they raised eight children. Enoch Mead also owned three slaves, who were forced to clear the land and farm. (Slavery was not abolished in New York — which owes much of its development to this forced labor — until 1827.) The Mead family was the most important clan in Waccabuc’s development and growth through the 19th and early 20th centuries. The hamlet’s main thoroughfare Mead Street and the stately Episcopalian Mead Memorial Chapel were named in their honor. By the 1850s, the area was targeted by

NOVEMBER 2019

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The serenity of Whatmore’s Lake.

enterprising hoteliers who promoted its arboreal serenity as a holiday escape from the increasing congestion of New York City. The name Long Pond was considered too quotidian for a holiday destination, and the Algonquian name was refashioned into Waccabuc. The local hotel industry gave way to a more genteel suburban oasis in the early 20th century. In the post-World War II era, Waccabuc was briefly considered for obliteration in the name of global peace. The site selection committee for the newly launched United Nations weighed plans to acquire a large swath of Westchester that included Lewisboro for the organization’s headquarters campus. Fortunately for Waccabuc, the Rockefeller family purchased a slice of First Avenue real estate along the East River and donated it to the United Nations for its Manhattan headquarters. In 1956, Waccabuc was the center of the world’s attention again when Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe married playwright Arthur Miller in a ceremony at the home of Kay Brown, Miller’s literary agent. In the years that followed, Waccabuc attracted many prominent residents in business, politics and entertainment, and the media has focused much of its attention on the surplus quantity of finan-

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cially successful residents. In November 2018, The Wall Street Journal profiled Waccabuc under the headline “A Hamlet Hideaway for Wealthy New Yorkers.” But Shalen’s interest in Waccabuc had less to do with history, celebrity or the bank accounts of his prosperous neighbors and more to do with the serenity of the surroundings. “I like the privacy and beauty,” he says. “Those are the most significant features. I get the feeling as if we are out the country.” When the Shalens moved to Waccabuc in 1999, they found a home on Whatmore’s Lake, a 25-acre body of water. “Whatmore’s Lake is a private lake,” Shalen continues. “There are currently eight homeowners on the lake. Under New York law, each of the homeowners owns a portion of the lake. The lake itself is deeded property.” But how can eight different households take care of a lake? In 1994, resident Alfred DelBello, the former lieutenant governor of New York, and his wife Dee — publisher of Westfair Communications Inc., parent company of WAG magazine — formed the Whatmore’s Lake Association as a nonprofit. The homeowners whose properties surrounded the lake were the sole members of this organization. “The sole purpose is to maintain the integrity of the lake,” Shalen says. “All of the home-

owners treat the lake as you would like a lake to be treated.” The association keeps an eye on lake levels and an outlet pipe at the northern end of the lake can be opened to flush out spillover if levels get too high. But much of the physical upkeep of the lake is outsourced to SOLitude Lake Management, which handles issues related to algae and excessive weeds. “We are probably their smallest client,” Shalen laughs. Shalen served as the association’s president from 2014 until earlier this year. His presidential duties involved soliciting funds from the association’s households to cover the costs of lake maintenance, as well as occasionally cleaning out debris and vines from the manmade dam where the outlet pipe is located. But, for the most part, leading the association did not cannibalize his time. “It is a very informal group,” he says. “It is not a very robust organization.” And, more recently, life on Whatmore’s Lake has become quieter for Shalen. “This is now the weekend home for six of the eight families,” he says about his lakeside neighbors. “In 20 years, there has been a complete turnover. When we moved here, we were the newest residents. Now, we are the oldest residents.”

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ALEXANDER HAMILTON — THE FOUNDING FATHER WHO SHAPED THE AMERICAN ECONOMY AND MADE NEW YORK THE FINANCIAL CAPITAL OF THE COUNTRY — ALSO CO-FOUNDED WITH FIRST CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE U.S. SUPREME COURT JOHN JAY THE NEW-YORK MANUMISSION SOCIETY, THE MAIN ANTI-SLAVERY ORGANIZATION IN NEW YORK. HAMILTON’S WIDOW, THE FORMER ELIZABETH “ELIZA” SCHUYLER, HELPED TO FOUND THE ORPHAN ASYLUM SOCIETY, WHICH SHE SERVED FOR 42 YEARS.

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

So it’s no surprise that “Hamilton” the blockbuster musical — and its producer — should be paying it forward in the spirit of the couple who inspired it — helping underserved students and families at risk. “Community outreach … has been the primary mission of ours since day one,” says Waccabuc’s Jeffrey Seller, producer of the 11-time Tony Award winner — created by Lin-Manuel Miranda, himself a former English teacher. Through the Hamilton Education Program, some 20,000 Title I New York City public high school students have had an opportunity to see the show — for a mere $10 a ticket — thanks to donors like The Rockefeller Foundation. With two touring companies of “Hamilton” and productions in Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and London, the initiative will reach 250,000 students in Title I-eligible schools nationwide through 2020. For these students, the experience is far from a passive one. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in Manhattan, which emphasizes document-based learning, has created an interactive curriculum that allows them to work with primary sources while putting their own spin on history through monologues, dialogues, songs and raps. This reinforces the musical’s revolutionary approach — casting performers from diverse backgrounds, thus fulfilling the nation that Hamilton and the other Founding Fathers anticipated. Just as the students may watch the musical and see a black George Washington or an Asian-American Aaron Burr, Seller says their participation in the program enables them to say, “That’s me. I’m part of American history.”

Jeffrey Seller and Josh Lehrer. Courtesy Josh Lehrer Photography.

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Anthony Lee Medina in “Hamilton” on Broadway. Photograph by Joan Marcus.

Another “Hamilton” initiative involves the descendant of the orphanage Eliza Hamilton helped found, which the musical discusses in its poignant conclusion. In 1806, she, Isabella Graham and Johanna Bethune established what is now Graham Windham. No longer an orphanage but a family services agency, Graham Windham offers in-home family therapy, facilitates foster care and operates an after-school community center as well as The Graham School, a residential education and treatment center and Special Act School for grades K-12 that serves more than 200 atrisk New York City kids each year at its Hastings-on-Hudson campus. “We’ve always had our hats off to Graham Windham,” says Seller, who was pleased to be one of its honorees. The “Hamilton” cast — in particular Phillipa Soo, the original Eliza — has supported the organization through arts education workshops and a pen-pal partnership, raising its profile in the nonprofit world. If the underprivileged are able to see themselves in “Hamilton,” it may be because Seller sees himself in them. All adulthood is a reaction to childhood: You’re either replicating an experience you loved or trying to make up for something you lacked. A 2016 New York Times

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magazine article on Seller described his childhood as difficult, Dickensian even — the adopted middle child of a suburban Detroit family that went from riches to rags, thanks in large part to a motorcycle-loving dad who wound up in an accident that resulted in brain damage. (Perhaps Oscar Wilde was wrong when he wrote in the poem “The Ballad of Redding Gaol,” “For each man kills the thing he loves.” It seems that each man is killed by the thing he loves.) In any event, the family’s reduced circumstances underscored Seller’s desire to create a life in the theater in New York. He is a man who chooses his words carefully, asking us before the interview even begins if we are taping it to make sure the quotes are accurate. “I would say I had a challenging childhood,” he amends. “I am where I am today because of public education and student aid and because of the opportunities that so many teachers and professionals offered me as a kid.” Seller’s charitable work extends beyond “Hamilton.” He and his partner, photographer Josh Lehrer, who are the parents of two teenage children, have contributed to the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive through their Seller Lehrer Family Foundation. In his reforestation efforts, Seller has been inspired in part by their

Waccabuc home overlooking Whatmore’s Lake and adjacent North Salem property. “I’ve always had a dream of waking up on a Saturday morning and walking into my own park and being the steward of the land” — a dream that has now come true. But there is another way that Whatmore’s Lake inspires him. “I do a triathlon once a year — swimming, cycling and running,” he says. “I have a wonderful time jumping in the lake and swimming its perimeter. And then I polish it off by doing Bikram yoga.” As if that weren’t enough, the self-professed “ants in his pants” kind of guy — who produced “Rent” by the late White Plains native Jonathan Larson, Miranda’s “In the Heights” and the current “Derren Brown: Secret,” featuring the eponymous illusionist — is “cooking” four other musicals that he will produce over the next six years. Words like “cooking,” “making” — signifiers of producing something tangible — lace his vocabulary. “I said to my kids, ‘The measure of our lives is not what we consume but what we make.’” Seller, no doubt, will be “cooking” for a long time. For more, visit gilderlehrman.org and graham-windham.org.

THE TRUE MEANING OF LIFE IS TO PLANT TREES UNDER WHOSE SHADE YOU DO NOT EXPECT TO SIT. — FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED, AFTER THE ANCIENT GREEKS

WTH L REGRO NATURA BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

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When it comes to the environment, photographer Josh Lehrer has always been one to think globally, but act locally. He is fond of the quote above — attributable to the great landscape designer of New York’s Central, Riverside and Prospect parks — and thinks it will take an imagination of artistic, Olmsted-ian proportions to address the epic challenge of climate change. Lehrer knows a thing or two about applying the imagination to the landscape. A late-blooming photographer whose brilliant work embraces everything from antique portraits of the casts of “Hamilton” to sensuous male nudes to poignant studies of homeless transgender teens, Lehrer says he has “always been a bit of a nature boy. I’ve always loved the forests and the trees, and I’ve always been cognizant of the symbiotic relationship between nature and ourselves.” But that symbiosis did not really hit home until he and his partner of 25 years — “Hamilton” producer Jeffrey Seller — bought a weekend home in Waccabuc and an adjacent parcel in North Salem for themselves and their two teenage children. The Whatmore’s Lake area has transformed Lehrer’s thinking about nature, photography and his relationship to both. He sees himself as a steward of his property. To that end, he took a crash course in botany and forestry to remove invasive species like Japanese barberry and Japanese wisteria and thus restore the land’s flora as well as fauna, because, he says, when the landscape and its waterways are rehabilitated, the animals who thrived in both return. Already Lehrer has seen a difference. This past spring, he says, “the ferns came rushing back. It’s as if they were lying in wait to be free.” Through the Seller-Lehrer Family Foundation, he also supports the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, a Michigan-based nonprofit that is “the only organization in the world that has learned to clone the DNA of trees that are more than 1,000 years old,” he says.

Lin-Manuel Miranda from the forthcoming book “Hamilton: Portraits From a Revolution.” Courtesy Josh Lehrer Photography.

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“Water Girl,” an example of Josh Lehrer’s commercial work.

But it’s not just financial support. Lehrer has planted 25 redwoods in North Salem to be what he believes is “the largest grove of old growth redwoods on the East Coast. “They’re 3 feet tall. In 40 years, they’ll be 100 feet.” Lehrer is documenting the change on the property through his lens. Photography is never far from his thoughts though it’s a passion and profession he came to later rather than sooner. Growing up in the suburbs of Wellesley, Massachusetts, Lehrer moved to New York in 1985, working for Showtime. Heavily involved in the cable network’s branding campaigns, Lehrer worked closely with still photographers. “I fell in love with what those guys are able to do.” That sent him in midlife to the International Center of Photography and set him on a whole new path, one that would take him back to the future. In 2008, he began an ongoing series of formal portraits of homeless transgender youth, which have since been exhibited around the world under the title “Becoming Visible.” For these, Lehrer uses a 1940 Speed Graflex camera with a Petzval lens that dates from 1849. “It’s super old school,” he says, requiring his subjects to stand still with their eyes open for a while as they’re flooded with light during long exposures. The purpose is to

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“Berlin,” from Josh Lehrer’s “Becoming Visible” series on homeless transgender youth. give his subjects a historical context. It’s the same technique he has used to capture the casts of the Broadway, Chicago, Los Angeles, London and road companies of “Hamilton” for his coffee-table book “Hamilton: Portraits From A Revolution,” which will be published by Rizzoli April 14. Lehrer had photographed Lin-Manuel Miranda’s other Tony Award winner, “In the Heights” (2005), so photographing “Hamilton” was an “easy, easy progression,” although one that required the patience of his subjects, given the demands of his particular approach to photography. Lehrer’s other work finds him shooting celebrities and ad campaigns for other Broadway shows and high rises as well as com-

missions, like the one from a private gym that includes a stunning, leaping male nude discreetly garbed in shadowy, watery effects. He is, however, becoming less interested in commercial photography and more fascinated with the artistic and the environmental. In making a photographic document of the work he’s doing on his Westchester property, Lehrer takes a philosophical attitude to the notion that its fruition will be for others to enjoy. After all, he has his own role to play in the chain of life. “It is the job of the artist to make meaning of our world.” For more, visit joshlehrer.com and ancienttreearchive.org.

SENIOR

FOCUS

______________________________________________________________________________

Contact: Tom Kranz Email: tkranz@cslal.com Phone: 908-889-4200

TALKING TO A LOVED ONE ABOUT ASSISTED LIVING (454 words) There's no playbook on how to broach the often emotional subject of moving a loved one into an assisted living community. But those who have done it successfully seem to agree on a few things that helped their family member transition into their new life. It all begins with communication, early and often.

SIX MYTHS ABOUT AGING AND EXERCISE

IT'S A PROCESS, NOT AN EVENT--The earlier conversations about future living arrangements start, the better. It will seem like a more natural transition if there have been ongoing discussions about what happens if the stairs become too much, or if declining health requires a little help getting dressed or doing other everyday things. A logical approach can work wonders, assuming your loved one isn't suffering from dementia. And if dementia is a factor, extra patience and advice from a doctor or other professional may be called for.

MYTH DOES 1: I’M GOING TO GET OLD ANYWAY WHY BOTHER EXERCISING? WHAT HE/SHE WANT?--Always askingSO their opinion keeps mom or dad engaged in the process. The FACT: Regular physical activity helps you look and feel younger and stay independent longer. It also lowers your risk minute you start dictating the rules, you'll start losing them. Resentment breeds when well-meaning family members for a variety of conditions, including Alzheimer’s and dementia, diabetes, heart disease, certain cancers, high blood make too many decisions for a parent without their input. pressure, and obesity. The positive mood benefits of exercise can be just as great at 70 or 80 as they were at 20 or 30.

VISIT SENIOR LIVING COMMUNITIES WITH YOUR LOVED ONE--Treat it like an outing, not a make-orMYTH 2: EXERCISE PUTS ME AT RISK FOR FALLS. break decision day. Soliciting the opinion of the person who would actually live there is the most important part of FACT: Regular exercise, builds strength and stamina. This prevents loss of bone mass and improves balance, actually the exercise. Asking questions of the tour guide and encouraging your loved one to do the same keeps the dialogue reducing your risk of falling. going. Again, communication is the difference.

MYTH 3:TALK IT’S TOO FRUSTRATING: I’LL NEVER BE THE ATHLETE I ONCE WAS. FRANK ABOUT MONEY--Everyone's financial situation is different and not every senior living solution FACT: Changes in hormones, metabolism, bone density, and muscle mass mean that strength and performance levels works for everybody. Selling the home that they've known most of their lives is an emotional, even frightening inevitably decline with age, but that doesn’t mean you can no longer derive a sense of accomplishment from physical prospect. It is often the only option for affording assisted living. Any discussion of money requires the same activity and improve your health. The key is to set realistic lifestyle goals that are appropriate for your age. empathy and patience as a discussion of health concerns. Instead of consulting a doctor, it might be a good idea to * And remember: a sedentary lifestyle takes a much greater toll on athletic ability than biological aging. consult a financial expert. MYTH 4: I’M TOO OLD TO BEGIN AN EXERCISING ROUTINE. BE PREPARED FOR PUSH-BACK--Many adult children hear a parent say, "I will never leave this house" and Fact: You’re never too old to start moving and improve your health! In fact, adults who become active It later in life often try to shut down the entire conversation. This is not the time to get angry or begin an argument. is the time to take show greater physical and mental improvements than their younger counterparts. If you’ve never exercised before, or to a deep breath, put yourself in mom or dad's shoes and regroup. Don't give up, but try again at a later time. Return if it has been a while, you won’t be encumbered by the same sports injuries that many regular exercisers experience your concerns about their health and safety, perhaps suggest a respite or trial stay for two weeks or more (most in later life. In other words, there assisted living communities offeraren’t this).as many miles on your clock so you’ll quickly start reaping the rewards. Just begin with gentle activities and build up from there.

With empathy, compassion and patience, we can help many of our older loved ones navigate their way to a happy MYTH I CAN’T EXERCISE BECAUSE I’M DISABLED. new life 5: among new friends. FACT: Chair-bound people face special challenges but lifting light weights, stretching, chair aerobics, chair yoga, and chair Tai Chi can increase their range of motion, improve muscle tone and flexibility, and promote cardiovascular health. Many swimming pools offer access to wheelchair users and there are adaptive exercise programs for wheelchair sports such as basketball.

MYTH 6: I HAVE TOO MANY ACHES AND PAINS AND FEEL WEAK. FACT: Getting moving can help you manage pain and improve your strength and self-confidence. Many older people find that regular activity not only helps stem the decline in strength and vitality that comes with age, but actually improves it. The key is to start off gently. For more information, please call 914-275-0010

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WAGMAG.COM

OCTOBER 2019

TH E E T E

RNA

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

THE OLD SAYING THAT TEACHERS LEARN FROM THEIR STUDENTS MIGHT APPLY DOUBLY TO WENDY SHALEN.

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA PHOTOGRAPHS BY BOB ROZYCKI

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DENT

L ST U

In the course of a long career as an art teacher, she has learned a variety of artistic techniques that she could pass along and/or discuss with her charges in studio art and art history classes. So adept was she that at some point the balance tipped and her avocation became her vocation. Today, Shalen is an artist first and foremost, though she still teaches figurative and landscape drawing and painting on Sundays at The Art Students League of New York in Manhattan, where she once studied. While the figure is a Shalen specialty — consider the pensive nobility in her mixed media drawing of a “Roman Marble Statue of a Bearded Hercules,” created at The Metropolitan Museum of Art last year — many of her finest works are landscapes inspired by her Waccabuc home overlooking Whatmore’s Lake. “It’s just spectacular,” she says of the lake in an easy phone conversation punctuated by laughter. “I look outside and I’m always trying to figure out what to paint. …I’m always looking at how to capture the light and colors on the water. …It’s breathtaking.” Over time, her landscapes have moved from crisply representational pastels to more abstract works, including those made of wax paints on wood panels, and pigmented cotton or paper pulp. Recently, she began working with glass panels that are either sandblasted, drawn on, glazed and fired in a glass kiln; or painted with glass powder and fused in the kiln. “I’m getting a whole new education,” Shalen says of her work on glass. Though the landscapes may be impressionistic, the titles, refined draftsmanship and shimmering colors more than hint at Whatmore’s Lake through the seasons. “Fall Reflections” (2016), made of pigmented paper pulp and vinyl, offers the viewer a mirage of the lake’s distant shore, bordered by test batches of the colors used in the work that create almost a stained-glass effect. The same is true of “Lake Reflections II” (2017), with the watercolor swatches and handmade pigmented abaca and cotton pulp on cotton HMP adding a delicacy reminiscent of Chinese scroll painting. Such painting also inspired “Lake Whatmore II” (2006), a round watercolor on white silk. Shalen grew up on Long Island watching her father, an avocational painter who was in the textile business. Her mother would take her to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. In those days, however, her

Wendy Shalenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dog, Jasper, caught in a Zen moment.

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response to art was not to try to replicate it but to tell others about it. “I had this desire to communicate to others things that inspired me,” she says. And though she did photography in high school and at Northwestern University, which she attended for the first two years of college, she didn’t draw or paint seriously until she was 25. By that time, she had spent her junior year in Paris studying art history and French as part of a Hamilton College program and graduated magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, where she wrote theses on Greek vases and Roman frescoes. “I loved the gorgeous thin, brown line of the Achilles painter,” Shalen says of the ancient Greek vase painter famed for his white-ground and red-figure lekythoi, olive oil vessels. (He is so named after an identifying amphora in the Vatican Museums that offers a pensive portrait of Achilles, Greek mythology’s greatest warrior.) That thin, brown line would follow her from Massachusetts (where her future husband Stephen, whom she met when they were both camp counselors, was studying at Harvard University and Harvard Law School) to New York as she taught studio art and art history. One of her signature accomplishments occurred at what is now The Birch Wathen Lenox School on Manhattan’s Upper East Side where she created a humanities course that fused studio art and art

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history. In order to better educate her students, she immersed herself not only in studying art but making it. “I was basically fascinated by learning new techniques,” Shalen says. Ultimately, she studied with painter Daniel Greene and Robert Beverly Hale at The Art Students League, Harvey Dinnerstein at The National Academy and painter Burton Silverman privately. Those studies have led to her work being featured in galleries, museums and private collections, ranging from the Katonah Museum of Art to the Housatonic Museum of Art in Bridgeport, the Silvermine Galleries in New Canaan and the Cavalier Galleries in Greenwich. Shalen is a member of the cooperative Prince Street Gallery in Manhattan, where she will be having another solo show from April 21 through May 16. Painting, however, is not all that takes up her artistic time. Through the Katonah Museums Artists’ Association, she has helped organize the rotating exhibits that grace Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco since 2003. Whether she is curating, creating or teaching art, though, she remains a student herself: “Especially during these times, I am lucky to live in such a peaceful place, to have the time to respond to nature, to always experiment and to share my love of making and enjoying art with others.” For more, visit wendyshalen.com.

Wendy Shalen captures the solitude of Whatmore’s Lake.

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A PARADISE BUILT FOR TWO

BY JEREMY WAYNE

WAGMAG.COM

NOVEMBER 2019

“WE ARE SHAMELESS PROMOTERS,” LEONARD STEINBERG, SELF-STYLED “CHIEF EVANGELIST” — ACTUALLY PRESIDENT — OF COMPASS REAL ESTATE, SAYS WHEN I MEET HIM AND HIS PARTNER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AT FAST RETAILING, THOM CAUGHLIN, IN THEIR NEWLY BUILT WEEKEND HOME ON THE WESTERN TIP OF ARTIST’S PALETTE-SHAPED WHATMORE’S LAKE IN WACCABUC. As newbies they have been welcomed in to the local community, and Steinberg’s enthusiasm for the area is contagious. What he and Caughlin are shamelessly promoting is what they themselves are now enjoying and what they want others to experience is the good life on Whatmore’s Lake. And no, they aren’t remotely worried that city folk will come in droves and compromise the tranquility and — let’s be frank — the exclusivity — of the area. “Well, I am in real estate after all,” Steinberg elaborates, with a glint in his eye. His company is active in the area and he makes no secret of his desire to sell homes and see Waccabuc flourish. “We don’t just sell property,” he further explains, with emphasis on the word “sell.” “When you buy a property, it’s not just a shelter. It’s becoming part of a community.” And he goes on: “The best agents don’t disappear after the closing. You need to know you can always reach out to them.” Relaxed in Venetian gondolier’s T-shirt and cream-colored chinos when I met up with him on a recent sunny, Sunday morning at his home on the lake, Caughlin feeling summery in shorts, the couple are clearly still reveling in their new home, which took only a modest nine months to build. “The New York lifestyle is incredibly stressful — having an escape is medication,” says Steinberg. “Now, consider what you can get here for…” — he throws out a modest figure — “and really, more people should think of moving here. Yes, the taxes are high, but if you use the schools, the cost of land and homes way offset the taxes.” Waccabuc, the couple tells me, has a Cotswoldy quality. There are stone walls, horses. “This is a town where everyone has respect for the land,” says Steinberg, warming to his

Leonard Steinberg and Thom Caughlin. Photograph by Jane Beiles. NOVEMBER 2019

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theme. “North Salem is over the hill. There’s a bagel store in Cross River and an old-fashioned pharmacy which stocks the Weekend (Financial Times), my guilty pleasure,” he confesses. There are seven other houses around the 20-acre lake and all the owners belong to the Whatmore’s Lake Association. Steinberg and Caughlin are also on the Three Lakes Council (Lakes Waccabuc, Oscaleta and Rippowam)

majority of Waccabuc and lakeside residents are from New York City, a sizable number live in the area fulltime. The couple had a house in Saugerties on the Hudson River for 15 years, but driving four hours or more round trip for a two-day weekend began to take its toll. They discovered Waccabuc through a friend in Pound Ridge and decided it was where they wanted to be.

