It was the summer of 1999, a few days after John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette and her sister died in the plane crash off Martha’s Vineyard, and I was going to lunch with