There is a palpable sense of community and Steinberg says the area is so laidback it is not uncommon for people to leave their houses unlocked. “This is the safest ZIP Code in America.” belong to the Westchester Landowners Council. They are also keen to get involved with land preservation. There is a palpable sense of community and Steinberg says the area is so laidback it is not uncommon for people to leave their houses unlocked. “This is the safest ZIP Code in America.” What’s more? Whatmore’s Lake people, Steinberg adds, are into culture. And while the

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Being so close to Manhattan — the drive takes just over an hour, and taking the train to Katonah is an attractive alternative to the car — was perhaps the ultimate draw. “The biggest mistake people make,” observes Steinberg, is not seeing what’s in one’s backyard. “Imagine,” he continues, “having 20 acres you don’t own but are yours to enjoy and which you don’t have to look after. It’s bliss.”

There is no motorized transport on the lake but you can have a rowboat. “Not that we row,” puts in Caughlin wryly, although they do not rule out a spot of lake-based exercise at some future point. The two-story house is a celebration of white, cream and taupe, brimming with light. With its cool, contemporary furnishings and a melange of prints and pictures both old and new — a limited edition Shinola turntable does double duty as a beautiful artifact in its own right while referencing Detroit, where Caughlin grew up — it’s as strikingly modern as it is designed for cozy comfort. A rare combination indeed. Right now, only a garden is missing — “something with a natural look” — they both agree. Nature tamed. “But it doesn’t happen overnight,” says Steinberg wisely. While Caughlin wanted to buy an old cottage, Steinberg preferred to build. He got his way. “Caughlin and I love creating homes,” he says, darting a look at Caughlin, who nods in agreement. Sitting here in their lakeview living room, with its peerless view of the water, the early fall cobalt sky a perfect backdrop, Caughlin doesn’t seem too bothered not to have got his own way. “We have the elevation here. The sunrises are ridiculous,” says Steinberg, and Caughlin can only nod in agreement.

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LAWYERS ARE NOT EXACTLY KNOWN FOR WITTY, PLAYFUL WRITING. SO WHILE SCOURING THE WEBSITE OF KLARIS LAW, A BOUTIQUE MEDIA AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY FIRM, WE WERE UNDERSTANDABLY IMPRESSED WITH THIS STATEMENT REGARDING THE KLARIS LAW DIFFERENCE:

FIGHTING FOR YOUR RIGHTS BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA PHOTOGRAPH BY BOB ROZYCKI

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NOVEMBER 2019

“We treat people with kid gloves, until the gloves have to come off.” It’s pithy, it’s catchy and it absolutely expresses the view of Edward Klaris, who founded the firm in 2014. “It reflects the approach I take with people: Be gentle and kind until it’s time to be tough,” he says. But it also reflects a lawyer who believes, blessedly, that legal documents should be written in plain, even elegant English. That is probably because he has spent his career surrounded by journalists and artists in every medium. “I’ve never been a creative person. But I facilitate the work of creative people,” says the Waccabuc resident, who’s been interested in entertainment law since his father, producer Harvey Klaris, secured the rights to Federico Fellini’s film “8 ½” for the 1982 Broadway musical “Nine.” What Edward Klaris is most passionate about is working with the big portfolios of multinational companies that hire creative people, ensuring that their brands have their trademark, copyright and logo ducks all in a row and are getting the right kind and amount of exposure. As senior vice president, Intellectual Property Assets & Rights at Condé Nast for more than eight years prior to founding Klaris Law, he turned magazines, photographs and stories into digital archives, movies, TV shows, franchises and product lines, creating millions in net profit. “Art and commerce need to go together,” he says. The other big part of Klaris’ career has been spent “kicking the tires,” as he says, of what the media report to make sure it can stand up to legal scrutiny. Perhaps there was never more dramatic tire kicking than during his tenure as general counsel to The New Yorker (2000-06), when Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh broke the story of the CIA abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. “That dealt with national security information,” he says. “So do you print or do you check with the government. How do you handle that?” As with the explosive Abu Ghraib story, much of Klaris’ work with the media has involved a subject that is much discussed and often misunderstood — the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, which states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the

freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” While First Amendment rights have their limits — child pornography, the classic example of yelling “fire” in a crowded movie theater where there is no fire — “as a rule, the First Amendment is weightier than the right to privacy,” says Klaris, who has taught a seminar on media law, commercial speech, privacy and intellectual property at Columbia Law School since 2005. “The First Amendment is the First Amendment. It’s in the Constitution. The United States places a higher value on freedom of speech than on the right to privacy, which is not in the Constitution.” He points to the landmark 1964 U.S. Supreme Court case, The New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, in which the court ruled that freedom of speech restricts the rights of American public officials to sue for defamation. “The Supreme Court said that even if a person’s reputation is tarnished, The Times tried to do the right thing, that you should be able to make mistakes.” This established the so-called “actual malice” standard for defamation of public officials, in which the plaintiff must prove not only that what the defendant said or wrote was wrong but that he presented the false information deliberately. Contrary to what you might think, a conservative court, such as the present one, comes down on the side of free speech more than a liberal one, Klaris says. Conservative justices tend to be strict Constitutionalists “who abide by the original intent.” Whereas liberal justices often weigh free speech against issues of hate speech and privacy. You imagine Klaris having such conversations with wife Robin Pogrebin, a reporter on The Times’ Culture Desk and co-author (with colleague Kate Kelly) of “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh,” which has been lauded and criticized for its account of the newest Supreme Court justice’s alleged sexual misconduct. Klaris describes his marriage as a “symbiotic” relationship, in which they explore issues of the law and journalism informally while respecting professional boundaries. When they need a break from their high-powered careers, they head out of the Big Apple to their home overlooking Whatmore’s Lake, where he likes to row. “The lake is the draw,” Klaris says of the property they bought a year ago, not far from the home of their friends Josh Lehrer and Jeffrey Seller. “We looked out from the deck and were smitten by its shimmering beauty. We love it.” No doubt, the lake offers him a “peaceful map,” which is precisely how he describes a well-written contract. For more, visit klarislaw.com. Edward Klaris at his Waccabuc home overlooking Whatmore’s Lake.

NOVEMBER 2019

WAGMAG.COM

Yale Paprin at home with his collection. 44

WAGMAG.COM

NOVEMBER 2019

PASSION AND PURPOSE

P BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA PHOTOGRAPH BY FATIME MURIQI

YALE PAPRIN, PRESIDENT OF YALE REALTY SERVICES CORP., IS A MAN OF PASSION You can hear it in the authoritative way he expresses his opinions. You may not always agree with them, but you can’t deny either his right to express them or the knowledge and feeling with which he expresses them. The late Cortlandt Manor resident Aaron Copland and his protégé Leonard Bernstein were “by far” the best American composers of the 20th century, he says. The Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase, where he’s “very excited” to be the newest member of the board of trustees, is “one of the greatest hidden gems among the satellite art galleries.” Eric Aho, the abstract landscape painter, “is the single best artist in my mind. He will get his recognition when I’m done,” Paprin says. He’s already made good on that. Not only does he own a number of Ahos — including the springy, splashy “The Beekeepers,” a burst of effervescent greens and yellows dominating a wall opposite his imposing staircase gallery; and the riparian “Spanish Guest” — but he donated the funds for the Neuberger to buy one from the DC Moore Gallery, which represents Aho. “I said to (Neuberger chief curator) Helaine (Posner), ‘Would the Neuberger like to own an Aho?’ She (and director Tracy Fitzpatrick) went to the DC Moore Gallery and picked one out.” The one is “Approach” (2012), an oil on linen that drips with peachy pinks, summer-sky blues and lemony yellows. We’re talking in the living room of Paprin’s home not far from his West Harrison business. Actually, it’s more like we’re verbally serving and volleying, as Paprin counts among his other avocations playing tennis and golf, road cycling, mountain hiking and attending the symphony. Mozart’s Symphony No. 25 in G minor — whose insistent opening drives the beginning of the 1984 film “Amadeus” — wafts through the elegant-yet-comfortable house, which offers a surprisingly traditional yin to the art’s Modernist and contemporary yang. The living room and the dining room — with its stunning red-and-green chinoiserie wallpaper and Portuguese rug — were decorated by style icon Iris Apfel, a friend of the family who did Paprin’s previous home in Chappaqua, where he lived for 34 years. Though Paprin did not study art in school — he majored in political science at Case Western Reserve

NOVEMBER 2019

WAGMAG.COM

Yale Paprin’s collection includes Anthony Toney’s portrait of his wife in his studio (circa 1982).

University in Cleveland after growing up in Great Neck on Long Island — he has a background that ideally suited him to collecting, a mother who was interested in interior design and a father who was in real estate. “You have an inherent interest in art and decorating when you grow up with it,” he says. “If you want your child to be interested in Beethoven, then he has to grow up listening to Beethoven.” Early influences included his father’s oldest friend, former garment manufacturer and now centenarian Charles Zitner, whose tastes for “darker, haunting pieces” influenced Paprin’s interest in the Surrealist Odilon Redon.

Like himself, many of the biggest collectors are in real estate, he adds. Not only do investors and developers have spaces to fill, but they have the money with which to fill them. Among Paprin’s role models was Ian Woodner, the artist- and architect-trained developer who amassed a collection of Old Master drawings and other exhibited works that at the time of his death in 1990, Paprin says, was probably worth more than his real estate holdings. Woodner told him that he didn’t need a background in art: “You have an eye. Keep buying. Buy till it hurts.” Paprin, who started collecting posters while still in school, seems to have heeded that advice. The house is graced by art in virtually every room, mostly paintings and works on paper from the 19th through 21st centuries but also a few sculptures like a graceful female Regency head; Jacques Lipchitz’s “Tête,” another, modern head; and Chaim Gross’ small, sensuous “Woman Lying on Her Side in Sleep.” There are also drawings by Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso; Maurice Denis’ fin de siècle “La Visitation,” about Elizabeth and the Virgin Mary; an empty space awaiting a Faith Ringgold, outsider art by William Hawkins upstairs; and a blowup of Joel Meyerowitz’s “Dairyland, Provincetown” in the kitchen from his seminal, autographed 1976 book of photographs “Cape Light.”

The place is an art lover’s treasure hunt, but what really makes it so is Paprin’s gift for storytelling. Take the work that hangs over the fireplace — Jacob Lawrence’s “The Swearing In,” its colorful block figures echoing many of Paprin’s favorite artists, including Milton Avery, whose paintings were a centerpiece of the Roy R. Neuberger collection that is the foundation of the Neuberger Museum. The Lawrence work, he says, was commissioned by President Jimmy Carter’s Inauguration Committee, which sold posters and T-shirts of the work — showing the American everyman and everywoman focused on the event amid the skeletal landscape of Washington D.C. in January — to pay for the inauguration. Yet there above the fireplace is the original. Though Paprin says everyone has his price limit and has sold three works of what he calls inferior quality to buy the Ringgold, he doesn’t collect art as an investment. He points to Picasso’s linocut of a face called “Yo Picasso” that sits on a shelf in his study. For the $500 he paid for it in 1983, he says, he would’ve been better off investing the money in the S & P. But that’s not the point for Paprin. It comes back to passion. “You can’t be taught that,” he says. “You either have it or you don’t.” And Paprin has it.

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FIRST, THERE IS THE VOICE. A SPEAKING VOICE THAT SOUNDS LIKE THE AURAL EQUIVALENT OF COGNAC IN FIRELIGHT – BURNISHED WITH A GALLIC FLAVOR. Told that Merriam-Webster probably has an image of him next to its entry for “mellifluous,” Philippe de Montebello gives a throaty laugh, perhaps that cognac being poured. For 31 years, that voice was part of the preeminent presence at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, so much so that we reporters could be forgiven for getting lost in it as we listened in at The Met’s coveted press luncheons or on the audio guides. But it wasn’t just the voice. It was the elegant appearance in double-breasted suits, the debonair manner and, above all else, the erudition and leadership that de Montebello brought to his tenure as the museum’s director (1977-2008). That sparkling leadership has earned the director emeritus a host of honors. His native France made him an Officier de la Légion d’Honneur, while Harvard University, his undergraduate alma mater, awarded him an honorary degree. To these and many others he will add The Himmel Award, which the Katonah Museum of Art will present to him Nov. 10 at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center. “I’m very pleased,” says de Montebello, noting his friendship with Katonah trustee emerita Rochelle C. Rosenberg and The Met’s loans to the KMA in the past. At the award ceremony, de Montebello will give a talk on the changing world of museums, a 15-minute audiovisual presentation about such powerhouse institutions as The British Museum in London, the Louvre in Paris and The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. This will be followed by a conversation with Michael Gitlitz, KMA executive director. “It will be very informal, and then we’ll open it up to questions,” de Montebello says. No doubt they will include one on the shift from the classical to the contemporary in everything from exhibitions to art education to the art market. “It’s very true,” de Montebello says. “Just about every major museum — including the Louvre, The Met and the Hermitage — is showing contemporary art side by side with older art.” De Montebello does not want to give away what he will say about this the evening of The Himmel Award, named for KMA trustee emerita Betty Himmel. But as a curator and museum director, he was well known — and criticized in some circles — as a champion of more traditional art. Knowing of our love of classical culture, de Montebello says we’ll be “reassured” by his comments. And when we add sheepishly that we’re a bit of an old fogey, he says with a gallant laugh, “I’m a much older fogey.”

Philippe de Montebello, director emeritus of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, is this year’s recipient of the Katonah Museum of Art’s Himmel Award. Photograph by John F. Avedon. 49 NOVEMBER 2019 WAGMAG.COM

Such self-deprecation notwithstanding, de Montebello never lost sight of The Met as a democratic institution with a small “d.” Despite his patrician background, or maybe because of it, he always said he loved nothing better than walking through The Met’s Great Hall and seeing it thronged with people from every walk of life. (In 2017, The Met welcomed 6.7 million visitors.) And he gave them plenty to ooh and ah about, from the lucent limestone Greek and Roman galleries that lead you to a spacious chessboard-like court where the old cafeteria and reflecting pool used to be, to such stunning acquisitions as Vincent van Gogh’s “Wheatfield With Cypresses,” to fabulous collections like the Muriel Kalix Steinberg Newman Collection of Abstract Expressionist art and other Modern works. De Montebello transformed The Met’s physical plant, holdings and presentations — doubling its size to 2 million square feet and offering 30 special exhibits a year involving all 17 of the museum’s curatorial departments, each of which is like a museum in itself. When he announced his retirement on Jan. 8, 2008, it was the beginning of the end of an era, for de Montebello wasn’t merely one of the world’s longest-serving museum directors and the face (and voice) of The Met. He was the epitome of what an American museum director could be. Retirement was, however, a choice he never regretted. “I came to the decision slowly and for many reasons,” he says. These days he is on various visiting com-

mittees at the museum and has a good relationship with Max Hollein, who succeeded to the post of director after the rocky tenure of Thomas Campbell. In any event, de Montebello is too busy for either retirement or regrets. He and his urbane presence have made a fluid transition to co-host with Paula Zahn Thirteen-WNET’s “NYC-ARTS,” an Emmy Award-winning weekly cultural program. “I’m essentially a talking head,” he says modestly, though one who gets out in the field and does interviews with such movers and shakers as Glenn D. Lowry, the David Rockefeller director of The Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan. De Montebello is the first Fiske Kimball professor in the History and Culture of Museums at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts, from which he received his master’s degree. There his duties include “a bread and butter” lecture course for beginning M.A. candidates on the history of collections. But one of the roles closest to his heart is chairman of the board of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library, a little-known jewel of an institution in northern Manhattan devoted to the cultures of Spain and Portugal as well as of their former colonies in Latin America, the Philippines and Portuguese India. It includes several Velázquezes, El Grecos and Goyas. Born in Paris to an artistic, aristocratic French family whose ancestors include a decorated Napoleonic general and the notorious Marquis de Sade, De Montebello comes by his love of the arts naturally. When his family im-

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migrated to the United States in the 1950s, he became a naturalized citizen, graduating from the Lycée Français de New York. “By my late teens, I knew I’d do something related to art.” That something would find its focus at The Met, where he began as a curatorial assistant in 1963 in the Department of European Paintings, rising to full curator. Except for a brief tenure as director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (1969-74), he has spent his museum career at The Met. A life in the arts — one he has shared with wife Edith, director of financial aid at Trinity School in Manhattan, and three now grown children — would seem to be a marriage of vocation and avocation, but de Montebello still has some pastimes. They include going to concerts “when I can” and playing and watching singles tennis. He’s also known to take up (or apart) the occasional jigsaw puzzle “but only in the summer.” The rest of the year, he’s clearly got other things to do. The Himmel Award and Lecture will be offered from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Nov. 10 at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center, 480 Bedford Road. Tickets are $75; $50 for Katonah Museum of Art members; and $15 for students. Reservations are recommended. There will be a limited number of tickets at the door. Tickets to the event and 7 p.m. post-lecture dinner at neighboring Crabtree’s Kittle House are $350 and must be booked in advance. For more, visit katonahmuseum.org.

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MR. ENTERTAINMENT

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

M 52

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“I NEVER KNEW THAT WHAT I DO — PRODUCING PARTIES — WAS ACTUALLY A WAY TO MAKE A LIVING, MUCH LESS A WAY TO MAKE A LIFE,” BRONSON VAN WYCK WRITES IN THE PREFACE TO HIS WITTY, RAVISHING NEW ENTERTAINMENT MEMOIR “BORN TO PARTY, FORCED TO WORK: 21ST CENTURY HOSPITALITY” (PHAIDON).

Therein lies the frisson between an avocation and a vocation, between what we love to do and what we have to do. It is a frisson that has juiced Van Wyck’s entire life. Born to a sophisticated, independent-minded family with Greenwich ties in rural Arkansas, Van Wyck attended tony Groton School in Massachusetts and Yale University in New Haven before going on to work for Pamela Harriman — considered one of the most significant hostesses of the 20th century — while she was the American ambassador to France and then as a script reader (and Oscar party crasher) in Hollywood. “I got here after an extended process of elimination during which I learned I had no other marketable skills,” he writes. But actually, everything he had done was a kind of preparation for the day in 1999 when friend Marina Rust — “a writer and great society beauty” — called at 6 a.m. in crisis mode. She had just fired everyone associated with planning her Maine wedding. Would Van Wyck take up the challenge? And, oh, the wedding’s in a little less than a month. Van Wyck grabbed his mother, Mary Lynn, who grabbed a truck filled with everything from chandeliers to a stag’s head. His sister Mimi and best friend Celerie Kemble came to help them pull it off. Among the attendees was Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, who featured the wedding in her magazine, and the mother-son business of Van Wyck & Van Wyck was born. “In practical terms, our team at Van Wyck & Van Wyck organizes all kinds of events, from intimate weddings to multiday celebrations, all over the world,” he writes. “Our sister company, Workshop, focuses entirely on experiential events that serve as dynamic platforms for communication, persuasion and content creation.” Graciousness is a big part of Van Wyck’s hospitality tips for readers, and gracious he was in answering our questions prior to his appearance as honorary design chair for the openingnight reception of the Greenwich Historical Society’s Winter Antiques Show Dec. 6:

Bronson Van Wyck’s designs for Grace Catherine Cary’s debutante party. From his new “Born to Party, Forced to Work: 21st Century Hospitality” (Phaidon). Photograph by Stephen Karlisch. Inset: Bronson Van Wyck. Photograph by Hannah Thomson. 53 NOVEMBER 2019 WAGMAG.COM

Thank you, Bronson, for taking the time for the interview and congratulations on the fabulous book — a party in itself. November is WAG’s “avocations” issue, and you have a career that is for others an avocation — entertaining. What part of your job remains a job and what part of it is play? “My job (which I didn’t even realize was a job when I was growing up) is the definition of work hard, play hard. That inherent duality is why I named my new book ‘Born to Party, Forced to Work: 21stCentury Hospitality.’ There’s a lot of behind the scenes — blood, sweat and tears — that goes into making sure entertaining goes off without a hitch. There’s obviously the preparation, but I don’t really relax until the last guest has been dragged off the dance floor. That being said, so much of what we do is fun. During the design process we get to eat, drink and be merry. We test out the ingredients that make up the recipe for a perfect night and, when the party finally kicks off, we’re there to witness the joy our work brings to others in real time — what could be better than that?” Do you have any personal avocations or is your career all-consuming? (The book is so witty, we’re wondering if you’ve thought about writing more.) “I’m lucky to have fallen into a career that I love so my work can be all consuming. Photography and travel are two big hobbies of mine that feed into one another and happily can be done on the job. I read all the time. Right now, I’ve got three books open: Andrew Sean Greer’s novel ‘Less,’ a collection of essays by great historians about the Hanoverian Succession and Wendy Goodman’s book on Tony Duquette. As for writing, as much as I love it, this book was such a long in-the-works passion project that — like any proud parent — I need some time to recover before thinking about the possibility of round two. “ You are honorary design chair of the opening night reception for the Greenwich Historical Society’s Winter Antiques Show. Your father was a ranked tennis player from Greenwich and you’re a Yalie. Tell us a little more about a Southerner’s New England ties. “My dad grew up in the Northeast and my mom grew up in the South so my childhood was a combination of both of those worlds. My younger years were spent on our family’s farm in Arkansas. We were miles away from my nearest neighbors (who happened to be my grandparents). I went to Massachu-

WAGMAG.COM

NOVEMBER 2019

setts for school and Connecticut for college. Despite the divide of the Mason-Dixon line, I believe there are a lot of similarities between New England and the South since both tend to celebrate local history. I think when you combine trends with tradition you create something timeless so both the Yankee and the Southerner in me loves weaving our clients’ family heirlooms and heritage into all aspects of our work.” Your family’s story reads like a cross between the marvelously single-minded artists in George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s “You Can’t Take It With You” and Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ” (which you allude to). What affect does your family continue to have on your work? “My family is the foundation of everything that I do since the pillars of Southern hospitality run through my blood and everything we produce. They also have a very direct effect on my day to day since my mom and I founded Van Wyck & Van Wyck 20 years ago while my sister Mimi is a partner in the business and heads up our Charleston office. Mom is an endless fountain of ideas who always inspires me with her ingenuity, while Mimi’s ability to juggle thousands of projects at once without ever dropping the ball never ceases to amaze.” You do not charge for the charitable events you stage. What is the difference in staging a nonprofit event and one for, say, a corporation or celebrity? “There’s really no difference since the same standard of excellence runs through the production process for all three. On a personal level, I think that the team puts a little more of their heart and soul into nonprofit events since we’re thrilled that our work can help raise funds and awareness for causes we’re passionate about.” Among the great things about your book are the cultural, historical references — Cleopatra, Queen Victoria. Are we losing sight of historical context in our culture? “I’m a history nerd so it was very important to me to show that party planning is something that has been an important part of human culture for centuries. The great thing about the internet is that everybody has the ability to become an expert in any subject that interests them, which I think has probably led to a greater cultural understanding of historical context. Take something like Madonna’s new album ‘Madame X.’ If someone loves the cover art and wants to know what inspired it they can learn

from a simple Google search that its an homage to (painter) Frida Kahlo which would then most likely snowball into a Wikipedia deep dive into Frida, (her husband, muralist) Diego Rivera and their whole world.” Many of the hosts you discuss are women, including Pamela Harriman, whom you worked for when she was President Bill Clinton’s ambassador to France. Is hosting still a woman’s province? “The desire to have fun is universal — not masculine or feminine — so in no way do I think hosting is a woman’s province. Like anything else, you need a variety of voices and perspectives to keep things interesting. I happened to personally learn the tricks of the trade from women and had two of the best teachers in the world in the form of my mom and Mrs. Harriman. However, when I think about epic parties, two of my biggest hosting heroes are men. Ian Schrager and Baron de Redé threw some of the best parties of all time that continue to inspire and inform my work to this day.” Like us, you are a Greek geek. Tell us more about the ancient Greek influence on your work and the great mythologically themed party you threw on Mykonos. “The ancient Greeks basically invented the concept of hospitality with the principle of xenia, which is the idea that a host should behave graciously and generously to those who have traveled far from home as a mark of respect and friendship. I’ve wanted to have a myths and legends party since I was 10 years old, so after years of trying and failing to get a client to embrace that theme for one of their own events, I decided I better just do it myself. The ancient Greeks play a leading role in the first chapter of my book, so it was fun to have my research inform the inspiration for the design. Asking my guests to dress up as Greek gods, goddesses, and monsters — the superheroes of my childhood — was a no-brainer. Costumes give people permission to misbehave.” Bonus question: You are hosting the party to end all parties. Who’s on your guest list? “My best friends. Nothing beats celebrating with those you love.” The Greenwich Historical Society’s animal-themed Antiquarius begins with a reception 6 to 9 p.m. Dec. 6. The Winter Antiques Show continues 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Dec. 7 and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 8 at the Eastern Greenwich Civic Center, 90 Harding Road. For more, visit greenwichhistory.org/antiquarius.

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WHETHER YOU CALL IT “FAMILY MUSIC” OR “KINDIE ROCK,” THERE’S ONE NAME THAT STANDS OUT AMONG THE REST, AND THAT’S LAURIE BERKNER. AS THE LEADER OF THE LAURIE BERKNER BAND, SHE HAS REDEFINED AND REFINED THE GENRE, RELEASING HER FIRST FULL-LENGTH ALBUM FOR CHILDREN (AND THEIR PARENTS) IN 1997.

Laurie Berkner, the queen of “kindie rock,” plays the Tarrytown Music Hall Dec. 7. Photograph by Jayne Thornton.

Now, with 13 albums under her belt, including 2019’s “Waiting For the Elevator,” 2017’s “Dance Remixes” and 2012’s “A Laurie Berkner Christmas,” the diva for the diaper set and beyond is showing no sign of slowing down. The best part is that Berkner’s songs are clever and catchy enough to be enjoyed by listeners of all ages, and a long way from the mind-numbing blather of Barney the Dinosaur. She talked to WAG ahead of her upcoming Westchester County appearance:

line of a chorus or a tag for a verse and then play around with my guitar or the piano or just singing to myself, to find the melody and the chords that I want to go with the melody. I think a lot about what it might be like to sing the song if I were 3, 4 or 5 years old. Once I have a rough demo of what the song sounds like, I send it to my band to listen to. Then they come up with the parts for each of their instruments before we go into the studio to record.”

Laurie, “The Laurie Berkner Band Holiday Celebration” is scheduled to take place on Dec. 7 at the Tarrytown Music Hall. In addition to holiday music, will you be performing songs from your new album “Waiting for the Elevator”? “Absolutely. I can’t wait to share some of these brand-new songs in concert.”

Were the first songs you wrote songs in the family music genre? “No. I had a band called Red Onion for a while in my 20s, and I wrote original songs for that band. Prior to that, I used to perform original songs on my own at cafés in the East Village in Manhattan and at coffeehouses in college. I started writing songs for kids while I was a music teacher. I figured since I was writing music for adults, I could try doing it for the kids I was working with as well.”

What’s involved in your songwriting process when creating a family music song? “I often start with an idea of a theme, or a

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Who are some of your family music influences? “I think I have been most influenced by listening to musical theater and a few of the singers I listened to when I was young, like Hap Palmer, Pete Seeger and Peter, Paul and Mary. They had a record I listened to a lot called ‘Peter, Paul and Mommy.’” Being at the forefront of the family music scene, how do you feel about how the genre has evolved? “I feel proud of all the good music that is out there for kids now. It didn’t really seem to be that way when I started out. I heard a lot of complaints that the music being written for kids was unpalatable for adults. That was part of what motivated me to start writing music for kids myself. I didn’t want to have to sing a lot of what was out there over and over as a music teacher for preschoolers. Now I sometimes wonder if it has actually swung a little too far in the other direction — that some of the music being recorded today is actually more appealing to the parents than it is to the kids. It’s a difficult balance to strike, but having said that, I do think there are a lot of artists out there doing it pretty successfully.” When did you first pick up a guitar? “I was in my senior year of high school. I can’t remember if I was 16 or 17. I had a steady babysitting gig for two girls, one of whom was taking guitar lessons. I would fool around on her guitar after she went to bed and I started to get hooked.”

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Are you self-taught or did you take lessons? “That first year that I started playing, I took a nightschool class at my high school and strummed along to folk songs with a roomful of adults. In my 20s, I took private lessons for a few years from singer/songwriter Frank Christian. He played on Suzanne Vega’s first album and was a staple in the West Village folk music scene in the ’80s and ’90s. Beyond that, I’m mostly selftaught. But I had taken many years of piano, clarinet and violin lessons prior to picking up the guitar, as well as some music theory classes in school, so I had a decent foundation to start from.” When I first heard your “Dance Remixes” album it made me wonder if there was a Laurie Berkner album for adults in the works and, if there were one, what would it sound like? “I think I would really love to make one someday. There is not one in the works at the moment, but I do write a lot of ideas down for adult songs. I have always imagined that when and if I’m inspired to finally record an album for adults, I won’t even really plan it, I’ll just find myself doing it. At this point though, I don’t always take the time to complete the lyrical ideas I have by adding music. And as far as what it would sound like, I’m not sure exactly. But while I loved making the ‘Dance Remixes,’ I can pretty safely say it won’t be an EDM album. (laughs)” “The Laurie Berkner Band Holiday Celebration” will be presented Dec. 7 at the Tarrytown Music Hall. For more, visit tarrytownmusichall.org.

Norwalk, CT

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REAL ESTATE STYLES OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS

When the late Jane Dove profiled her for WAG in 2017, she wrote about Sally’s first job, in a dental office in New Rochelle, and her marriage to Joseph Siano, one of 11 siblings. It was a marriage that was to last 60 years. It was Joseph’s job in construction that led to the couple buying their first home in Yorktown Heights. The owner of the development, called The Crossroads, took a liking to Sally and offered her a break, selling units with a commission of $800 per house. “I sold out the entire 250-unit subdivision and that was the beginning of my real estate career,” Sally explained to Jane. Hard work, an eye for detail and uncompromising integrity in a field where honesty is not always seen as the best policy have singled Sally out from the herd. Now she has written a memoir about her storied career. Waggishly titled “It’s A Great Life!,” the book is a romp through Sally’s six decades in Westchester real estate, filled with personal reflection, celebrity anecdotes and sage advice — a how-to-buy-real-estate manual, if you will, posing as a professional autobiography. With a down-to-earth, crisp and refreshing

voice, this is not so much a “Lives of the Rich and Famous,” as a forensic analysis of what makes the rich and famous tick. There’s Marla Maples doing a cartwheel on the lawn of a house she really likes, before (not yet President) Donald J. Trump nixes the whole business, when Sally drives him up on a subsequent viewing. “This is not for us. This is junk,” Trump says at the first house Sally shows him, before settling on the Seven Springs estate, adjacent to Byram Lake, with its 30,000-square-foot main house, which Sally sells him instead (although she is never able to collect her commission.) We have Ricky and Ralph Lauren buying a two-story garage for $10 million — Ralph “kicking and screaming” at the price but eventually seeing the sense of it — to house his collection of 150 vintage cars. And Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley crossing Long Island Sound by boat (Billy, Sally tells us, was boat-mad) to view houses by the water in Greenwich, although to no avail. (He eventually bought on Long Island and she retreated to the Hamptons.) There are fun and games, too, with the Oscar-winning Michael Douglases (she being Catherine Ze-

BY JEREMY WAYNE

THEY DON’T MAKE REALTORS LIKE SALLY SIANO ANYMORE. FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS IN NEW ROCHELLE IN THE 1930S, SIANO HAS MADE IT TO THE TOP OF HER PROFESSION WITH VITALITY, VISION AND INTUITION, A LOT OF NOUS AND A LITTLE BIT OF CHUTZPAH. (OK, MAYBE MORE THAN A LITTLE BIT OF CHUTZPAH.)

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Sally Siano. Courtesy Sally Siano.

ta-Jones) and a touching, romantic interlude between hoteliers Leona and Harry Helmsley — all in a day’s work for the industrious, well-connected Sally. In telling her own story, she has also chronicled a fascinating age, from the 1960s to the’90s, in the history of Westchester. But the book is not just a recent history of real estate in the county. “How Green Was My Hudson Valley” is also a love story — a paean to Bedford. “There are families here that have been here for 10 or 12 or even 14 generations and have never moved. I often say they are like the Indians: They never leave the reservation. Oh, they come and go — and they go all around the world. They travel for pleasure and business, sometimes both at the same time. But they always come back to Bedford.” Mount Kisco and Greenwich may have their stories too, but Bedford is clearly her true love. Here she is again: “They came back to their little house or their big house, and they always found it just as they had left it. They were back in Bedford. They had come home. It’s a wonderful place to live. It’s a wonderful place to raise your children. It has a wonderful school district and wonderful churches. It has a grand hospital system and

lots of doctors. It’s Bedford — a surprising little town that still surprises and delights, no matter how long you’ve been here.” There are other towns on her radar, certainly, but the sense of Bedford’s superiority always comes through. She hopes former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a “cute little thing” whom she could not help in Bedford, is happy in her old Colonial in Chappaqua. “Bedford,” she writes, “is no Scarsdale, no Larchmont. There are no show-off houses and no show-off people. In Bedford there are just people who want to live beautifully, quietly, elegantly.” Ouch. It is true Sally can be a bit salty at times, but who, after all, does not promote his patch? One of Sally’s gifts as a memoirist is the ability to tell a good, even juicy, story without fundamentally breaching the privacy of her clients. Discretion is paramount, of course, in the real estate business, and Sally somehow manages to stay on the right side of it. Anecdotes are keenly related but real secrets are never shared. And there are lessons here for all prospective house buyers. You need a broker who is, above all, honest. You also need attention to detail, thorough knowledge, a lack of pressure and an agent who “gets” you and what you’re

about. You need to get the agent, too, of course — a two-way relationship, not unlike the one you might have with your therapist or indeed your hairdresser. Lovely, charming, but real — these are words which Sally returns to time and again. She sells “houses for people to live in and raise their families, not sterile museum showplaces.” Sally’s memoir shows her appreciation for charmed life in real estate and of the absurd. Astute, practical, never self-pitying — even when the going gets really tough — Sally is an object lesson in attention to detail and how to get the job done. “Sheer plod makes plow-down sillion shine,” wrote the Victorian poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, in his poem “The Windhover.” He was talking about how basic human effort, the repetition of a mundane act, attention to detail and perseverance will lead to dazzling results. That, surely, is the kind of razzle-dazzle sparkle Sally Siano has found in her brilliant career.

“It’s A Great Life!” by Sally Siano will be serialized on westfaironline.com, beginning January 2020.

NOVEMBER 2019

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art, seen here at night, will celebrate its 150th anniversary next year with a feast of programming and exhibits. Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

THE MET AT 150 BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART’S 75TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION IN 1945, DIRECTOR MAX HOLLEIN SAID, MET OFFICIALS GAVE A PRIZED ROMAN SARCOPHAGUS PRIDE OF PLACE WITH A SIGN FOR DONATIONS. While curators of the Greek and Roman galleries won’t be letting him do that for The Met’s 150th anniversary next year, Hollein joked, there will be plenty of special exhibits, events, installations and acquisitions to mark the occasion. Hollein and his team announced the year of celebration at a press breakfast last month set against the dramatic backdrop of The Temple of Dendur (Roman Egypt, completed by 10 B.C.), which he called “the most glamorous breakfast place New York has to offer.” While the official celebration is April 13, you’ll want to reserve June 4 through 6 as well. That’s when The Met will hold a dance party, a symposium and an outdoor art event respectively, with the last drawing on neighboring Central Park. But the 150th anniversary will take place over the course of 2020, engaging the 17 curatorial departments, each of which is like a

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museum unto itself. They will all be part of the centerpiece exhibit, “Making The Met, 18702020” (March 30-Aug. 2). A show in 10 episodes and 250 artworks, it will take viewers from the museum’s pre-Fifth Avenue beginnings through its “complicated history with Modernism” — as deputy director for collections and administration, and show curator, Andrea Bayer put it — in the early 20th century to the Monuments Men and Women who saved Nazi-looted art in World War II, the creation of the current footprint in the 1960s and on to today. Said Bayer: “The history of The Met is not just about the museum’s history, but about our place in the history of New York and our country.” It’s no secret that The Met had its challenges — financial and internal — under the leadership of Thomas P. Campbell (2009-17), who in effect traded jobs with Hollein and is CEO and director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. The Met is now in “an extraordinarily strong place,” President and CEO Daniel H. Weiss said, with a balanced budget projected for 2020, planned renovations and expansions, a collections initiative and cross-cultural installations. Among the highlights are: The New Galleries for British Decorative Arts and Design (opening March 2), reinterpreted to explore the role that slavery played as the backbone of empire; “Crossroads” (launching

March 4), three new cross-cultural interpretations of the permanent collection on the subjects of “Power and Piety,” in the Medieval Sculpture Hall; “Empires and Emporia,” in the Asian Art Galleries Astor Forecourt; and “Mythical Beasts,” at the intersection of Greek and Roman Art, Ancient Near Eastern Art and Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Later South Asia; four exhibits of large gifts of fashion, American art, photography and works on paper from individual donors; seven exhibits on the Sahara, painter Gerhard Richter, the Tudor courts, Indian Buddhist art, Cubism, Jacob Lawrence and Edward C. Moore at Tiffany & Co.; and new acquisitions ranging from a Tibetan war mask to Ludovico Carracci’s “The Denial of Saint Peter” (circa 1616) to Pablo Picasso’s “Seated Female Nude (Femme nue assise),” the last from Leonard A. Lauder. There’s something for each of The Met’s more than 7 million annual visitors. “But what I’m more interested in is the quality of the experience people have while they’re here,” Weiss said. “The world around us is riven in many ways.” While allowing for civic discourse on these divisions, he said, The Met remains “a safe, reflective place, one of the few that welcomes everybody.” For more, visit metmuseum.org.

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STAMP C O L L

S E

CTIN G IS

BY PHIL HALL

ICKED YET NOTL

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NOVEMBER 2019

THE FIRST ADHESIVE POSTAGE STAMP WAS BRITAIN’S PENNY BLACK, ISSUED IN 1840 AND FEATURING A PROFILE PORTRAIT OF QUEEN VICTORIA. A few years later across the Atlantic, several American cities began issuing their own postage stamps before a national stamp program began in 1847 with a 5-cent stamp featuring Benjamin Franklin and a 10-cent issue with George Washington. Almost as soon as stamps began to be issued, they became popular collectibles. An informal hobby quickly expanded into an organized endeavor, with magazines and journals published on the topic. In 1869, the Philatelic Society in London became the world’s first organization devoted to this pursuit. Over the years, stamp collecting became a popular hobby that attracted such prominent figures as President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Britain’s King George V. The latter’s holdings were passed down to his granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II, who reportedly expanded it into a collection spanning 300 albums and 200 boxes. Monaco’s Prince Rainier recognized the profit value of stamp collecting and was personally involved in the design of his principality’s stamp issuances, which he turned into a healthy revenue stream. But into the 21st century, stamp collecting has found itself facing an existential threat from the internet. As email, messaging and selfies have become part of the daily routine, reliance on stamps to finance the deliveries for letters, travel postcards and bill payments has declined. The U.S. Postal Service reported that its volume for first-class mail in 2018 was 56.7 billion pieces, down from 65.8 billion in 2013. With fewer people using the postal service, fewer stamps are being purchased and, you might assume, interest in new stamp issues is declining. Thus, the question is raised: Is there a place for stamp collecting in this digital era, particularly among younger folks who rarely (if ever) put stamps on envelopes? “Yes, but it is evolving,” says Scott English, executive director of the American Philatelic Society in Bellefonte Pennsylvania. “Access to information and materials is easier than it has ever been.” English notes that his organization is working actively to build the next generation of stamp enthusiasts through programs that include the Young Philatelic Leadership Fellowship for collectors ages 16 to 24, the

The 2019 U.S. Postal Service commemorative stamps include philatelic tributes to artist Ellsworth Kelly, singer Marvin Gaye, the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, pictured here, and the 150th anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad. Photographs ÂŠ U.S. Postal Service and reprinted with permission. NOVEMBER 2019

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Young Stamp Collectors of America for ages 6 to 17 and the Stamps Teach endeavor which encourages K through 12 educators to use philatelic items in their classroom lessons on American history. “There are still young people involved in stamp collecting, but fewer than there used to be,” says Jay Bigalke, editor-in-chief of Linn’s Stamp News, who notes that his weekly publication and daily news site are still “holding strong” among devoted hobbyists. “There is a dedicated core audience that always sticks with you, although there is always room for growth.” And there is no evidence that nations are cutting back on their stamp issuances. “There are 10,000 to 12,000 stamps issued every year,” observes Mike Frechette, president of the New Haven Philatelic Society. “Since 1940, there have been over one million stamps issued by countries around the world.” Frechette adds that while collectors in previous generations would routinely obtain their stamps through dealers with retail stores and from the mail in the letter box, today’s collectors have to rely on stamp expos or online sites, including eBay, to obtain items. A big problem in building interest, Frechette laments, is not the lack of collectibles but the challenge to keep enthusiasm high.

“Collecting is not for everyone,” he says. “It’s hard to convince people to collect when they’ve said they’ve outgrown it.” For the U.S. Postal Service, new commemorative issues are fashioned to appeal to a modern audience that would be interested in collecting stamps that are colorful and enchanting. “Part of our mission is to represent the best of our country,” explains Bill Gicker, the Postal Service manager of stamp development. “We try to stay slightly more contemporary and relevant. We are honoring our past but also including subject matter that is more timely and current without being trivial.” In recent years, the U.S. stamps have put a greater emphasis on iconic figures of popular culture. This year’s issues include a celebration of the 50th anniversary of “Sesame Street” and the Woodstock concert, singer Marvin Gaye and actor-dancer Gregory Hines, while the 2018 stamps program featured the Hot Wheels toy racing cars, music legend John Lennon and the cartoon canine Scooby-Doo. Gicker also points out that the USPS is calling more attention to its stamps by changing their physical texture. “We are trying different things with printing,” he says, referring to the use of gold foil on this year’s commemoratives celebrating the 150th anniversary of

the Transcontinental Railroad, a proprietary rainbow holograph in the 2018 series of Bioluminescent Life stamps and the scratchand-sniff effect on the 2018 Frozen Treats stamps. “This way, we enhance the story we try to convey.” This strategy appears to be paying off, according to the American Philatelic Society’s English. “The more modern stamps are more popular among young collectors,” he says. As for the near future, stamp collecting doesn’t appear to be showing signs of disappearing. A recent report by the Universal Postal Union, a United Nations specialized agency that coordinates international postal policies, estimates that the global secondary market for stamp collecting — including dealers, collectors “and others buying second-hand philatelic products” — is worth between $4.2 billion and $13.8 billion. The report determined this activity is being fueled by national postal issuing agencies that “ramped up their online marketing and communication efforts to reach new consumers.” And, in any event, Linn’s Stamp News’ Bigalke acknowledges that concerns over a dying hobby are nothing new. “I can go back to Linn’s Stamp News 50 years ago and find similar comments were being made about where are the young collectors today,” he laughs.

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5 BEDROOMS 8 FULL BATHROOMS 2 HALF BATHROOMS 1 GYM, PLAYROOM, BILLIARDS ROOM, WINE CELLAR, WINE-TASTING ROOM, LIBRARY, MUDROOM

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The classic meets the contemporary in this Colonial Revival property whose modern pool house was designed by Mockler Taylor Architects. The pool offers multiple seated areas, a built-in kitchen, a bathroom, surroundsound speakers, gorgeous fireside lounging and a dramatic view of the 8,000-squarefoot house from its perch high on the 2-acre Stanwich Road site in Greenwich. Guests are welcomed by a 2-story foyer with herringbone hardwood floors, gorgeous archways, high ceilings and dentil moldings. It leads to generously proportioned rooms that are rich in Classic Revival-style detail. The first floor has a large living room, a dining room, a kitchen with built-in banquette seating, a breakfast room, a large mudroom, a family room that looks out on a terrace and a library that offers cozy fireside entertaining with a built-in grill. (There are six fireplaces throughout the 28-room house.) The lower level is fully equipped for entertaining guests as well as being the perfect place for fitness and play. It includes an en-suite bedroom with a private entrance, a gym, a playroom, a wine cellar, a wine-tasting room and a billiards room. The second floor offers three en-suite bedrooms with built-ins and large closets plus a spacious master suite. This suite features a fireplace, two bathrooms with views of the backyard â&#x20AC;&#x201D; there are eight full and two half bathrooms in all â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and two expansive dressing rooms, each with its own cedar closet. Brooklyn-based interior designer Lesley Lowe has used a neutral palette, and luxurious high-end fabrics and wall coverings throughout the house, which can be purchased for $4.2 million fully furnished. Pack just your toothbrush and you are good to go. For more, call Courtney Belhumeur at 646-234-4935 or 203-869-4343.

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A TALE OF TWO MARYS TWO CENTURIES APART

BY JEREMY WAYNE

Mary Calvi and her husband, Mike Spano, on the Amalfi Coast in 2018. Photograph by Michael Spano Jr.

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WHEN I OPEN THE DOOR TO HISTORIC PHILIPSE MANOR HALL — THE 17TH-CENTURY YONKERS SEAT OF THE PHILIPSE FAMILY AND WESTCHESTER COUNTY’S OLDEST STANDING BUILDING — AND FIND MARY CALVI SITTING THERE, RAMROD STRAIGHT ON WHAT COULD PASS FOR AN 17THCENTURY CARVED OAK CHAIR, I’M STRUCK WITH THE NOTION OF LIFE IMITATING ART. AND THAT’S AN UNDERSTATEMENT. Calvi is the 10-time Emmy Award-winning journalist, co-anchor of “CBS2 This Morning” and “CBS2 At Noon” at WCBS-TV in Manhattan and author of “Dear George, Dear Mary” (St. Martin’s Press), a novel depicting heiress Mary Philipse’s relationship with George Washington, based on contemporary historical accounts, letters and journals. She is also, of course, the first lady of Yonkers, wife of Mayor Mike Spano. It was at her husband’s inauguration at Philipse Manor back in 2012 that Calvi saw, and was intrigued by, a portrait of her, the other Mary. While something was known about the Philipse family — that Mary’s father, Frederick Philipse lll, who owned all the land from Spuyten Duyvil up to the Croton River and across to the Bronx river, was one of the biggest landowners in the Union at that time; that Mary herself was quite the horsewoman, regularly riding the 15 or so miles from Philipse Manor Hall to Philipsburg Manor in Sleepy Hollow — Calvi wanted to know more. “She was a Mary, I’m a Mary. I’m also a journalist. I should be able to figure this out,” she told herself. With her imagination fired, Calvi resolved to discover the true story of Mary Philipse, and specifically her relationship with George Washington, whom Henry Cabot Lodge records fell in love with her “at short notice.” “I thought, here is a real tale to tell,” says Calvi, who looked through an archive of 26,000 documents in her quest to unravel the story. “It was like being on a treasure hunt, like putting together a puzzle.” How Calvi has time to write a shopping list, let alone a book, is anybody’s guess. Her

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alarm goes off at 2:30 a.m., allowing her to get to the studio for her 4:30 to 7 a.m. slot. She is on again at noon, after which she gets “a few hours to myself.” Calvi is so hard-working, so dedicated to the cause (to TV, to journalism, to writing, to sitting on the board of the Hudson River Museum, to supporting her husband in his civic role), so utterly nice and wholesome, with genuinely not even a smidgen of an edge, that you almost have to pinch yourself to believe she is for real. Yet real and present she most certainly is, even if, when writing her book, she chose to immerse herself in the past for the sake of her art. Working on “Dear George, Dear Mary” on her desktop at home, she drank tea from an 18th-century cup to get “in the zone” and listened to Handel, her golden retriever, Lola, by her side. “You get very caught up in the writing,” Calvi says. And having set the scene so

perfectly, I had no trouble believing it. With her friend, the caterer Josyane Colwell (of Irvington’s Le Moulin), she even recreated a lot of the 18th-century recipes she came across, for lobster, “leaves of oyster,” Carolina snowballs (apples wrapped in rice), goose and wild boar, to experience the sort of tastes that her characters would have been accustomed to. “An 18th-century banquet had to cover the entire table, you know,” she says conspiratorially. I did not, but I was happy to be informed. Part historical fiction, part bodice ripper (without a bodice being actually ripped, because sadly, it is also — spoiler alert — a story of ill-fated love), it’s also part a speculation on how the entire history of the United States might have been different were it not for Mary Philipse’s brother, whose disapproval of Washington and, it transpires, his concealment of

Courtesy St. Martin’s Press.

Mary Calvi at Philipse Manor Hall in Yonkers, where she was inspired to write a novel about Mary Philpse and her love for George Washington. Photograph by Bob Rozycki.

his love letters to Mary eventually scuppered the affair. Star-crossed love makes for good fiction, and “Dear George, Dear Mary” has been critically acclaimed. So we can expect more books from Calvi, who has clearly been bitten by the historical biography bug. But was writing the book really all smooth sailing? What of the frustrations and setbacks that all writers famously feel, I ask her, eliciting a smile. “The frustration was with the words. The blank page was terrifying.” As she tells me this, she shifts uncomfortably in her chair, as if reliving the exasperation. “You see, you want to do right by them, so you have to be as accurate as possible.” And it’s true, because in Calvi’s hands, you get the feeling that George and Mary have been portrayed with great integrity, a love story, yes, but with more weight given to the history than the fiction.

When I ask the inevitable question — with a story this good, this strong, surely the moviemakers must be clamoring to get a slice, Calvi demurs. Movie rights, refreshingly, seem not to interest her unduly. She is far keener, she explains, to promote further research into the relationship and has been talking to a national TV network about a oneor two-part documentary spotlighting the research to date. I’m intrigued by this altruistic approach. As Calvi has virtually “discovered” Mary Philipse, isn’t she jealous? Doesn’t she want to keep her heroine all for herself? “I’ve never thought of her as mine,” she explains. “Many people have looked at her as their own possession, but I didn’t want to do that. Other eyes should look at Mary, too.” One of the many things I found remarkable about this book was how it captured the feeling of what it was to be alive in the midto-late 18th century — the privations, the cold, the heat, the dependence on craftmanship (this was pre-Industrial Revolution after all. You couldn’t just go to a store and buy a bed or a pair of riding britches). Yet for all that, there was this extraordinary sophistication. Letters could be exchanged, you could get from A to B relatively quickly, transport was not express but it was at least efficient. As my colleague Robin Costello, who reviewed “Dear George, Dear Mary” for WAG earlier this year has noted, quite apart from the remarkable story that Calvi has unearthed, there is the extraordinary contention its historical accuracy supposes — namely, that a union between Mary Philipse and George Washington would have given Washington and the Continental Army access to Frederick Philipse’s vast wealth, thereby accelerating the events that led to our nation’s independence by at least 50 years, thus changing the history of the U.S. It’s a fascinating premise which, were it not for Calvi, might never have been recognized or appreciated. “It may just have taken a girl from Yonkers to find a girl from Yonkers,” says Calvi, with a toss of her perfect, glossy auburn hair and a flash of her sweet and natural smile, as we walk out of Philipse Manor together. With luck she will get a few hours of rest and relaxation before that pesky 2:30 a.m. alarm goes off, and another day in her extraordinarily busy and fulfilling life begins.

NOVEMBER 2019

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COLORFUL YARNS STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARY SHUSTACK

FASHION

It seems knitting emerges every few years as the “it” hobby, the favorite downtime-filler of fashion models and Hollywood actors. It further earns call-outs in national media, such as The New York Times’ September piece spotlighting those who knit when attending baseball games. With every nod to knitting’s “return,” Elise Goldschlag, the veteran owner of Flying Fingers Yarn Shop, just chuckles. After all, she knows better. “It never really went away,” she says. “Whenever people come in and say, ‘Knitting is coming back,’ I say, ‘Where’d it go?’” And Goldschlag should know, as she has presided over Flying Fingers since 2003, first in Irvington and then in a boldly colorful corner space on Tarrytown’s Main Street for the past 13 years. But for Goldschlag — and she says many others— it’s simply a portable hobby that’s become a part of life. “I’ve been knitting since I was 5 years old,” she says. “I always knit.” And, she adds, with a hearty laugh, it has served her well over the years. “I have seven children and knitting was what kept me from killing them.” In truth, she says, she would knit during their school events, following the music or sport from seat or stand as she worked. “I was not the kind of woman to do nothing,” she says of her multitasking. Goldschlag would eventually begin to design, create and then sell sweaters. The next step was to open a shop with a dedicated focus. “I realized this was not a shop to play in. This was a business,” she says. Goldschlag, who was then living in Irvington, says she not only began selling yarn and knitting tools but also began offering classes, usually to groups of less than 10 students. “We’ve always done classes, but we also don’t want big classes.” When WAG stops by on a recent morning, a handful of women are meandering in, casually taking seats around a table in the back half of the cozy shop. “That’s our classroom,” Goldschlag points out to the group that will soon be working on their own projects. It seems more like a gathering of friends than a formal class, though a teacher is on hand. For a long time, students and shoppers arrived in a most eye-catching way, the Yarn Bus, but the famed, though aging, decorated van is out of commission. Goldschlag says she is still deciding the fate of the distinctive vehicle and its

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Manhattan-to-Tarrytown runs but is “leaning toward fixing it up. Hopefully by the spring, we’ll be back.” THE LEARNING CURVE Goldschlag encourages solo projects as well as lessons, whether one is attempting a scarf, socks, hat, sweater, shawl or blanket. Usually, she says, “You start with scarves. They’re long and repetitive.” At Flying Fingers, where classes are offered from early morning into the evening, teaching is laid-back, with creativity and community encouraged. As Goldschlag says, “We’re not the yarn police and we, in fact, have banned the yarn police from this store.” She wants to share what knitting brings to her.

Clockwise from top left: Flying Fingers Yarn Shop in Tarrytown is filled with colorful – mindful – yarn options; projects such as this child’s sweater offer inspiration; and a playful spirit is found throughout the shop.

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“Product isn’t as important as process to me,” she says. “You don’t knit to save money. You don’t knit to make clothes. This is 2019.” It’s creative, relaxing and filled with lessons itself — including the importance of not giving up. “I tell people all the time, it’s just practice.” Frustration is natural but not necessary. Even if you have tried (and failed) before, Goldschlag encourages a fresh attempt. “You don’t have to give away the first thing,” she says. “We are not perfect.” Knitting can even encourage some traits to develop. “If people don’t have patience, they’ll have a hard time.” The result, she says, is worth it: “It is Zen but you gotta get there.” Yarn, of course, is integral to the process — and Goldschlag has a definite point of view. “We have primarily natural fibers,” Goldschlag says. Customers, who often crochet as well as knit, have access to yarns in wool, alpaca, mohair, cotton, silk, soy (“I love making tofu scarves,” she says with another laugh), bamboo and sometimes cashmere. Goldschlag doesn’t like acrylic. Goldschlag has her sources, from Montana to Uruguay, culled over the years — and while she offers countless color options, she’s not a fashion follower. “I don’t really pay attention to the trends,” she says. “One of my daughters is a stylist at H&M so she tells me what’s in.”

STITCHING A LIFE Despite her love of knitting, patrons won’t see Goldschlag working on her own projects in the shop. “My knitting is my hobby. Nobody practices their hobby at work,” the Ossining resident says. Her creations have run the gamut, highlighted by an intricate huppa, a ceremonial canopy, that she created for her youngest son’s wedding. It’s hard to miss Flying Fingers, now a Main Street mainstay nestled in the building that houses the Tarrytown Music Hall. Its colorful sheep mascot is perched out front, adjacent to the vibrant storefront enlivened by creative and often playful windows — the handiwork of one of Goldschlag’s sons, who works in design at the New York Botanical Garden. “People come in. They think we’re a kids’ store, and they’re really bummed,” she says with another laugh. But, many do stay — and become part of the Flying Fingers family, where, Goldschlag says it’s all about “beautiful yarn, simple design.” As with many who find great rewards in knitting, Goldschlag admits to being “a little addicted.” But, she quickly adds, “As far as addictions go, it’s not bad.” Flying Fingers Yarn Shop is at 15 Main St. in Tarrytown. For more, visit flyingfingers.com.

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FEATS OF CLAY BY MARY SHUSTACK

FASHION

Turning her passion into her livelihood some 20 years ago has taken Loretta Lam quite far, literally. While not working in her home-based studio in Carmel, which the award-winning art jewelry designer has been known to call “the boonies,” she is often on the road for her work. And that travel might range from a teaching gig in Georgia to exhibiting at the prestigious American Craft Council’s American Craft Show in Baltimore. Over the years, the Hudson Valley polymer clay artist has also exhibited at an international jewelry show in Milan, Italy, lectured in Bordeaux, France, and currently has her designs offered by Artful Home, a national company whose catalog pages showcase “art & apparel for your extraordinary life.” Not bad for someone who says her decade in corporate America was “just phone calls and papers and computers,” as she managed a production plant for a company involved in international business. It was two decades ago when Lam decided she needed a change. “I’ve always been a jeweler,” she says, fondly recalling an early memory of creating jewelry out of the elements in her mother’s button box. As a self-proclaimed “kid of the ’70s,” Lam says, “I learned all of the crafts.” She was, she says, a quick learner. “I can do just about anything. I can figure it out with my hands,” she says of her affinity for craft that eventually led to formal study. The Old Chatham, New York, native would go on to earn a bachelor of fine arts degree from SUNY New Paltz in gold and silversmithing. Higher education that allowed her to turn her crafting into art was part of a bigger process, realizing that, “You needed to focus on composition, having something to say, a point of view. It’s about making things with an intentional outcome.” Lam would continue her metalwork in the midst of her corporate career — “I kept making things and making art because I have to” — but it was in discovering polymer clay that her artistry found its real home and the thoughts of changing careers took off. She was showing her clay work three months after she began, at small local craft shows, and in time would develop her look — and progress to what’s become an international platform that includes creating, selling her work at fine galleries and art fairs and teaching and writing. Lam has been recognized, most often by the noted NICHE Awards for professional craft artists as both multiple finalist and winner, and has been spotlighted in jewelry and craft books and magazines.

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Her work is also collected, with Lam often making custom creations for some of those collectors. “You have to have your fingers in a lot of pies in America today to earn a living as an artist.” IN THE STUDIO Lam takes us on an informal tour of her studio, a space carved out of the home she shares with her husband and son, that despite its basement location, is a light-filled wonder thanks to both yellow paint and a wealth of clay pieces strewn across several surfaces. “It’s little logs and loaves of pattern,” she says. “I sit here with all my raw materials around me. They have to be out and within reach.” She allows her creativity to take her where it will. “You choose the patterns and the textures that work well together,” she says of the materials in front of her, showing how one grouping is devoted to the popular red, white and black combinations, while another features shades of green. “If I have

Loretta Lam designs include, from left: Alberta’s Stepping Stones, which features 22 inches of hollow beads veneered with patterned polymer sheets, with copper spacer beads and a covered barrel clasp; Copper and Verdigris, which features 8 inches of unique hollow-formed polymer beads on a 20-inch sterling cable necklace; and Kisses Sweeter Than Wine, which features 22 inches of polymer beads with shell spacers and a covered barrel clasp. Photographs by Bob Barrett. Courtesy Loretta Lam.

them all in front of me, I mix and match to my heart’s content.” A pasta machine, a convection oven — and plenty of clay — form the heart of her operation. “It’s very time consuming, but I love process.” Winter, she says, often proves her most inspired working season. “I think whenever there’s no color in the world, my patterns come to me. Color is feeling and mood and sense of place and time.” She creates sheets out of the raw clay, combines them and then shapes those little logs to be fashioned around bead forms. Then, she cures it and cuts it away from the form. The beads, featured in necklaces, brooches and earrings, designs that range from $100 to $1,000, are surprisingly lightweight. Each is unique yet shares Lam’s trademark of fine detail, rich color and often, a bit of whimsy. “My color theory is that color is an emotional experience,” she says, adding each piece should combine dark and light, dull and bright — and an unexpected element. “That surprise,” she says, is “what brings the life to the whole thing.” Her jewelry features polymer with accent beads of coconut, metal or shell. Sterling, copper and steel are used for attaching the parts. “I’m glad to be part of the alternative-materials trend,” Lam adds in a quick email after our visit. “It’s exciting to see forward-thinking gallerists and savvy collectors realize

the inherent value of art jewelry is in the artistry and not the raw materials.” STEP BY NATURAL STEP The impact of nature is evident by the quickest glance at Lam’s work, which she says “moves along very organically.” She loves spending time in her backyard, which reminds her of growing up in her “tiny town,” a life filled with leaves and trees. “If I’m in the woods, I’m looking at acorns and mushrooms and fox grapes. That’s my inspiration.” Lam will soon share her expertise in a unique way, a book that explores various artistic mediums as a way to approach jewelry design.

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“Mastering Contemporary Jewelry Design: Inspiration, Process, and Finding Your Voice” is due out this April from Schiffer Publishing and, she says, will reach beyond the polymer community to include 100 artists from around the world. It complements, she says, the goal of her teaching and lecturing, which has become a larger part of her business. “They learned ‘how to’ but not ‘why to,’” she says of her students, who are rarely beginners. “That’s the gap I’m trying to close in teaching design.” She says her ability to connect the how with the why is particularly rewarding. “I know what I can give back to my community,” she says. “I have the words.” At the end of the day, Lam realizes her art does much more than just adorn. “In America, sometimes we don’t equate art with beauty,” she says. “In this society, we need a place where we can just take a deep breath and sigh — and that is beauty.” Taking us to that place is her goal. “I strive to make things beautiful because I think beauty is sublime. It takes you to another place, spiritually and emotionally.” For more, visit lorettalam.com. Lam will be exhibiting Dec. 13-15 at Holiday CraftMorristown in Morristown, New Jersey. For more, visit artrider.com. “Mastering Contemporary Jewelry Design: Inspiration, Process, and Finding Your Voice” is due out this April from Schiffer Publishing and can be pre-ordered at schifferbooks.com.

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PASSION FOR FASHION FASHION

BY MARY SHUSTACK

Evening Dress, Cristóbal Balenciaga (Spanish, 1895–1972) for House of Balenciaga (French, founded 1937), summer 1961; Promised gift of Sandy Schreier. Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photo © Nicholas Alan Cope. 86

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Fashion is full of bold-faced names, from designers to models, editors to collectors. When it comes to that final segment, many of us might consider ourselves among them. After all, who doesn’t have more shoes or bags, scarves or sweaters than they know what to do with? But most of our attempts at collecting would pale in comparison to Sandy Schreier. If you don’t know the name, don’t worry — The New York Times actually called Schreier, “the most important American collector of couture you’ve never heard of.” That July story on Schreier by Vanessa Friedman was to announce the exhibition set to open this month at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan — and probably served as an introduction to Schreier for many. “In Pursuit of Fashion: The Sandy Schreier Collection,” the fall exhibition of The Costume

A well-rounded show, it will include not only clothing but also accessories and fashion illustrations dating back to the early 1900s. “Sandy’s incredibly generous gift will strengthen our collection immeasurably through the addition of historically significant pieces of 20th-century fashion,” Bolton says in advance of the show. “Amassed through a deep passion for the art of fashion — as well as sheer determination — Sandy’s gift will introduce rare designs into our holdings, allowing us to tell a more nuanced story of fashion history through the achievements of its most innovative designers.” Schreier’s interest in fashion began in her earliest days, as she would accompany her father to work at the Detroit branch of the New York specialty store Russecks. The young girl’s enthusiasm for the fashionable clientele led

I always saw myself as a fashion savior. My passion for fashion as an art form drove me to search for the most innovative, creative and breathtaking objects by well-known and lesser-known talents.” — Sandy Schreier

Institute, will feature promised gifts from Schreier, who advance materials call, “a pioneering collector who over the course of more than half a century assembled one of the finest private fashion collections in the United States.” The gift is part of The Met’s 2020 Collections Initiative, celebrating the museum’s 150th anniversary. The exhibition will open Nov. 27 and continue through May 17 in the Anna Wintour Costume Center at The Met’s Fifth Avenue flagship, exploring how Schreier gathered her trove of 20th-century French and American designs, both couture and ready-to-wear. What makes the collection unique is that the fashions were not purchased as a wardrobe, The Met notes, “but as an appreciation of a form of creative expression.” The galleries of the show will feature 80 of the 165 promised gifts, selected from Schreier’s collection by Andrew Bolton, Wendy Yu Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute, and Jessica Regan, associate curator.

to these women giving her gifts of their own couture dresses, which she would save and not wear — sparking a passion that only grew as time went on. The Met shares that Schreier says, “I always saw myself as a fashion savior. My passion for fashion as an art form drove me to search for the most innovative, creative and breathtaking objects by well-known and lesser-known talents. I am elated that these pieces will now live on as my legacy at The Met, where they can be conserved and shared with the public, designers and scholars for eternity.” Visitors should expect a whirlwind of design, not only from noted names that include Cristóbal Balenciaga, Charles James, Karl Lagerfeld, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, Jeanne Lanvin and Isaac Mizrahi but also from lesserknown innovators, including Boué Soeurs, Madeleine & Madeleine and Jeanne MargaineLacroix. Now, what to wear when visiting the show… For more, visit metmuseum.org/ InPursuitofFashion.

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IN ‘BLOOM’ BY OLIVIA D’AMELIO

FASHION

Bloomingdale’s at the new SoNo Collection in Norwalk opens Nov. 14, just in time for holiday entertaining. We talked with Joe Weiner, fashion director for Home at Bloomingdale’s, for tips on the upcoming season: Let’s talk holidays. The season is always packed with cocktail events and festive gatherings. What advice would you give to someone who is hosting his, or her, first holiday party? “Take a deep breath and do what feels natural. When you’re greeting people in your home, you want them to feel comfortable and a nervous host will only make guests uncomfortable. Don’t feel pressure to impress everyone with your culinary skills by making all the food yourself. It should be a mix of assembled items and maybe one or two homemade items that are simple but delicious. Likewise, keep the drink selection narrow but the glasses full. And use serving pieces that feel special but not precious. I like pieces from Juliska like their Stonewood Stripe Collection, which are bold and eyecatching without being delicate or unapproachable.”

Any must-haves at a holiday party when it comes to décor? “A good host presents their guests in the best light possible, so I would say stocking up on candles is a must. I like to have fresh flowers in the house for an added layer of specialness and use serving pieces that I’ve collected over the years but aren’t used every day. I find that special pieces on your table are a guaranteed way to get guests talking. Inevitably, someone will ask about the serving plate you found at the Paris flea market or the goblets you just bought from your favorite home store. It’s a great way to share stories and spark conversation around the table or at a gathering.” Anything to avoid? “If you’re having a sit-down dinner, try to avoid any bulky or tall flowers or décor that might block someone’s view…. You want your guests to be able to interact without having to crane their necks or not make eye contact. If you’re serving snacks or a buffet, be sure to give guests enough places to sit and be comfortable while they eat. There’s nothing worse than holding a plate of delicious food and not having a perch from which to enjoy it.” What about hostess gifts? Are there items that you recommend? ‘It’s important to not show up emptyhanded and chances are most people will show up with a bottle of wine (which is fine). Set yourself apart from the crowd. I like to bring a Tom Dixon candle, which is cool, modern and gender neutral, or a bud vase. Even a box of sweets from Sugarfina is great — a small token of appreciation that the host can enjoy when the party is over and everyone has gone home.” Where do you draw inspiration from when shaping the direction for Bloomingdale’s home department? “Inspiration can come from anywhere. We’re constantly scouring the world looking for the latest in designs. Personally, I find traveling to be an important source of inspiration as it’s a great way to discover new designers. I also go through magazines and social media to see what’s happening in our day-to-day culture across all categories — even those outside of design like fashion and food. It’s my job to sift through all these resources and see what bubbles up to meaningful trends for our business. Just because something is trending in the wild doesn’t mean it’s the right trend for us or our customers.”

Juliska Stonewood Stripe Collection. Courtesy Bloomingdale’s.

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What is your favorite part of the job? “I love that my job is nonstop and that I’m always on the go. It’s also a collaborative environment with a unique group of intelligent people that inspire and motivate what I do.” For more, visit Bloomingdales.com.

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NEW FOR NORDY FASHION

BY OLIVIA D’AMELIO

Nordstrom at The SoNo Collection in Norwalk. Courtesy Nordstrom.

Nordstrom has arrived in Norwalk. The retailer opened its doors Oct. 11 at the new SoNo Collection. Recently, WAG had the opportunity to talk with Molly Carmody, Nordstrom SoNo Collection store manager: What should shoppers expect from latest Nordstrom? “We’re excited to bring our Norwalk customers a brand-new store featuring our latest design concepts and an exciting selection of merchandise for the whole family. We owe our Connecticut customers a lot for helping us build our business here over the last 22 years, and believe that our new store at the SoNo Collection will help us do a better job of serving customers in the community, enabling them to shop more easily on their terms.” How will the store attract people to make brick and mortar relevant again? “Our SoNo Collection store is the first to showcase Express Services, which is a new department featuring more than 2,700 square feet dedicated to services such as online order pickup, easy returns and alterations. This is a great example of how we’re evolving to bridge the gap between in-store shopping and online, to make shopping easy and convenient no matter how customers choose to shop with us. “Additionally, our new store is also the first to showcase our latest beauty concept, Nordstrom Beauty Haven, which highlights wellness, haircare and beauty tools with

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top trending brands and services that pamper customers from head to toe — whether they have 30 minutes or three hours. The services range from an Anastasia Beverly Hills brow suite, a base coat nail salon and a light salon, which offers a variety of spot treatments and peels.” What are the new trends and featured goods we can expect? “We have four shoe departments where customers can find everything from Nike to Doc Martens to Christian Louboutin, including several Nordstrom Exclusive styles from Valentino, Prada, Golden Goose and Givenchy. The store also has four specialty handbag boutiques including Chloé, Longchamp, Givenchy and Mansur Gavriel. “We also have an incredible selection of products in At Home, where we just introduced bedding, dinnerware, home scents and bathroom essentials from The White Company, a brand that’s new to Nordstrom.” What are you most excited for? “We’re eager to welcome customers to showcase our latest store design and some of the company’s most exciting, new beauty and service concepts, in addition to great fashion at a breadth of price points. We can’t wait for customers to experience the best of what we have to offer and look forward to welcoming them right here in Norwalk.” For more, visit Nordstrom.com.

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HOME & DESIGN

WHAT’S COLLECTIBLE

MODERN COMFORT BY JENNIFER PITMAN

American furniture designer Vladimir Kagan — best-known for his mid-century organically sculpted furniture — was one of those lucky few artists to enjoy his “living legend” status well before his death in 2017. This was thanks not only to his talent but his successful navigation of the vicissitudes of business and fashion. German-born Kagan (1927-2017) was the son of a Russian-Jewish cabinetmaker whose family fled Germany prior to World War II. The family arrived in the United States in 1938 and settled in New York City, where Kagan’s father reestablished his furniture-making business. Kagan studied art and sculpture at the School of Industrial Art and attended architecture school at Columbia University at night. In 1947, Kagan joined his father at his cabinet-making shop and began to learn what was and was not possible in furniture making. His exposure to woodworking in his father’s shop and his interest in Scandinavian modern design inspired Kagan’s move toward wooden-framed furniture. Kagan’s modeling and sculptural studies influenced his lifelong interest in amorphous shapes, while nature provided Kagan with inspiration for his furniture designs. Kagan was fascinated by the growth pattern of the branches on bare trees outside his family’s apartment on Riverside Drive. This gave him his first lessons in nature’s engineering, and he would later incorporate this knowledge into his sculptured furniture designs. Kagan began designing for his father in 1948 and worked in another partnership before setting out on his own in 1960. His firm thrived through both design and factory production until difficult economic times forced the shuttering of his business in 1987. By the mid-1990s, however, Kagan’s star was on the rise again with the reissue of his designs for an eager new audience. Seating furniture remains Kagen’s most important work. His most iconic designs, such as his Contour chairs, rocking and lounge chairs, and his Serpentine and Floating Seat and Back sofas share a sculptural, even sexy, quality. Modern design specialist Richard Wright notes that Kagan excelled at luxurious Modernism and livable furniture. His works, while fully modern, were not rigid. They were designed for comfortable use. Kagan’s early furniture featured carved walnut frames. A chair leg might be inspired by a tree branch or might evoke the spindly leg of a newborn fawn. Seats were designed with contoured backs, which added to their sinuous nature. Later, Kagan began to incorporate metal bases of brass, aluminum and acrylic. Kagan’s much-loved Unicorn seating was inspired by Constantin Brancusi’s “Bird in Flight,” and featured a V-shaped angled base made of bronze or polished aluminum. For upholstery, Kagan favored supple colored leathers or monochromatic upholstery, which offset the carved frames. The crewel embroidery of his wife, designer Erica Wilson,

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was also used as upholstery and was an exuberant departure from his monochromatic palette. His Serpentine sofa and the Floating Seat and Back sofa feature exaggerated, seductive curves and were designed to be aesthetically pleasing from all vantage points. These pieces served as anchors in a room and fulfilled Kagan’s promise that “one piece by Vladimir Kagan is worth a roomful of anything else.” Kagan success in seating designs continued with the introduction of his Omnibus series in the late 1960s. This modular furniture offered endless configurations, pieces and heights. The form had longevity: Hundreds of variations were produced over the years. Notably, Tom Ford selected the Omnibus line to outfit the entire worldwide Gucci network of 360 stores in the 1990s. Today’s collectors are not recreating a Kagan environment, but rather seeking a statement piece that telegraphs “Kagan” for their eclectic interiors. The Kagan market at auction is, by and large, a consistent one. The long production run of Kagan’s furniture has ensured that a taste for the material continues today. Kagan’s work from the ’50s into the ’60s is considered his most iconic and is consequentially the most valuable. A pair of Contour armchairs or a Floating sofa can bring more than $30,000. Unicorn works are rarer to the auction market. Unicorn sofas have brought more than $90,000. The prices for Kagan’s Omnibus modular seating series vary more at auction. Its success is dependent on its scale and the condition of the upholstery, with values ranging from $2,500 to $15,000. For further reading, see “The Complete Kagan: Vladimir Kagan, A Lifetime of Avant-Garde Design” (2004, Pointed Leaf Press). Jennifer Pitman writes about the modern design, jewelry and fine art she encounters as Rago Auction’s senior account manager for Westchester and Connecticut. For more, contact jenny@ragoarts.com or 917-745-2730.

Contour lounge chair with ottoman (1954), sold for $20,000. Courtesy Richard Wright.

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HOME & DESIGN

WHAT’S NEW AGAIN?

SAYING IT WITH MUSIC BY KATIE BANSER-WHITTLE

A vocation, a regular occupation or profession, may make someone rich. But an avocation, something we do for the love of it, has the capacity to enrich lives, too, albeit often in nonmonetary ways. Music as an avocation is a powerful force that brings people together across lines of age, ethnicity, nationality and class. It transcends time and space with a universal emotional language. One of the most popular and enduring avocations, music balances lives and expresses feelings that may be hard to convey in any other way. While music can be a solitary pursuit, more often it connects people with other enthusiasts. Performers who may have little in common besides the shared love of music come together in jam sessions and informal concerts. There are several programs run by symphony orchestras that bring together vocational and avocational musicians to practice and perform. It’s not surprising that many actors are notable instrumental performers, too. Woody Allen is a serious jazz musician. Richard Gere, in addition to being a guitar player and onetime guitar collector, is also an accomplished pianist. (He composed and played the famous piano sequence in the hit movie “Pretty Woman.”) Science and music also coexist harmoniously. Indeed, musical ability is often associated with proficiency in science and math. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is one of the premier science education institutions in the country. It also has a highly regarded music department that offers a variety of majors. Famous scientists who were also avocational musicians include astronaut-aeronautical engineer Neil Armstrong (baritone horn) and physicists Richard Feynman (drums), and Albert Einstein (violin). Einstein remarked that “the theory of relativity occurred to me by intuition, and music is the driving force behind this intuition.” Politics is frequently marked by discord — and how. That may be why many political figures find relaxation and renewal in music. Bill Clinton and his saxophone were a surprise hit on the campaign trail in 1992. Presidential pianists include Harry Truman and Richard Nixon. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice takes her music seriously, starting college as a music major studying classical piano. Presidential candidate

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Pete Buttigieg is a jazz piano and guitar player. Attorney General William Barr expresses his inner musician with the bagpipes. Really. The world of finance has its avocational musicians, too. Although it has never tempted him to quit his lucrative day job, Warren Buffett is an enthusiastic ukulele player. Music is a much-loved sideline for many people besides the rich and/or famous. An avocation can become more than a carefree hobby. It can leave behind lasting influence and lasting evidence. The creations that grow from an avocation, and the tools used to make them, may become a treasured legacy. The mandolins in the photograph, a matched pair of Lyon & Healy Style A / Washburn Style 5283 mandolins circa 1930, offer the echoes of an enduring love story that began for a musical young woman who came to America as a child in the 1920s. The mandolins’ owner, Mary Feld Zelnick, took up the instrument in her teens. In the early 1940s, she joined a group called the New York Mandolin Orchestra where she met her future husband. Mary did not play the mandolin for a living, but she remained involved with the music world. She was a mentor to other mandolinists and encouraged the musical interests of her two children, one of who made a career as a violinist. She continued to play in a mandolin quartet and recorded Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Mandolins in G major. After relocating to Florida, Zelnick formed the Florida Mandolin Orchestra, which played concerts in South Florida for more than 25 years. Like Mary, many other immigrants found a sense of community in their shared musical avocation. People from Eastern and Southern Europe brought with them their instruments — violins, mandolins, guitars, bagpipes, brasses. They and their music became a vibrant part of American popular culture that still resonates today. People often say of a favorite possession, “It speaks to me.” Mary’s mandolins, like so many vintage and antique instruments, speak eloquently of a tuneful past and the capacity of music to bring people together in harmony. For more, contact Katie at kwhittle@skinnerinc.com or 212787-1114. Lyon & Healy/Washburn Style A/5283 Mandolin (circa 1930), $2,000-$3,000, will be auctioned at Skinner Inc. Nov. 24.

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HOME & DESIGN

WARES

COLLECTING AND EDITING IN HOME DÉCOR STORY AND PHOTOGRAPH BY CAMI WEINSTEIN

Passion is confidence in your own choices. Passion for me is interior design and decoration. I love hunting down uniquely beautiful objects and artwork to decorate my client’s homes with. Combining beautiful objects along with color and patterns creates homes that are deeply personal. Current trends are changing and I believe the pendulum is swinging back to uniquely curated homes that are not like everyone else’s. Clients are looking to bring beautiful pieces into their homes, many of which are hand-inspired. By hand-inspired, I mean unusual pieces that are created by small boutique artists and artisans. In a constant quest for economy and speed, we have created many bland, neutral, mass-produced home furnishings that at first looked refreshing and clean. Over time everyone began purchasing the same thing, diluting the look. Although these pieces can be purchased quickly and cheaply, they don’t stand up to the rigors of our daily lifestyles. Younger generations may not want their grandmother’s china, but they are interested in sophisticated, well-made pieces. Trends are leaning toward smaller homes and city living, but that doesn’t mean that luxury is outdated. Luxury is actually being elevated. If your space is small, having wellmade beautiful pieces with attention to detail is important because you will need fewer things. Splurge-worthy: When purchasing home furnishings for my clients, I love to search out some pieces that are showstoppers. Depending on the budget, I try to allow for at least a couple of splurge pieces. A uniquely custom-designed and created light fixture, for example,

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A treasured work of art can add meaning to a home’s interior.

in an entry or in a dining room will be a pleasure to own for many years. Maybe comfort in seating is the client’s passion. There are custom-made sofas and chairs that can be fabricated to be specific to a client’s comfort level. Although the cost is high, the quality and comfort will give you many years of enjoyment. Recovering the pieces again over time will truly help you appreciate the quality of your purchase. Similarly, a beautifully edged window treatment shows the care and attention to detail that your home has been given. I always ask clients, “What are the things that you are passionate about”? and try to work that into the design framework. Is it an antique carpet or piece of artwork or a color? Some of the things don’t necessarily have to be expensive to be treasured, just well thought of. For example, I have a small beautiful painting created by my husband’s aunt. I found it when we were cleaning out his mom’s apartment and wanted it because it was both beautiful to me and held many memories for my husband. After getting it cleaned, repaired and reframed, it now hangs in our dining room. It’s a small treasure of a sailboat on an exotic locale with magentas, blues and yellows. Every time I look at it, I am brought to a wonderfully magical space, while for my husband, it triggers memories of his childhood and favorite aunt. It doesn’t matter if it is in fashion or not. It stands on its own. Passionate design always stands on its own, whether or not someone else likes it. Passionate design is deeply personal and timeless. Many people are passionate about their collections. Usually a collection begins by falling for an object, purchasing it and learning about it. The more collectors learn about something they are passionate about, the more it leads to wanting another and another and another. Each object is slightly different than the other but the same. I have seen many wonderful collections that my friends and clients have created, ranging from French watercolors to perfume bottles, stamps, posters, paperweights and porcelains. Sometimes the collections can get out of hand and we need to do some serious editing. I encourage clients to display the most important or the most beautiful of their pieces. Or we can group a collection together. For example, a collection of framed watercolors can be grouped together on one wall. The effect of a wall of paintings gives the room interest and a uniqueness that can leave a lasting impression. These rooms become magical and timeless in our collective memories. I always encourage clients to let their decorative passions become part of their interior design. Don’t be afraid to hire a designer to help you create your unique home. A professional can help you edit and display your pieces in an interesting way. We can objectively cut through the passionate obsessions and create beautiful spaces. For more, visit camidesigns.com.

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SPAIN’S ONCE AND FUTURE PLAYGROUND BY JEREMY WAYNE

TRAVEL

When German Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg arrived in Marbella, a humble fishing village on Spain’s Costa del Sol, on a motoring trip in the spring of 1947, he could scarcely have imagined what the vacation resort he was about to establish would become. From its modest origins in the 1950s as a laid-back, liberal playground for well-heeled, slightly bohemian Europeans in what was still Franco’s nationalist Spain, Marbella would become an international jet-set destination in the 1980s. In those years, it more than held its own with resorts like St. Tropez on the French Riviera, or the Aga Khan’s newly developed Costa Smeralda in Sardinia. Marbella was hip and Marbella was happening — and not just for Europeans. Each August, cosmopolitan, sophisticated Americans would fly in on the twice-weekly TWA New York-to-Málaga, Spain service, to settle in for the monthlong summer season. There was dancing till dawn at the Marbella Club’s Mau Mau nightclub, after-parties after the afterparties and anybody who was anybody, from Phil Collins to Joan Collins, hung out. But the decades that followed were not so kind to Marbella, which got carried away on the crest of its own celebrity. Massive building projects, totally unsympathetic of scale for the simple Mediterranean town, were facilitated by a corrupt mayor (who eventually went to jail), while other criminals called this part of the coast home, and gaudy excess became Marbella’s main characteristic. Petrodollars were everywhere and good taste went out the window. On a hill opposite the Marbella Club, Saudi Arabian King Fahd built the second-largest private residence in Spain — a marble-and-gold replica of the White House, with its own mosque and private hospital attached — and retained a full-time staff of 200, even though he only ever visited four times in 20 years. When he did eventually drop in, after an absence of a decade, he brought a fleet of jumbo jets and 3,000 guests, along with 100 new Mercedes cars to drive them around in. As the superyachts in Marbella’s Puerto Banús grew ever vaster and spiffier, so the original bohemian, summerof-love Marbella began to disappear. The truly “beautiful people” people stayed away. The last TWA nonstop back to New York took off in 1990. But 25 years later, Marbella is back. The beaches are clean, crime has virtually disappeared and hotel standards are by and large superb. And the 7½-mile Paseo Maritimo,

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or seafront promenade, which runs from the heart of the town all the way to Puerto Banús at Marbella’s western edge, is one of the most beautiful seaside walks in Spain. Most important, the characteristic that brought the first guests to Prince Alfonso’s original Marbella Club 60 years ago remains essentially unchanged, namely a gorgeous Mediterranean climate with 320 days of sunshine a year and balmy, dama de noche-and jasmine-scented nights under a velvet, starry sky. So, 65 years after opening, the Marbella Club Hotel is still going strong. It’s an enchanting property with rooms in the main hotel, right on Marbella’s so-called Golden Mile, or in heavenly little (and not-so-little) Andalusian cottages, which dot the bougainvillea road leading down to the sea, and the hotel’s glamorous beach club, still the ne plus ultra of Mediterranean beach clubs. But there are alternatives, too. And the newest kid on this prime real estate, first-line, oceanfront block is the one

which swept me off my feet when I was lucky enough to stay for three nights earlier this year. Nobu Hotel Marbella opened just 18 months ago, a luxury subsection of the already well-established and utterly lovely Puente Romano hotel, a neighbor of the Marbella Club. If you’re in town at all, frankly this is where you want to be. Set around an ancient Roman bridge, still intact, from which the resort takes its name, Puente Romano is a brilliant recreation of an Andalusian village, complete with a ravishing small church and one of the best beaches on the Costa del Sol. What Nobu Hotel does is to take the Puente Romano experience and add its minimalist style, along with a dash of latter-day Spanish pizzazz. The rooms are fresh and inviting, with virgin-white wicker furniture, hand-carved tables, satiny hardwood floors that are a joy to glide over in bare feet, and amazingly comfortable beds with the smoothest, most luxurious white sheets you will ever have the pleasure of sliding between.

The air-conditioning hums and bathrooms, which are enormous, have been planned with the kind of meticulous care that we are coming to expect from this exceptional hotel group. (Nobu will open another dozen hotels worldwide in 2020). A straightening iron sits alongside the regular hairdryer (how’s that for thoughtfulness?) and the highest-quality Natura Bissé products. And as for the Japanese toilet with its, ahem, full array of cleaning settings, this could provide hours of fun for the sitter, perhaps on a rainy day — not, of course, that Marbella has them very often. But no matter how seductive the rooms, or bathrooms, with their ocean or garden or mountain views, and corridors with fashionable Smeg fridges full of complimentary snacks and beverages, Marbella is all about the outdoors. At Nobu Hotel Marbella you can swim in three dreamy pools or hang out on the beach, with its full complement of beach sports and activities. You can rent

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Nobu Hotel Marbella beach. Courtesy Nobu Hotels.

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bikes, or go jogging and, of course, you can play tennis. The on-site tennis club is a major European tennis center boasting 10 regular courts, including a 2,000-seat “center court” and two paddle tennis courts, where international tournaments are regularly played. And at Nobu’s spa, which is run by Six Senses and is one of the best on the Costa del Sol, treatments run the gamut, from a 30-minute manicure to a 24-karat gold, age-defying facial, to Rasayana detox body-wraps to a traditional royal hammam experience. But wonderful as the facials are (and they are wonderful), and walloping as the tennis club is (and if there is a betterappointed or better-equipped tennis club in all of southern Europe, please, please drop me a line on a postcard and tell me about it), what none of this really tells you is how ravishingly lovely Nobu Hotel Marbella is. Because this place is a paradise, with its cobbled streets, winter-flowering lavender and walkways bordered by oleander and hibiscus. Everywhere you look there are miniature courtyards and typically whitewashed Andalusian walls, exotic palms and trickling streams. And as for the air, it’s so pure you want to breathe it in and bottle it. With the Sierra Nevada Mountains behind and the sparkling Mediterranean ahead — on a clear day you can see the Rif Mountains of Morocco on the horizon — this place is a paradise. There is shopping, too, rather good shopping indeed, either in the charming old town of Marbella with its geranium-filled alleyways, or in the altogether swisher Puerto Banús, with its humungous yachts. (They have not decreased in size since the years of wanton extravagance.) The hotel’s Tesla will whisk you to either locale and bring you back home again afterwards, since nobody in their right mind wants to attempt to park anywhere on this stretch of the Costa del Sol, where parking spaces are even harder to

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come by than in midtown Manhattan. But don’t eat in town, at least not until you’ve tried the nosh back at the ranch. Because this being a Nobu hotel — the hotel group has evolved organically from Nobu Matsuhisa and Robert De Niro’s international restaurant partnership — food is taken very seriously here. In Nobu Hotel Marbella’s Plaza, a charming Spanish courtyard which becomes fully tented in the cooler winter months, a sleek branch of Nobu, where the Spanish Albariño grape seems to the perfect match for ngiri sushi or black cod miso, vies with Spanish gluten-free restaurant Celisioso, the Italian Serafina and local chef Dani Garcia’s eponymous Michelin-starred restaurant for your attention. And there are other options too, like the Sea Grill down by the beach and El Chiringuito, Puente Romano’s take on a rustic beach shack restaurant, practically on the beach. It draws a chic daytime beach crowd, and a no-less chic, dressed-down, low-key crowd at night. For the terminally active, Marbella is also a golfer’s paradise. There are seven courses virtually on the doorstep. And it is perfectly feasible, at least in spring and late fall, to swim in the Mediterranean in the morning and ski in the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Granada in the late afternoon. Culture vultures will somehow fit in a visit to Granada’s Alhambra in between. When King Fahd died in 2005, the town of Marbella went into official mourning for three whole days. On his last visit to the town, the king had personally spent more than $100 million in a weekend. Now that Marbella has returned to be the lovely seaside town it was always meant to be, you don’t need to be a king or an oligarch to enjoy it, and the warm Andalusians will still welcome you with open arms. For more, visit marbellaclub.com and marbella. nobuhotels.com.

La Plaza by night. Courtesy Nobu Hotels.

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WANDERS

WHERE CONSUMPTION IS ALWAYS CONSPICUOUS

TRAVEL

BY BARBARA BARTON SLOANE

”One hundred years after the declaration that all men are created equal, there began to gather in Newport a colony of the rich, determined to show that some Americans were conspicuously more equal than others.” — Alistair Cooke

The road less traveled won’t lead to Newport. Indeed, just the opposite is true. For more than 375 years, Newport, Rhode Island, has welcomed tourists from near and far — even in the colder months when the lights and holiday decorations are as warming as the Rhode Island chowder. Thus its moniker, America’s First Resort. The destination evolved from a haven for religious dissenters and a prominent Colonial era port to a locale ripe with art, culture and history. Like the ocean, Newport doesn’t strive to be. It just is. And my visit to this timeless coastal community was both everything I expected and yet enjoyably unpredictable. Newport’s identity has long been associated with its Gilded Age mansions and impressive boats and cars. People come to gawk at how the country’s elite — the Astors, the Vanderbilts, the Morgans — lived more than a century ago. However, Newport is more than a protected historical locale. There’s a town with a genuine personality, one with quirky cocktail bars, elegant bistros and a fishing culture every bit as authentic as eastern Long Island. In fact, Gurney’s, the luxury brand long identified with Montauk, just opened its second property here. Located on Goat Island, it’s connected to downtown Newport by a short bridge and high rollers can access the property via sea plane from Manhattan in less than an hour.

A COOL WALK ALONG THE CLIFFS Upon my arrival, I made a beeline for The Chanler at Cliff Walk, a hotel sited on this famed walk, bordered by the

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Atlantic Ocean and surrounded by some of the most famous mansions in New England. The Chanler is housed in a 19thcentury mansion originally built by New York Congressman John Winthrop Chanler and it retains all of its authentic charm. I lunched at the elegant Cara dining room with a view of an open kitchen as well as the roiling Atlantic. This is the crown jewel of The Chanler and its name conveys a romantic complement to the restaurant’s creative menu. My repast was creative and a fine way to set off on my Newport adventure.

HOME AS CASTLE One of the most popular, not-to-miss activities in this town is, of course, visiting the mansions. I found a world of exceptional elegance in architecture, art, interior design and landscapes as I explored 250 years of American history at these historic palaces. My favorite was The Breakers, built in 1895, the surviving jewel of Cornelius Vanderbilt II and his New York Central Railroad fortune. Standing in the two-and-ahalf-story high Great Hall and then being gobsmacked by the pure platinum-leaf wall panels of the Morning Room was an experience so heady that I sought the calm of the property’s hushed gardens, just to sit for a while and ponder a lifestyle so over-the-top opulent and never to be again. Another winner — Marble House. Created by Richard Morris Hunt for railroad heir William K. Vanderbilt and his suffragist wife, Alva, it was inspired by the Petit Trianon at Versailles. The mansion, built between 1888 and 1892, contains 500,000 cubic feet of marble

TOURING, SAILING, IMBIBING Just a few of the many fun activities besides palace-peeping included a Viking Tour of the town. Sitting comfortably in a climate-controlled trolley, my 90-minute outing cruised 10 miles of Ocean Drive and the splendors of the North Shore. I was eager to check out the just-completed $3 million renovation of the International Tennis Hall of Fame Museum. There is an engaging, diverse collection of memorabilia

Av Yacht. Courtesy Av Yachts.

from the 14th century through today housed in the historic 1881 Newport Casino, a McKim, Mead and White-designed complex. Though not a tennis aficionado, I found this visit to be educational and well worth it. Another highlight was boarding the yacht Madeleine at Bannister’s Wharf for my sunset sail of Newport Harbor. On this 72-foot, three-masted vessel, we cruised the landmark sights of Goat Island, Fort Adams and Hammersmith Farm — a childhood home of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and the site of the reception for her wedding to then Sen. John F. Kennedy in 1953. Sunset, by the way, is highly revered in Newport and never more than at The Lawn at Castle Hill. As I approached this property, I saw groups of merry-makers scattered around a rolling green lawn that ended at the foot of Narragansett Bay. This pastel-perfect scene of people lazing on Adirondack chairs, cocktails in hand and a great orange ball of sun slipping into the horizon was so inviting that I was there in a flash and enjoyed a unique and memorable sunset. So, it was now sundown but so what. I was off to drinks on the rooftop bar of The Vanderbilt, a meticulously restored vintage Newport mansion built in 1909 by Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, a scion of, yes, that wealthy family and just minutes from the waterfront. From this pretty terrace I had a great view of the city in all its iconic glory.

THE SAILING CAPITAL OF THE WORLD Newport has a longstanding sailing history that is evident everywhere from the many Colonial sea captains’ homes that line the streets to the busy harbor that is a home port to some of the most renowned yachts in the world. There’s even a busy downtown street, America’s Cup Avenue,

dedicated to this sailing race. So, for all you lovers of sailing, whether it’s your life’s passion or simply a hobby, let me introduce you to Av Yachts. I was lucky to first meet up with one of its vessels one morning in New York Harbor where I had a bountiful breakfast and an impressive grand tour. I was smitten and decided to visit again when I found the boat would be docked in Newport. This time I overnighted in my very own suite and had the chance to more fully experience what life aboard a yacht can be. Sweet. Av Yachts is shared yacht ownership that offers a yachting experience at a fraction of the cost with none of the stress. The company brings to yachting the fractional ownership model pioneered by private jet travel such as Flexjet and NetJets. Owners can purchase a share in a luxury mega yacht, each share entitling its owner to six weeks annually aboard a fully crewed vessel where you travel to some of the world’s most sought-after destinations. The sign-up line forms right behind me. I decided to end my seaside visit on a, high note so it was off to the famed White Horse Tavern. No building is believed to be more typical of Colonial Newport than the tavern with its clapboard walls, gambrel roof and plain pediment doors. When I entered, I saw giant beams, a small stairway against the chimney, a tiny front hall and a cavernous fireplace. It is the oldest operating restaurant in the U.S., having served guests since 1673. I lunched on — what else — Rhode Island clam chowder followed by a Rhode Island lobster salad BLT and washed down with lovely French Chardonnay. But that’s Newport — multiculturism at its best. For more, visit discovernewport.org and avyachts.com.

estled in the gateway to New England in Western Connecticut, stands Danbury’s Landmark Boutique Hotel. Since 1974, the Ethan Allen Hotel has honored guests with the unique blend of warm hospitality, elegance and the legendary style of Ethan Allen Home Interiors. The combination of 193 spacious guestrooms furnished with Ethan Allen furniture, supreme comfort bedding, Gilchrist & Soames bath amenities, flat screen TV’s and coffee makers in each room help create a soothing ambiance and a relaxing escape. Our beautifully appointed ballroom is the perfect backdrop for weddings or any social gathering. For business meetings our Executive Boardroom fits the bill with teleconferencing capabilities and complimentary Wi-Fi. A culinary dining experience awaits you in our newly renovated award-winning 21 Lake Restaurant or for a more casual fare and weekend entertainment enjoy 21 Lake Bar. We have added live jazz to our popular Sunday Brunch which has been a long time favorite in the local community. Ethan Allen Hotel offers modern amenities and services of a full service hotel, while delivering intimate luxury & comfort of a home-like atmosphere – a genuine departure from the ordinary. For more information please call 800-742-1776 or visit our web site www. ethanallenhotel.com. You can also read our five star reviews on www.weddingwire.com. & www.theknot.com.

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ethan allen

HOTEL

Traditional elegance, exceptional service & award winning cuisine

MEETINGS | CELEBRATIONS | RESTAURANT 21 Lake Avenue Extension, Danbury, CT 203 • 744 • 1776 www.ethanallenhotel.com

NOVEMBER 2019

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LIVING IT UP IN LONDON BY DEBBI K. KICKHAM AND WILLIAM D. KICKHAM

TRAVEL

After our extended cruise on Regent Seven Seas Explorer, we delighted in being booked into the Corinthia Hotel London. We were impressed the minute we entered this stately hotel, one of London’s most elegant properties. It combines grandeur with heritage and a modern touch and is ideally located in the heart of the city. It is perfectly positioned, as it is within walking distance of Trafalgar Square, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the National Gallery and the inimitable London Eye. It’s the perfect place to spend your time in London. What is Corinthia, you ask? Corinthia is a collection of hotels founded by the Pisani family of Malta in 1962. Says founder Alfred Pisani: “In a world of mass-produced experiences, we offer our guests the made-to-measure.” This is the philosophy with which Pisani has run his family’s business since the 1960s. An unbending focus on bespoke service means guests feel part of the family from the second they set foot in one of Corinthia’s stunning five-star hotels, whether it’s a historic destination, a waterfront retreat or a luxurious oasis in the heart of a soughtafter city. Our suite was indeed gorgeous, and it was an absolute pleasure that we had a butler to attend to all of our needs. One great highlight was afternoon tea. A little background: It was in 1840 that Anna, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, noticed she felt a certain “sinking feeling” around midafternoon. However, after she was served a pot of Darjeeling tea, with some bread, butter and biscuits, she felt decidedly better — and the afternoon tea was born. As I sat and enjoyed tea here, in a beautiful room off of the lobby, I was struck by the “beautiful people” who were here in droves. The hotel attracts a well-heeled crowd, outfitted in couture clothing and accessories, who made it apparent that coming to this posh hotel was a special event. Afternoon tea featured cucumber, radish and cream cheese on white bread; smoked salmon and marmalade curd on brown bread; and tandoori chicken with

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Kerridge’s Bar & Grill in the Corinthia Hotel London is the place to get an oh-so-British meal from Michelinstarred chef Tom Kerridge. Courtesy Corinthia Hotel London. green apple and raisins on white bread — to just name a few sandwiches. Plain scones and those with raisins were served with organic strawberry jam and Cornish clotted cream. The desserts were just as delightful — including cocoa nibs, coffee and caramel mousse; lemon drizzle cake; and even marshmallows in the flavors of banana, red apple and praline. How divine. My favorite confection at the hotel, however, was the “very berry” pure-fruit tea consisting of a wide selection of British berries and other dried fruits. Of course, the array of teas is as tall as Big Ben, whether you want your matcha, your oolong or your herbal fix. The only thing better than afternoon tea was dinner at Kerridge’s, a world-class restaurant created by renowned Michelinstarred chef Tom Kerridge. Right off the bat I could have made an entire meal out of the scrumptious treacle bread, it was that good. Then let’s not forget the “pawprint” logo of the restaurant, which pays homage to Kerridge’s boxer, Georgie. (All of the staff here wears a little pin on their lapel, featuring said pawprint. How adorable.) Starters feature, among other things, cider-andwhite-onion soup; Cornish crab spring rolls; and mushroom risotto with wild garlic and aged parmesan. For dinner, you can order a pig’s cheek pie with clotted cream mash; West End Farm pork belly; or my favorite, the stuffed Cotswold white chicken with white asparagus and morels. I must say, it

was perhaps the juiciest piece of chicken I have ever eaten. The hotel also houses ESPA Life at Corinthia — a haven spread over four floors that is dedicated to relaxation, health and fitness. Along with a wealth of fitness equipment, the spa facilities feature a special lounge with exceptional cuisine; a private spa suite; 17 treatment pods; hair salon; nail studio; sleep pods; and a thermal floor consisting of a swimming pool and a vitality pool with water massage jets. And just when you didn’t think the spa could be any more fabulous, it offers molecular cosmetics and skincare by Barbara Sturm, M.D. The German aesthetics physician is recognized for her nonsurgical anti-aging treatments and methods for rejuvenating the skin. She began her medical career in orthopedics as part of the team that developed cutting-edge, anti-inflammatory treatments for osteoarthritis and back pain. Termed the “Kobe Procedure” after patient and NBA basketball star Kobe Bryant, the treatment utilizes the patient’s own blood cells to produce proteins that reduce inflammation and stimulate the healing process. Try the Instant Glow Facial to get back your youthful radiance. Let’s face it — I’ve never met a concierge I didn’t love. The exceptional Corinthia concierge was also instrumental in getting us tickets to “The Phantom of the Opera.” The unstoppable “Phantom” has been playing at Her Majesty’s Theatre since 1986 and has become a worldwide phenomenon. It has been seen by more than 100 million people worldwide and is the longest-running show on Broadway. Amusing fact: “Phantom” is widely considered to be one of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s most accomplished scores, and yet, ironically, the musical was originally conceived as a tongue-in-cheek romp in the style of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” with a soundtrack consisting of snatches of 19th-century operas by the likes of Léo Delibes and Jules Massenet. Whether you’re staying at the Corinthia London — or heading out to “Phantom” — both are well-deserving of your “Bravo.” For more, visit corinthia.com. And for more on Debbi, visit GorgeousGlobetrotter. com and DebbiKickham.com; and for William, attorneywdkickham.com.

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A TASTY WORK IN PROGRESS BY JEREMY WAYNE

FOOD & SPIRITS

Although it has already been open for a fortnight, an army of builders and masons are still laying the cobblestones in the circular drive when we pull up to Rhinebeck’s new Mirbeau Inn & Spa for lunch at the much-trumpeted Willow restaurant. Make that Willow by Charlie Palmer. What singles out this new restaurant, in a sophisticated town not short on good, well-established restaurants, is that at its helm is the acclaimed chef and originator of “Progressive American” cooking, whose name is on the shingle of a dozen restaurants, two rooftop bars and one hotel across the nation. Not that chef Palmer will be manning the stoves on a daily basis, you understand. That job falls to executive chef Thomas Burke, whom I caught up with on the phone as our dates to break bread together did not coincide. Unlike Palmer, a graduate of The Culinary Institute of America (CIA), Burke took a different path, he told me. Having started washing dishes at 14, he was flipping burgers at 16, but slowly worked his way up. Illustrious kitchens like the French Laundry, Per Se and Le Bernardin were to follow, before he arrived at Palmer’s New York flagship restaurant, Aureole, which in turn led to the top job at Willow. Situated on the first floor of the Mirbeau complex, Willow is just past the front desk and concierge stand. With a completely open aspect, it feels like an extension of the main lobby, rather than a restaurant in its own right. The adjoining bar has the same sense of being part of the public space, which has the advantage of being ontrend, even if it does slightly lack a feeling of coziness. The room itself is squeaky new. White is the color du jour, an anodyne canvas accented with curious whale-shaped, blue velour-backed chairs and a rather busy carpet with swirls of black, blue, burgundy and gold. Along the back of the room, quaint sheer curtains — from behind, which I would not have been remotely surprised to see a Miss Marple-type character peeping out, spying on what I was eating — obscure what to my mind is the room’s best feature, its view over the forest, including the willow trees, from which the restaurant takes its name. With a propensity for luxury ingredients, foie gras and lobster among them, the menu will look familiar to habitués of Aureole, but a smattering of new dishes

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The Bar and Willow Restaurant at Mirbeau Inn & Spa. Courtesy Mirbeau Inn & Spa.

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makes more than a nod to the Hudson Valley locale. Salmon rillettes — preserved salmon, which comes with red onion, dill and shaved radish — is appropriately rich, but it’s the bread the rillette is served on that’s the real star here. It’s not focaccia as told on the menu but a wonderful black bread, thick as a doorstep (or one of the cobblestones being laid in the driveway), with a heavenly chew of a crust. I could eat loaves of this stuff. My companion’s cavatelli pasta — vaguely earshaped pasta, often likened to miniature hot-dog buns in appearance — was a perfect match with chunks of lobster, served in a light cream sauce with a pinch of chili for heat. There was garlic, too, and perhaps a touch too much for anybody with a postprandial appointment, although as my pal wisely noted, that’s why Listerine mouthwash was invented. It was a very fine dish overall, she thought. With lots of local bounty, including natural produce, meat and poultry, and a clutch of great cheesemakers and brewers virtually on the doorstep, the menu delivers classic dishes reworked with local ingredients. A Hudson Valley chicken paillard with arugula, autumn pears and ricotta was a perfect expression of that classic dish, while the Mirbeau burger, with its soft brioche bun, portobello mushroom, and caramelized onions was the equal of its Aureole, Manhattan counterpart. It was also two-thirds the price, replacing Aureole’s aged cheddar with a lighter and more complementary gruyère.

“We’re not aiming to be a steakhouse,” chef Burke told me, “but we are aware there’s no steakhouse in the area and we are filling that niche.” Steak frites delivered a generous, dense New York strip, served rare, as requested, which we sliced with a steak knife so heavy and lethally sharp we felt we needed a license to use it. And the French fries were fabulous, so battered before frying they looked positively calcified. They also made a deafening crunch in the mouth. The only duff note was a small ramekin of truffled aioli, with no taste of truffle. A sauce Béarnaise or dollop of Dijon mustard might make the better accompaniment. When we spoke, chef Burke also mentioned that other great cuts of meat, including a côte de boeuf for two, have been recently added to the menu. A shared dessert of Meyer lemon tart played second fiddle to a ripe blueberry compote and a decoration of crumbed Graham cracker, both of which slightly dominated, rather than supported it. We fared better with a silk-smooth crème brûlée and intense, housemade ice creams and sorbets. With thoughtful and punctilious service, we paid a reasonable bill and left contented. Willow, I sense, is a work in progress. On my next visit — and yes, I will be back — along with some fine menu tuning and pace Jane Marple, I’m hoping the drapes will be open to reveal the forest and thus the full Willow experience. For more, visit rhinebeck.mirbeau.com.

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FOOD & SPIRITS

It’s not every day that you meet a 16-year-old whose passion — electrical engineering — has been used to serve the larger community. But that’s what WAG is doing on a recent afternoon at the Jefferson Valley Mall in Yorktown Heights, meeting up with Navod Jayawardhane. The personable senior at Wilton High School has come to the mall to give us an introduction — and then demonstration — of his electronic Food Pantry Box. It’s a community-service project that’s all about, as its website states, “neighbors helping neighbors.” It was back in December of last year that Jayawardhane began creating a way to have people, anonymously, not only donate but also receive food. The project’s approach is simple: “Take what you need. Leave what you don’t.” It was all sparked by a desire to help, Jayawardhane says. “It was the observing and seeing a need in certain areas.” He says he researched designs for boxes for donating food but wanted to create something unique, so he “tried to improve on it by adding the electronics.” And indeed, his Food Pantry Box is a selfservice operation with space for some 50 cans in its rows (with additional space below for larger items). Because of those electronics, when the stock of cans gets low, the organizer knows it’s time to replenish. For Jayawardhane — who seems slightly bemused by our fascination — how it works all seems like second nature. He casually mentions the various circuits and programs that he used for the project. A glance at his website reveals a design created on a grid filled with notations that to the novice seem quite the puzzle. But we do grasp that, in short, each row has a “distance sensor,” which indicates the current quantity of cans in each row. The data from the sensor is sent to a small computer within the box. Inventory can then be monitored remotely, so there is little chance of the box, which Jayawardhane also built by hand, being empty when someone in need comes by. “I’ve done a lot of projects with electrical engineering and I think this is the first where it was applied to a real-world scenario,” he says. Previously, he says, he worked on circuit-based projects, often in competitions. He has been a member of his local robotics team for the past five years, now serving as captain of its “build” team. In addition, he points to experience gained from a summer-camp program at Cooper Union in Manhattan to hone the skills used on this community work. From concept to finished project, it was some six

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Navod Jayawardhane of Wilton.

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months of work — including CAD or computer-aided design — with the box unveiled at the mall in June. Its kickoff was buoyed by a food drive. Jayawardhane says the mall management has been quite supportive, even helping with the signage. The Food Pantry Box has been placed on the second floor off the food court, adjacent to the mall management office. The placement, it must be noted, allows relative anonymity for those who are there to pick up food. “I’ve been to the mall several times after it’s been installed,” Jayawardhane says. On this day, we note, he has brought canned goods to replenish the box. The project has been recognized. In August, for example, New York state Sen. Peter Harckham honored Jayawardhane for the box’s installation and its service to the community. Stand Out For College is a Cross River-based collegecounseling organization dedicated to “helping students get accepted into their top choice colleges through meaningful community service projects.” Its founder, Ronald Feuchs, has worked with Jayawardhane. “He is a very special, intelligent young man with a big heart and his project is helping an underserved and sometimes invisible population in Westchester,” Feuchs says. As Jayawardhane looks toward college — and studying electrical engineering with an eventual goal of developing product and circuit design — he remains dedicated to the Food Pantry Box project and its mission. “I’ve created a second one, as well, so that one’s looking for a home,” he says, noting he’s integrated a few improvements.

As we wrap up our chat, it’s the quietly moving words of Jayawardhane gracing the sign next to the Food Pantry Box that catch our eye, seeming not to only sum up its mission but perhaps Jayawardhane’s outlook, as well. “We ask that you please respect the contents and the dignity of the people it serves. Please support the food box and our fellow brothers and sisters. Thank you.” For more, visit https://navodjaya28.wixsite.com/ foodpantrybox.

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WINE & DINE

WINE TOURISM TAKES OFF IN SPAIN STORY AND PHOTOGRAPH BY DOUG PAULDING

PET CARE

FOOD & SPIRITS

A couple of decades ago, planning an international experiential trip required a travel guide or vacation specialist familiar with your destinations and desires. And the guide would likely add you to a group, restricting your travel dates, or you would have to recruit a minimal number of family or friends to make a group. And it got expensive having an agent to organize everything from flights to ground transportation to lodging, restaurants and historical and cultural landmarks. Now, in this DIY age, with a little internet help, you can easily cobble together a trip that is specifically created for your interests and desires. Many countries and many wine regions now boast of wine tourism routes where you can find wineries in scenic areas that welcome visitors. Spain has several established and supported routes throughout the country designed to direct oenophiles into wine regions and to wineries, where they will be enthusiastically welcomed for a tour and tasting and perhaps food. Many of these wineries now have restaurants where you can dine in the cellar or dine overlooking the vines or at tables set up between the vines. Spain, Italy and France are always first, second and third, in changing order, in worldwide wine production by volume and by exports. Spanish wine production spans the country from east to west and from north to south with 60 different denominations of origin (DOs) that establish the wine rules of engagement for each particular region. These rules usually include dominant grape to be used, secondary grapes and percentages allowed, harvest yield allowed by hectare (almost 2.5 acres), and harvest timing, among other things. And at least 26 of the DOs have wine routes to be discovered and explored. A very up-to-date website, winetourismspain.com, can offer ideas on how to begin building this adventure for your family, your friends or even a honeymoon, an anniversary or a comingof-age celebration. You can, of course, rent a car and drive these routes but winery car and van service is available, and road and off-road biking, horseback riding, electric scooter and

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Vintner Emilio Moro's grandson, Mario Sánchez Moro, in the Cepa 21 Tempranillo barrel aging room – a must stop for wine tourists in Spain’s Ribera del Duero region.

Segways can be incorporated for parts of the trip as well. I just returned from a firsthand look at the wine route of Ribera del Duero, about an hour and a half north of Madrid on the Duero River and, then farther west and closer to Portugal, the wine route of Rueda. Both wineproducing regions are old, as evidence of vines and wineries dates from well before the days of Jesus. But both regions codified their production methods into DO status in the early to mid-1980s. Ribera del Duero makes almost exclusively red wines, with Tempranillo, known locally as Tinta Fina or Tinta del Pais, being the grape, and Rueda makes almost exclusively white wines from the Verdejo grape. Both regions have significant altitude, which allows for more grape hang time on the vine, helping to concentrate flavors and accents within the grape. The regions are quite hot and dry, which allows for relatively easy organic and sustainable production. One Ribera producer told us, “We have three months of winter and nine months of hell.” Something to keep in mind when planning a trip. Bodegas Vega-Sicilia put Ribera del Duero on the wine map with its Unico wine respected worldwide as exceptionally worthy. Prices for Unico are now close to $400. And Pingus, another winery in the region, restricts its output to fewer than 500 cases, with no flagship Pingus production in underperforming vintages. Pingus can be found for somewhere around $1,000 per bottle. These wines and prices challenge the first growths of Bordeaux as some of the

premier wines of the world. But respectable wines of Ribera del Duero can be found in the $15 to $45 range and will challenge wines sold at double or triple those prices. Most of the wines we tasted in Ribera showed either red and/or black cherry flavors with varying degrees of leather, licorice and aromatics. Look for Comenge, Protos, Bodega Cepa 21, Emina, Villacreces, Mvedra and Val Travieso. There are more than 300 wineries in the region, many of them sparkling new with fairly massive production of 600,000 to 3 million bottles annually. But Mvedra is a twosister collaboration that produces just 20,000 bottles a year. Rueda, a short drive down the Duero River, employs predominantly Verdejo grapes (85% required by law to call it Verdejo) but allows for Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay to complement a final blend. Verdejo is Spain’s most popular white grape with its tropical fruit and fragrant citrus notes. Rueda has 70 wineries with more than 1,500 growers contributing grapes to some winery or cooperative. Night harvesting is the norm to bring relatively cool grapes to the production facilities. Look for Montepedroso, Cuatro Rayas, Ramon Bilbao and De Alberto, where we tasted among other things their lovely Dorado, a fortified, sun-bleached, oxidized wine reminiscent of a fine Amontillado Sherry. And all around these easily arranged winery visits are centuries of vibrant Spanish history. There are monasteries turned into five-star hotels (at castillatermal.com), with every imaginable luxurious amenity. There are ancient hilltop castles and museums to help make their history palpable. Gilded frescoed churches anchor most villages. The Duero River is a major migration route between Africa and Europe for many bird species and there are national park tours to get you close to the action. The people we met of Ribera del Duero and Rueda are excited to show the world what they have and what oenological and gastronomical excitement is there. And pricing for these adventures would be but a fraction of what a Bordeaux or Burgundy tour might cost. It’s way less expensive than you might imagine for what could be the most dynamic experiential vacation of your life. Write me at doug@dougpaulding.com.

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

A PLACE FOR THIS MOM AS HEALTH ADVOCATE BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

PET CARE

HEALTH & FITNESS

In a more than 40-year career as a TV journalist, public speaker and author, Joan Lunden has reported on virtually every topic. But there are two that she is especially passionate about, in part because they have hit close to home — breast cancer awareness and senior care. It is in her advocacy for the latter that the Greenwich resident will speak at United Hebrew’s centennial gala on Nov. 6 at the Glen Island Harbour Club in New Rochelle. In a recent phone interview, Lunden — who appeared on the cover of the March 2016 WAG — marveled at United Hebrew’s track record. “That’s quite a nonprofit story,” she says, “One hundred years of service, everything from skilled nursing and shortterm rehab to assisted living, memory care, home health care and senior housing.” Elder care is something that Joan, a former “Eyewitness News” reporter and host of “Good Morning America,” became intimately acquainted with after her brother died from complications of diabetes and it became clear that their independent-minded mother, with whom he lived in the family’s beloved, native California, could no longer be on her own. “You have to become an expert in senior care overnight,” Lunden says. “We need a plan in place — not just for our parents but for ourselves.” Part of that plan for Lunden involved A Place For Mom, a free senior referral service. An adviser there assessed her mother and found a small residential home with aroundthe-clock care where she lived until age 95. Lunden’s quest to make her mother’s later years truly golden has led her not only to become a senior advocate and spokeswoman for A Place for Mom but to tackle aging in a new book that Forefront Books/Simon & Schuster will release on March 10. As Lunden describes it, “Why Did I Come Into This Room?: A Candid Conversation About Aging” is a no-holds-barred exploration of a subject that many of us would rather ignore. She understands the feeling. “I made myself feel comfortable talking about everything,” she says, including such subjects as incontinence and sexual intimacy. Yet clearly there is a hunger for knowledge about life in its autumn and winter seasons. As she talks to WAG, she is briefly interrupted a couple of times with good news: Advance sales of the book are humming. It’s not the first time that a challenging personal experience has led her to put pen to paper, so to speak. Her book “Had I Known” came out of her successful battle with triple negative breast cancer, which was diagnosed in 2014 but only after an ultrasound. (Her state-of-the-art 3-D mammogram had been clear.) Still Lunden, whose beat had been health, had

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interviewed Susan Love, author of the bosom bible “Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book” and an advocate for ultrasound for dense breasts like Lunden’s. (Breast cancer can be hard to diagnose in dense tissue as both show up white on a mammogram.) “If I hadn’t done the ultrasound, we might not be having this conversation today,” she says. And that’s why, she adds, it’s incumbent on women to know their breast density. To that end, she has lobbied Congress for mandatory mammography reporting so that patients, as well as their doctors, will know their breast density scores. She’s talking to WAG days after Cokie Roberts’ death from complications of breast cancer and remembers her ABC colleague as a journalist who set the bar high for others in the profession and a mother who once did a spot with one of her children in a baby carrier (off-camera). “That was our lives back then,” Lunden says, recalling how ABC told her not to mention to the press on her first day of “Good Morning America” that she had her firstborn with her at the office and that the baby would be traveling with her. But the press asked about it, Lunden answered honestly and the network changed its tune, sensing a public relations goldmine. Lunden’s first three daughters are now grown, with careers of their own, and she’s in the midst of raising her younger four children, two teenage sets of boy-girl twins. Indeed, she rings off by saying she’s headed to a high school football game — a mom who has found another place as an advocate for people living longer better. United Hebrew’s 100th Anniversary Gala Celebration will be held from 6 to 9:30 p.m. Nov. 6 at the Glen Island Harbour Club. For more, call 914-632-2804, ext. 1190, or email Grace Ferri, vice president of development and marketing, at gferri@uhgc.org. For more on Joan Lunden and “Why Did I Come Into This Room?,” visit joanlunden.com and simonandschuster.com.

Joan Lunden. Photograph by Andrew Eccles.

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WELL

BACK IN THE RACE BY CINDY CATTERSON

How can a 54-year-old man come back from knee replacement surgery to complete a 100-mile bike race just 18 weeks post-op and an Ironman competition four months after that? According to Greenwich resident Ken Harris, the answer is determination to be physically fit before surgery, setting goals to achieve after surgery, and selecting the joint replacement surgeon he could trust to do the best job – Frank Ennis, M.D., of Orthopaedic & Neurosurgery Specialists (ONS) in Greenwich. “Dr. Ennis understood that I wanted to achieve certain things and we worked together to get me there. I learned that losing weight and getting fit before surgery would make the entire process so much easier, so I did what I had to do,” Harris says.

HEALTH & FITNESS

Ken Harris at the recent GFNY (Gran Fondo New York) Championship, a 100-mile endurance race from the city to Bear Mountain. Courtesy Ken Harris.

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Indeed, studies have shown that people who are in good physical condition prior to surgery are much more likely to have an easier, faster and successful recovery than those who are in poor shape. Harris, for one, reinforces those findings. However, his road to presurgical fitness wasn’t an easy one. Over the past 25 years, Harris’ athletic pursuits were moved to the back burner while he raised a family and built a residential contracting business. At the same time, Harris began to experience pain in both knees that interfered with his ability to exercise. In 2014, the former Ironman and triathlon competitor contracted a MRSA virus in his right knee after seeking treatment for pain. That episode took a grueling six months to overcome. Traumatized by the experience, Harris put off seeking any further pain treatment, even as it worsened over the years. By 2018, Harris was so debilitated by pain, he couldn’t perform many of the tasks required in his line of work or even simply climb a flight of stairs. He knew he had to do something. That’s when he went searching for a joint replacement surgeon who would give him confidence that his previous medical nightmare would not be repeated. Friends recommended Ennis. “Dr. Ennis immediately put me at ease,” Harris recalls. “He genuinely listened to my concerns and was cautious and sensitive to what I had been through. He gave me faith that I could get my life back, and he was there guiding me every step of the way.” With confidence in Ennis’ surgical expertise, Harris didn’t feel any angst or fear going into the procedure. After, he was amazed that he didn’t need narcotics for pain. “I took one painkiller after leaving the hospital, but once I realized that I only felt discomfort, I threw out the rest. There wasn’t really any pain.” An exceptional recovery was helped along through 12 weeks of rehabilitation at the Harrison office of the ONS Physical Therapy Center. By the time therapy was finished, Harris was ready to rebuild his strength and endurance on a bike so he could participate six weeks later in the GFNY (Gran Fondo New York) Championship, a 100-mile endurance race from the city to Bear Mountain. While Harris may never run a 2:43 marathon again, he is motivated by what he can do, as long as Ennis gives him the OK. On Aug. 18, Harris completed an Ironman competition at Mont Tremblant in Canada. It was just seven months and seven days from the date of his surgery. “When I asked Dr. Ennis about doing the Ironman, his main concern was whether I felt up to it,” Harris says. “And he advised me to walk during the part of the race the involves running. I could live with that.” Cindy Catterson is director of marketing and communications for Orthopaedic & Neurosurgery Specialists in Greenwich. For more, visit onsmd.com.

Happy 15th birthday Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital! Boston Children’s Health Physicians is proud to be part of the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital family at Westchester Medical Center. With over 300 skilled clinicians in more than 25 areas of medical expertise, we are proud to provide outstanding care for children—from birth through adolescence and beyond. Serving kids and their families in more than 60 locations, Boston Children’s Health Physicians is where local families come for answers.

New York & Connecticut 844-4MD-BCHP | BCHphysicians.org

WELL

HANDS-ON HELP FOR CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME BY ALEJANDRO BADIA, M.D.

HEALTH & FITNESS

When it comes to carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), yes or no? • Repetitive hand and wrist activities required by your job can be blamed for a larger percentage of cases of CTS. • Aches and pain of the hands and wrist are almost always attributable to CTS. • Surgery is usually the only option for treating CTS. • CTS surgery is often unsuccessful and can lead to significant lost time from work. If you answered affirmatively to any of these statements, then read on to learn the facts. Symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome are specific and telltale. They begin gradually, worsen over time and involve a persistent burning, tingling or numbness in the fingers, vague pain in the wrist and forearm and decreased hand strength, due to compression — a pinching -- of the median nerve, which runs from forearm to hand through the narrow, rigid carpal passageway on the wrist’s palm side. The nerve shares that tunnel with nine tendons, which control flexing of fingers and thumb, whose roof is a broad ligament called the ransverse carpal ligament. Constant use of fingers, hands or wrists, such as long hours of typing on a computer keyboard or performing carpentry, painting, food preparation and similar functions, may aggravate a CTS condition already present, although research has not determined any definitive cause-effect relationship between repetitive work and CTS. In most instances, musculoskeletal aches and pains that workers develop on the job are just that — aches and pains. Risks for CTS are multiple. They include: • Age: The reported average age of CTS patients is between 40 and 50 years old. • Gender: Women are three times more likely than men to experience CTS. The higher risk is attributed to females’ anatomically narrower wrist channels through which the median nerve travels and the disorder’s suspected relationship to metabolic and hormonal-level changes during pregnancy and menopause. • Heredity: CTS can run in families. • Wrist injury • Underlying medical conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes and a 120

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dysfunctional thyroid. CTS is like a leaky faucet. Delaying repairs only makes the problem worse. If untreated, CTS symptoms can increase in duration and intensity, eventually making it difficult for patients to form a fist or coordinate their fingers in order to do simple tasks like buttoning a shirt or blouse, tying shoelaces or holding a fork. The condition may even result in permanent nerve damage and wasting of hand muscles, particularly at the base of the thumb. Contacting orthopedic specialists experienced in advanced treatment techniques for disorders of the upper limbs is imperative if a person suspects he or she may have CTS. Before making a diagnosis, the specialist will run several simple tests, such as imaging diagnostics to find signs of arthritis or abnormal wrist issues that can cause pressure on the median nerve. Wrist injuries such as fractures or ligament lesions can be associated with CTS, so in many cases the hand specialist will address the potential pinched nerve at the time of the procedure for trauma. Confirmation of CTS does not automatically mean surgery. For milder cases, recommended therapies tend to be conservative, involving wearing of wrist splints (mostly at night), taking anti-inflammatory medications and/ or receiving an injection of corticosteroid. Physical or occupational therapy has been shown to alleviate certain symptoms but not cure the condition. If surgery does prove necessary, newer techniques, including a breakthrough procedure called endoscopic release, are proving truly effective in permanently resolving the condition. The goal, of course, is to relieve pressure on the nerve by simply dividing the offending ligament tissue that is cramping it. The ligament simply reforms but with a much larger tunnel diameter, as much as 40%, according to some MRI studies published. In standard open CTS surgery, performed in an outpatient setting under local anesthesia, the specialist divides the ligament tissue that serves as the roof of the carpal tunnel to increase space in the wrist canal. With an endoscopic approach, the surgeon will divide the carpal tunnel ligament through a tiny cut in the crease of the wrist without making a larger, open incision. The end result is the same, but the endoscopic technique simply allows a much faster return to work, play or sports. Indeed,, most office work can be done within days of the procedure and even surgeons have returned to the OR in well

Whether you’re creating a work of art or just raking leaves, orthopedist Alejandro Badia says, loosening your grip and take frequent breaks to avoid carpal tunnel syndrome. Auguste Rodin’s “The Hand of God” (modeled circa 1896-1902; carved circa 1907), marble. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

under a week after endoscopic release. Either way, most patients recover very quickly, despite the myths and urban legends that abound. One of my patients who underwent endoscopic CTS procedure was back on her computer at work within 90 minutes following surgery. Many orthopedic practices, like OrthoNOW, offer one-stop care — from diagnosis to treatment to instructional rehabilitation. CTS cannot always be prevented, but risks and symptoms may be reduced. Here are some tips: • Be cautious of hand position during sleep. Wrist flexion (bending) typically occurs during REM sleep (dreaming) therefore using a night splint will avoid that and minimize painful night symptoms. • Taking vitamin B6 has had some protective effects in early stage nerve compression. • Relax your grip on tools, pens or other items and take frequent breaks, allowing the fingers to stretch and extend fully. • Keep hands warm in a cold environment. Cold hands are a risk factor for CTS. • Practice good posture. Hunching places strain on arms, wrists and hands. Avoid bending wrists too much in either direction (full extension or flexion). • Take breaks when doing prolonged activities with hands or wrists. Alejandro Badia, M.D., is a hand and upperlimb surgeon and founder of the Floridabased Badia Hand to Shoulder Center and OrthoNOW, a walk-in orthopedic care clinic in Miami. For more, visit drbadia.com and orthonowcare.com.

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WELL

MOVING IN NEW WAYS BY GIOVANNI ROSELLI …Things aren’t the way they were before. You wouldn’t even recognize me anymore…” – Linkin Park, “In The End”

HEALTH & FITNESS

I have gone through quite an evolution in regards to my training techniques. Starting in a traditional, bodybuilding/weightlifting type of training as a professional wrestler, all I did and know how to do was traditional strength training with weights. As time went on, I discovered many other types of training that have been extremely influential on my fitness career. I have learned that there is a lot more to fitness, health and wellness than lifting weights. Some may find it hard to believe that nowadays I very rarely use any type of machines with my clients or myself. In today’s society, it is commonplace to say that we are not mobile enough throughout the day, sit for too long and remain glued to electronics for way too long. So if you are going to the gym and plan to exercise, this is the one hour out of your day (give or take) where you don’t have to sit down. So why would I sit you down on a bunch of machines that only isolate specific body parts? Our bodies need to get up and move. And not only move but do so in an integrated fashion, not in isolation. • When you want to go down on the floor to play with your kids or grandkids, your entire body requires you to do so. • Taking the freshly cut Christmas tree off the roof of your car, into your house and setting it up in the living room require a lot of whole-body functional strength and flexibility. • Next time you get on a flight and need to put some luggage up in the overhead compartment, think about how your entire body needs to lift it off the floor, shift it to your torso and lift it over your head into a space. These are examples of what the fitness industry often phrases as “functional strength.” We want to feel strong not only when we exercise but when we go about our day. When I’m training a client, or even myself, bystanders often ask a number of questions: “What type of training is that?” “What do you call that type of exercise?” “Does that help with flexibility?” “Does that get your heart rate up?” So what do I use? Below are some of my favorite types of “unconventional” tools that are a daily staple with my clients and my own regimen:

ViPR PRO This piece of equipment may have been the most influential tool for me. ViPR, now the newly updated ViPR PRO, was created in Canada over a decade ago by biomechanist Michol Dalcourt and strength coach Simon Bennett. After visiting several high-level hockey camps, they looked at how certain

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Giovanni Roselli teams were much stronger than others. They noticed a theme that the athletes who grew up and worked on farms were much working out with the ViPR PRO. stronger on the ice than the teams of kids who grew up and Courtesy ViPR PRO. lived in a suburban city. They created an amazing product that uses the whole body as a unit and comes in sizes ranging from 4 kilograms (about 9 pounds) to 32 kilograms (about 70 pounds). Many traditional types of strength training keep the weight on the midline. ViPR PRO promotes moving mass away from the midline and center of gravity. You can push, pull, drag, twist, tilt, flip, shift and carry ViPR PRO, which makes using it task-specific (dragging the ViPR PRO across the floor) versus muscle-specific (isolating your biceps with a bicep curl).

KETTLEBELLS The kettlebell has been around for centuries and is thus one of the oldest forms of strength training. Exercises such as the Kettlebell Swing and Turkish Get Up have gotten popular in fitness circles. I do want to make a point that there are a lot of sloppy, dangerous exercises done with kettlebells, so please make sure you learn how to use them from an experienced kettlebell instructor.

TRX TRX Suspension Training units are just as common in gyms now as dumbbells and medicine balls. They were created by Navy Seal Randy Hetrick, who wanted to create a piece of equipment that would keep him and his fellow Seals in shape no matter where they were in the world. One of their taglines, “Make Your Body Your Machine.” sums up why I’m such a big fan of this equipment. Training with TRX, you can use leverage in a variety of ways to make exercises more or less challenging based on the individual.

TIME TO GET MOVING If you have heard of these pieces of equipment, great. I hope you are using them on a regular basis. If not, start to explore where you would have access to them, (Hint, hint: Most good fitness facilities will have them.) Another bonus? These are all portable so they make for a great home gym as well. Remember: Things in motion stay in motion and things at rest stay at rest. So keep yourself in motion. Reach Giovanni on Twitter @GiovanniRoselli and at his website, GiovanniRoselli.com.

a color revolution.

www.BlossomFlower.com 914.304.5376 877.458.1709

PET CARE

PET OF THE MONTH

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AT LONG LAST LOVE

PHOTOGRAPH BY SEBASTIÁN FLORES

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Who says love lasts forever? Benji, a 1- to 2-year-old Yorkshire Terrier, had a family that loved and socialized him. Unfortunately, they were forced to give him up. It’s a shame, because he’s a happy, wiggly little guy who loves everyone. He’d be a great addition for a home looking for an energetic, fun-loving friend. Who knows? Maybe this time he’ll find his forever family. To meet Benji, 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.

I FEEL SO POWERLESS. WE HAVE TO WATCH HER EVERY MINUTE. FAMILY AND FRIENDS STOPPED COMING AROUND. HE KEEPS SAYING: “THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH ME.” IT’S DESTROYING OUR FAMILY. I FEEL SO GUILTY WE HAVE TO MOVE HER INTO A HOME. IT’S SO HARD TO CARE FOR SOMEONE WHO’S MEAN TO YOU. HE HIDES THINGS ALL THE TIME. I’M GRIEVING THE LOSS OF SOMEONE WHO’S STILL ALIVE. WE DON’T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO START.

LIVING WITH FTD IS HARD. LIVING WITHOUT HELP IS HARDER. THERE’S COMFORT IN FINDING OTHERS WHO UNDERSTAND. WE FINALLY FOUND A DOCTOR WHO GETS IT. I GOT SO MUCH ADVICE FROM OTHER CAREGIVERS. UNDERSTANDING MORE HELPS ME DEAL WITH HER SYMPTOMS. SEEING THAT OTHERS MADE IT THROUGH, I KNEW I COULD TOO. WE HONOR HIM BY ADVOCATING FOR A CURE. NOW I’M BETTER AT ASKING FOR HELP. NO MATTER HOW BAD IT GETS, WE KNOW WE’RE NOT ALONE. It can feel so isolating and confusing from the start: Just getting a diagnosis of FTD takes 3.6 years on average. But no family facing FTD should ever have to face it alone, and with your help, we’re working to make sure that no one does. The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration (AFTD) is dedicated to a world without FTD, and to providing help and support for those living with this disease today. Choose to bring hope to our families: www.theAFTD.org/learnmore

PET PORTRAITS

YOU’VE COME A LONG WAY, ELLIE BY ROBIN COSTELLO

PET CARE

Debbie and Cris Ferreira of Mahopac were heartbroken when their beloved Pitbull mix crossed over Rainbow Bridge in 2015. Devoted pet lovers, they didn’t know how or what would fill the space in their hearts and their house ever again. But nine months later Debbie saw a picture of a gorgeous puppy on Petfinder, and fell in love all over again. “I knew instantly I had to have her,” she says. After a quick consult with her hubby, she filled out an application with the Shaggy Dog Rescue organization out of Houston, which had the dog. She waited anxiously to hear. After a thorough interview with the pet “foster parents” Sharon and Marion Chamblee, Debbie and Cris were approved to adopt the pumpkin colored, mini wirehaired Dachshund/Terrier mix. Seems simple right? Not so fast: Their challenge was that this little “pumpkin” was located in Houston, more than 1,700 miles (and a 25-plus hour drive) from their home. Every epic story has a hero, so in steps Greg Mahle of Rescue Road Trips. Once a month, Greg packs his specially outfitted rig full of Southern rescue dogs that are waiting to be adopted by families in the Northeast. Assisted by dozens of volunteer “angels” who meet the rig at stops along the way, he makes the 4,000-mile round-trip drive to deliver these animals to their new families. It was right before Christmas in 2015 when Greg stepped off the rig and handed the puppy into Debbie’s loving arms. “I burst into tears the moment I saw her,” she recalls. Renamed Ellie, the puppy quickly made herself right at home in Mahopac. Debbie reports “Ellie is as sweet as can be, gentle, loving and playful. She’s just the perfect dog.” The Ferreiras knew what to expect with adopting a puppy. But what they didn’t anticipate was the outpouring of care, concern and support they received from the Shaggy Dog Rescue community. Through social media, they have stayed in touch with Ellie’s foster parents and got to know the owners of Ellie’s litter-mates. Cris and Debbie have even attended a reunion party for 28 Shaggy Dog Rescue alumni and their owners from our area. “They are a community of kind, loving and compassionate people who are deeply committed to rescuing animals,” Debbie says. Now Ellie’s days are filled with toys and treats, cuddles and belly rubs. It’s a happy ending to a rough start. Although some may think it was Ellie who won the lottery the day the Ferreiras adopted her, Debbie disagrees: “Sweet Miss Ellie, that little heartbeat at our feet, she made our house a home again.” For more, visit Shaggy Dog Rescue on Facebook or HoustonShaggyDog.com.

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Ellie has found a forever home here. Courtesy Debbie and Cris Ferreira.

A Floral Workshop Series presented by: Westmoreland Sanctuary NATURE CENTER AND WILDLIFE PRESERVE

Into the Wild: Sustainable Flower Arranging Bring home a beautiful, sustainable arrangement created by YOU! Enjoy evenings of conservation discussion over wine, appetizers and floral design sessions at Westmoreland Sanctuary.



Tuesday, November 5

FALL TABLESCAPES – 7pm

 Tuesday, December 3

HOLIDAY WREATHS & ARRANGEMENTS – 7pm Workshop Location: 260 Chestnut Ridge Rd. Mount Kisco, NY 10549

To register, please visit www.westmorelandsanctuary.org Special thanks to our sponsors:

WAG

WHERE & WHEN Nov. 7 “Raising Millenials (It’s Our Own Damn Fault!)” is a stand-up comedy show performed by and about parents trying to catch their breath as they raise millennial kids in a cyber-speed world. 8 p.m., Bedford Playhouse, 633 Old Bedford Road; 914-8673053, bedfordplayhouse.org.

Nov. 7 through 10 The 11th Bridgeport Art Trail leads to more than 200 arts venues and studios, many of them in the city’s artist buildings — Read’s Artspace, The American Fabrics Arts Building, the NEST Arts Factory, and 305 Knowlton St. New this year is “A Pop of Color,” artists’ installations in vacant storefronts along Main Street and Fairfield Avenue. See website for times and places of art installations, music and performance throughout the city. 203-3347748, bridgeport-art-trail.org.

Nov. 8 “People Connections 4,” (detail), will be featured in “Dataism,” opening Nov. 3 in White Plains.

Through Dec. 7

Nov. 3

OSilas Gallery at Concordia College presents “Young, Gifted and Black,” an exhibit of works that were created by artists of African descent, drawn exclusively from the private collection of Bernard I. Lumpkin and Carmine D. Boccuzzi. Times vary, 171 White Plains Road, Bronxville; 914-337-9300, osilasgallery.org.

New Rochelle Opera will present a concert that will celebrate the highs and lows of great male voices in opera and musical theater, with NRO members Joshua Benevento, Paolo Buffagni, Tom Mulder and John Dominick, accompanied by pianist Georgianna Pappas. 3 p.m., Christopher J., Murphy Auditorium, 715 North Ave., New Rochelle; 914-576-0365, nropera.org.

Through Jan. 26 Katonah Museum of Art presents “Sparkling Amazons,” an exhibition that explores the contribution of female artists to the Abstract Expressionist movement and the significant role they played within the New York School during the 1940s and ’50s. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, noon to 5 p.m. Sundays, 134 Jay St.; 914-232-9555, katonahmuseum.org.

Nov. 2 The Charles Ives Music Festival features awardwinning duo Julian Schwarz and Marika Bournaki, with Katie Althen, George Meyer, Mitch Lyon and Mika Sasaki, in "Variations," a program including Ives' Piano Trio, a new piece by John Cziner and works by Lowell Liebermann, Rachmaninoff and others. 7:30 p.m., St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, 6 Ivy Hill Road, Ridgefield; 203-894-8786, charlesivesmusicfestival.org.

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Nov. 5 through Jan. 25 ArtsWestchester’s “Dataism” spotlights works by artists who use data to explore various spheres of contemporary life and experience. A Nov. 3 reception from 3 to 5 p.m. encourages guests to preview the exhibit, meet the artists and enjoy light refreshments. Noon to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and noon to 6 p.m. Saturdays, 31 Mamaroneck Ave., White Plains; 914-428-4220, artsw.org.

Nov. 7 The Bruce Museum presents “Rewind/FastForward: Celebrating the Artist Documentaries of Olympia Stone.” Join Stone and two of her subjects (James Grashow and Elizabeth King) for a discussion of her films. 6:30 p.m., One Museum Drive, Greenwich; 203-869-0376, brucemuseum.org.

The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College presents a one-night-only performance by Gina Chavez, whose bilingual songs incorporate many styles, from bossa nova to folk. 8 p.m., 735 Anderson Hill Road; 914-251-6200, artscenter.org. The Hudson Valley Writers Center and Slapering Hol Press present its annual “War and Peace” reading program, which will feature authors Pamela Hart and Frances Richey. Eight local poets and writers will read original works that respond to war and resistance in current events, art and history. 7 p.m., 300 Riverside Drive, Sleepy Hollow; 914-332-5953, writerscenter.org. Tony Award-winner Joanna Gleason’s new show, “Out of the Eclipse,” makes its Connecticut debut. She brings us through a dark, personal time and into the light, with a humorous and moving memoir, arranged by Jeffrey Klitz and backed by the Moontones. 7 p.m., The Quick Center for the Arts, 1073 North Benson Road, Fairfield; 203-254-4010, quickcenter.com.

Nov. 9 Pianist Alon Goldstein will open the Symphony of Westchester’s 23rd concert season at Iona College with an all-Beethoven program. The program will include Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, “Coriolan” Overture, Op. 62, and Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67. 8 p.m., Christopher J. Murphy Auditorium, Summit and North avenues, New Rochelle; 914-654-4926, thesymphonyofwestchester.org.

Experience Something Real 2019-2020 NOVEMBER 8 Gina Chavez Live in Concert 10 Dorrance Dance 16 Chouk Bwa 23 Arch 8: Rising Tide 23 CMS of Lincoln Center

DECEMBER 7 An Evening with David Sedaris 8 Westchester Philharmonic 13 A.I.M: An Untitled Love 15 Canadian Brass: Christmas Time is Here

FEBRUARY 8 Orpheus Chamber Orchestra 8 Villalobos Brothers 9 Westchester Philharmonic 14 Paul Taylor Dance Company 15 The Manhattan Transfer 23 MUMMENSCHANZ: you & me 28 Air Play

TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW

MARCH 1 The Very Hungry Caterpillar 6 It Gets Better 14 CMS of Lincoln Center 14 Ballet Folclórico Nacional de México 15 A Cappella Live! 20 Mariachi Los Camperos 22 Treehouse Shakers: The Boy Who Grew Flowers 27 Black Violin 28 Doug Varone and Dancers APRIL 18 RUBBERBAND: Ever So Slightly 19 Westchester Philharmonic 25 CMS of Lincoln Center MAY 2 Gravity and Other Myths: A Simple Space 5 Tania Pérez-Salas Compañía de Danza

914.251.6200 www.artscenter.org LUCILLE WERLINICH, Chair of Purchase College Foundation

JANUARY 25 CMS of Lincoln Center 30 Limón Dance Company

The 21st annual “Monothon Auction and Party” is an evening of fun, food and art. Silent and live auctions include original works of art by more than 100 leading and emerging artists. All artwork will be on view in advance, from Nov. 7. 5:30 p.m. silent auction and party, 7:30 p.m. live auction. Carriage Barn Arts Center, 681 South Ave., New Canaan; 203-8997999, contemprints.org. The Klein Auditorium presents “Voices: A Show of Unity” with musician, producer, actor and philanthropist Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue. This will be an evening of music and storytelling to benefit ADL Connecticut, with special host Paul Shaffer. 8 p.m., 910 Fairfield Ave., Bridgeport; 800-4240160, ext. 2, theklein.org.

Nov. 9 and 10

Nov. 12 and 13

Nov. 17

Skilled artisans, designers, and purveyors of finely crafted merchandise will showcase their wares at the Breast Cancer Alliance Holiday Gift Boutique. Select from a wide selection of men’s, women’s and children’s apparel and accessories, unusual jewelry, home décor, vintage gifts, culinary fare and more. Each sale helps fund the innovative research, breast surgery fellowships and life-saving treatment supported by the Breast Cancer Alliance. Enjoy shopping and plan on joining Tuesday evening for cocktails and snacks. Tuesday, noon to 8 p.m. (with cocktails from 5 p.m.) and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday; Christ Church Greenwich, 254 East Putnam Ave.; mandmzola@aol.com or breastcanceralliance.org.

Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts presents its string quartet-in-residence, Thalea String Quartet, for an afternoon performance in the center’s Music Room. The program will include works from Copland, Price and Beethoven. 3p.m., 149 Girdle Ridge Road, Katonah; 914-232-1252, caramoor.org.

Nov. 15 “An Evening to Benefit the Friends of Saint Joseph Parenting Center” will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the center and honor longtime benefactors George and Carol Bauer and John and Joan Hannigan. Dinner, auction and music 6 p.m., Stamford Yacht Club, 97 Ocean Drive West; 203-588-1934, sjpcenter.org.

Nov. 15 through Dec. 8 Fine jewelry will be featured at CraftWestport. The 44th annual Westport Young Woman’s League’s CraftWestport brings more than 200 fine contemporary crafters and artists from across the country to exhibit at Connecticut’s largest indoor fine crafts festival. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Fieldhouse at Staples High School, 70 North Ave.; 845-331-7900, artrider.com.

Nov. 12

M&M Performing Arts Company and Red Monkey Theater Group present live performances of Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story “Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Dying Detective.” Holmes is drawn into a new case that will take him from a high society dinner party to London’s opium dens. Guests will follow Holmes and Watson on a trip through Lyndhurst Mansion on the trail of this classic mystery. Times vary, 635 S. Broadway, Tarrytown; 914-9623431, MMPACI.com.

Nov. 16 The Ridgefield Playhouse presents “Sophia Loren: An Evening with an Icon” a live onstage conversation with the film legend — one of only five shows nationwide. Includes clips of her career and audience Q&A. 8 p.m., 80 E. Ridge Road; 203438-5795, ridgefieldplayhouse.org.

“Mind My Mind” will be featured in “Short Cuts.” “Short Cuts” is an evening of outstanding short films selected from the Tribeca Film Festival. Themed "Living With Family,” the four shorts include “Mind My Mind,” from The Netherlands, nominated as best international short film. The films will be followed by a discussion with a film's director. 7:30 p.m., Wall Street Theater, 71 Wall St., Norwalk; 203-293-8729, jibproductions.org.

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The Norwalk Symphony Orchestra presents “American Connections,” a concert of two song cycles by Charles Ives and Maurice Ravel sung by Rebecca Ringle Kamarei, as well as Richard Wagner's "Siegfried Idyll,” with a world premiere dance by members of the New England Academy of Dance, and George Gershwin's “Rhapsody in Blue,” with Andrew Armstrong at the piano. 7:30 p.m., Norwalk Concert Hall, 125 East Ave.; 203-956-6771, norwalksymphony.org.

The Drozdoff Society presents the GerlachTetzloff Duo in a program of works by Bach, Brahms, Beethoven, Drozdoff, and Piazolla. 3 p.m., First Presbyterian Church of Stamford, 1101 Bedford St.; 203-324-9522, eventbrite. com/e/gerlach-tetzloff-duo-cello-and-piano-tickets.

Nov. 17 “Swingin' ’40s with The Six of Clubs” is a musical benefit for Bedford Playhouse. The six singers perform music from The Great American Songbook of the 1930s and ’40s, including Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Shore and many more. 6 p.m., cocktail reception, 7 p.m. performance, 8 p.m. dessert and Champagne, 633 Old Bedford Road; 914-867-3053, bedfordplayhouse.org.

Nov. 21 Two leading child and adolescent mental health experts discuss their guide for parents of every college and college-bound student in “The Stressed Years of Their Lives: Helping Your Kid Survive and Thrive During Their College Years, A Conversation with Dr. Janet B. Hibbs and Dr. Anthony Rostain.” The authors explain the crucial differences between typical student behavior and early warning signs of clinical disorders. Discussion at 7 p.m., book signing 8:30, The Walker Center for The Arts, the Harvey School, 260 Jay St., Katonah; 914-232-3161, ext. 161, harveyschool.org/ stressedyears.

Nov. 23 The Norwalk Metropolitan Youth Ballet present “The Nutcracker,” a professional ballet production where the children are the stars of the show, accompanied by The Connecticut Philharmonic, under the baton of Maestro Christopher Hisey. 6 p.m., The Quick Center for the Arts, 1073 N. Benson Road, Fairfield; 203254-4010, quickcenter.com.

Presented by ArtsWestchester (artswestchester.org) and the Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County (culturalalliancefc.org/FCbuzz-events).

A N T I QUA R I U S

T H E G R E E N W I C H H I STO R I C A L S O C I E T Y P R E S E N T S

ANIMAL INSTINCTS OPENING NIGHT FOR THE GREENWICH WINTER ANTIQUES SHOW Celebrating Honorary Design Chair Bronson Van Wyck

December 6, 2019, 6:00 to 9:00 pm Eastern Greenwich Civic Center

HOLIDAY BOUTIQUE November 6, 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm November 7, 9:00 am to 6:00 pm Christ Church

GREENWICH WINTER ANTIQUES SHOW

Fine Art, Jewelry and Antiques

December 7, 10:00 am to 6:00 pm December 8, 11:00 am to 5:00 pm Eastern Greenwich Civic Center Produced by Frank Gaglio, Inc.

HOLIDAY HOUSE TOUR December 11, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm Reservations required (rain or shine) Generously sponsored by David Ogilvy & Associates

HOLIDAY HOUSE TOUR LUNCHEON December 11, 11:30 am to 1:30 pm Milbrook Country Club Reservations required

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greenwichhistory.org/antiquarius

Advance ticket purchase required for all events with the exception of the Holiday Boutique.

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BURNS AT 18 The Jacob Burns Film Center ( JBFC), held its 18th annual gala, “Celebrating Trailblazers,” Sept. 24 with a dinner designed and catered by Blue Hill at Stone Barns that honored three talented pioneers. Emmy Awardwinning and Academy Award-nominated filmmakers Susan Todd and Andrew Young received the JBFC Vision Award and David Barber, co-founder of Blue Hill and former JBFC Board Member, received the David Swope Leadership Award. Director Ron Howard, a previous JBFC Gala honoree, offered remarks on the center’s impact on the arts. Photographs by Lynda Shenkman. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Taylor Hess, Janet Maslin, Ben Cheever and Noah Hutton Ron Howard, Susan Todd, Andrew Young and Gary Knell Laureen Barber Bob Goldberg and David Barber Gary Knell and Edie Demas Ron Howard and Janet Maslin Peter Kend, Kate Kend, David Barber, Janet Benton and David Schunter

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IN CELEBRATION

Hospice of Westchester (HOW) recently hosted its 18th annual “In Celebration” Gala Cocktail Reception on Sept. 26, at the Westchester Country Club in Rye. The event honored Grassy Sprain Pharmacy, Joseph Kahl and Susan Yubas for their unwavering support of the organization and its mission. The event featured live entertainment and raised thousands of dollars for the HOW Anna & Louis H. Shereff Caregiver and Complementary Care programs, which provide alternative therapies to those receiving hospice care. The therapies, such as music therapy, art therapy, reflexology and massage therapy, help to alleviate pain, stress and anxiety, and are available to HOW patients free of charge. 8.

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Front row: Anthony Ciarletta, Susan Fox, Susan Yubas and Joseph Kahl, Middle row: James P. O’Toole, Michele Fraser Geller, Mary K. Spengler, Mary Gibbons Gardiner, George Whitehead Back row: Daniel Molino and William F. Flooks, Jr. Holly K. Benedict and Jack Geoghegan Joan M. Ruddy, Ginette M. Portero and Max G. Gaujean

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NOVEMBER 2019

YOU’RE INVITED

ARTSWESTCHESTER

Arts Gala

Celebrate the Holidays WITH

S AT U R D AY, N O V E M B E R 2 3 , 2 0 1 9 GALA CHAIR

NOV. 29, 8PM

Louis P. Gallo

Senior Vice President, Wells Fargo

HONORING

Martin Ginsburg

Founder & Principal, Ginsburg Development Companies, LLC

Enjoy an extraordinary evening to benefit the arts at The Barbara Walters Campus Center at Sarah Lawrence College.

NOV. 30, 1PM & 4PM For Tickets and Information:

DEC. 13, 7:30PM

FOR TICKETS: www.PalaceStamford.org | 203-325-4466

afabrizio@artswestchester.org 914-428-4220 ext. 326 | artsw.org/gala

Major Funding Provided By: CO • COMMUNICATIONS Marketing | Public Relations | Design

~New Exhibit~

Toys, Trains & Magnificent Trees: Illuminating Christmas at the Mansion

Celebrate This Holiday Season at a Magnificent Mansion

Nov. 20, 2019 - Jan. 5, 2020

Join Us for a Tour or Book Your Next Event With LMMM! Photo courtesy of Gus Apazidis

Photo courtesy of Gus Apazidis

295 West Avenue, Norwalk, CT (203)838-9799 . lockwoodmathewsmansion.com

NOVEMBER 2019

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NEUBERGER OPENING

Recently, more than 100 people attended the opening of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Yto Barrada: The Dye Garden at the Neuberger Museum of Art.â&#x20AC;? Barrada won the 2019 Roy R. Neuberger Prize, which was presented by chief curator Helaine Posner and museum director Tracy Fitzpatrick. Photographs by Lynda Shenkman. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Connie Stancell and Margaret Bartelme Alessandra Russo, Erica Harrsch and Vito Gnazzo Bill Fitzpatrick, Barry Pierson and Ava and Paul Zukowsky Yto Barrada and Helaine Posner Jim Neuberger, Ellen Chassin, Helen Stambler Neuberger and Richard Chassin Abdel Jamoussi and Tracy Fitzpatrick Patrice Giasson and Engels the Artist Denise Herrmann and Laurence Neron-Bancel Karin and Burt Meyer

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HEALTHY INFLUENCES

Praise for accomplishments of the past and expressions of hope for the future in medicine were the dominant sentiments when Westfair Communications Inc. held its sixth annual Westchester Doctors of Distinction event on Sept. 24 at the Surf Club on the Sound in New Rochelle. Individuals who have influenced health care or medical science in Westchester were honored with a variety of 2019 awards. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Alan Gass, David Spielvogel, Masashi Kai, Martha Gamboa, and Suguru Ohira Greg Loomis and Rob Hennessey Candice Daley and Silvana Criollo Frank Capocci, Josephine Capocci and Rosemarie Capocci Milan Kinkhabwala and Sarah Bellemare Suzanne Lindelof, Bill Lindelof, Jennifer Lindelof, Amy Lindelof and Tate Fruchtman Neville Bamji and Tanya Dutta Michael Gewitz and Judy Gewitz

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WARRIOR WOMEN

The Katonah Museum of Art recently celebrated the opening of its new exhibit “Sparkling Amazons: Abstract Expressionist Women of the 9th St. Show.” The exhibition features often-overlooked contribution by women artists to the Abstract Expressionist movement and the significant role they played as bold innovators within the New York School during the 1940s and ’50s. Through the presentation of some 30 works of art alongside documentary photography, the exhibition captures an important moment in the history of Abstract Expressionism. Photographs by Margaret Fox. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Anna Haqq Shai and Rotem Reshef and Rita and Michael Gitlitz Vickie Morris, Yvonne Pollack, Ginny Gold and Debbie Mullin Marilyn and Arnold Miler Martha Campbell, Christine Berry, Chris Haqq and Maddy Berezo Maralyn Carr, Bob Stahmer and Ellen Grimes Lisa Rotmil and Alex Schmelzer

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NOVEMBER 2019

Season continues Dec. 8th! Rachael Worby, Conducting HyeJin Kim, Piano Members of Ballet Hispanico

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westchesterphil.org/mainstage

The Schoolhouse Theater & Arts Center The Longest Running Professional Not-for-Proﬁt Theater in Westchester

Peter Calo,

Jesse Terry, Robinson Treacher and Cassidy come together in a Nashville-style songwriter circle.

November 9th, 8pm

Buy a 3 Play Subscription Today & SAVE!

Marc Black: Life...One Song at a Time November 23rd, 8pm

“the Venerable Schoolhouse…for over 30 years Westchester’s claim to consistent professional theater.” - NY Times

www.SchoolhouseTheater.org (914) 277-8477 | 3 Owens Rd. Croton Falls, NY, 10519|SchoolhouseTheater@gmail.com

NOVEMBER 2019

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AMERICARES IN ACTION

CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta, M.D. was honored for his dedication to humanitarian causes at the Americares Airlift Benefit on Oct. 5. Hosted by Tony Goldwyn and Erica Hill and featuring a performance by Jackie Cruz, the event raised more than $2.8 million for the health-focused relief organization. More than 800 guests attended the fundraiser at Westchester County Airport, which culminated with an impressive sendoff as a group of supporters embarked on a 24-hour journey to see Americares’ work firsthand in the Dominican Republic. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Ali and Will Fels, Roberta and James Conroy and Aliva and Medhi Mahmud Milt and Lisa Hobbs Tony Goldwyn and Jackie Cruz Selenis Leyva Alan and Melissa Rwambuya Erica Hill, Sanjay Gupta, M.D. and Michael J. Nyenhui

‘BEYOND’ GOLF AND TENNIS

Everyone had a ball at Ability Beyond’s popular Golf Championship and Tennis Tournament, held Sept. 16 at the Ridgewood Country Club in Danbury. After a day of play, attendees enjoyed silent and live auctions, raising more than $93,000 to support the nonprofit’s continuing efforts to provide job training and placement, supported living and recreational and educational opportunities for more than 3,000 individuals with disabilities throughout Connecticut and New York. 7. 8.

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Bill Peattie, Jim Kennedy, Frank Kunst and Chip Mason Steve Finkelstien and Judy Starer

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NOVEMBER 2019

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GOTTA HAVE PARK

Westchester Parks Foundation (WPF) bestowed three awards to local individuals and organizations at its 15th annual “Celebrate the Power of Parks” gala on Sept. 19 at the Westchester County Center in White Plains. More than 280 people attended the event, which benefited WPF programs and services that preserve, enhance and beautify Westchester County parks. This year’s honorees were philanthropists Carolyn and Don Moriarty of Bronxville, Impact 100 Westchester and The Native Plant Center at Westchester Community College. Photographs by Westchester Parks Foundation. 1. 2. 3.

Steering Committee of the Native Plant Center at Westchester Community College Seth Mandelbaum, Laura Stone and Samantha Schwam Michelle, Carolyn, Don and Kathleen Moriarty

EMPOWERING YOUNG WOMEN G.O.O.D for Girls Inc (GfG), the White Plainsbased community nonprofit, recently launched a major leadership development initiative as part of its mission to mentor girls. At a threeday kickoff conference held at Pace University, keynote speaker and New York State Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins joined a group of other successful female role models. 4. 5. 6.

Dara Pinston-Scott Mya Cole Andrea Stewart-Cousins poses with group of participants

‘BE WELL’ IN B’VILLE NewYork-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital joined the village of Bronxville, the Bronxville Chamber of Commerce and the Bronxville School to raise awareness about wellness and injury prevention at the second annual “Be Well Bash.” The event was held on the front lawn of The Bronxville School where more than 1,000 people met with Columbia Orthopedics and other medical and fitness professionals. Photograph courtesy NewYork-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital. 7.

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Shelley Mayer, Ken Jenkins, Anthony Colavita, Amy Paulin, Tim Hughes, Jim Palmer, Randolph Mayer, Glenn D. Bellitto and Greg Luisi

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NOVEMBER 2019

GAME. SET. SUDDEN DEATH.

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WE WONDER:

WHAT PASSION WOU LD YOU PU RSU E, GIVEN U NLIMITED RESOU RCES?

Luke Broughton

Arnold D. Escandon

Katherine Han LEED AP BD+C Yonkers resident

professional face paint artist Westchester resident

confectioner/owner La Petite Occasion Confections Mahopac resident

“Invest in real estate and get involved in developments, as well as create programs for unprivileged people and donate to charities and help the poor.”

“The exploration of outer space. An example is the Great Attractor (a gravitational anomaly).”

“Design/build a net-zero and LEED-certified co-housing with a solarium and farm on 10-plus acres.”

“Sleeping. No, seriously, I’d go to art school.”

“I’m a confectioner and I love what I do. If I didn’t have to worry about finances, I’d continue making candy and would donate all the proceeds to charity.”

real estate agent Stamford resident

Nicole Jones

Michele L. Kim

digital photo assistant Bedford Hills resident

assembly and test technician at UTC Chesire resident

Deryk Mestre

Vanessa Lynn Seide

Kelly Tancredi

Dr. Analise Tenney

“I would pursue my artistic vision in fused glass.”

“I put together backpacks with socks, winter gloves and toiletries and I hand them out to homeless people, but I would like to be able to specially target the homeless veterans. These are the guys that have paved the way to allowed us to disagree and believe in whatever we want.”

“I would really love to start my own nonprofit helping woman with fertility issues. And my other dream would be to open my own eventplanning company.”

“My dream is to get an esthetician’s license. Dig Deep is a nonprofit that brings running water to Americans in need. They work closely with indigenous and native peoples, who are at the forefront of eco preservation. I’d love to become an advocate for their work as well.”

“Donate to small research companies that research and develop drugs that treat rare diseases.“

Mae Lander

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business analyst at Tompkins Financial Corp. Ossining resident

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NOVEMBER 2019

founding CEO Very Lovely Soles Footwear Bedford resident

operations specialist Boston resident

pharmacist New Haven resident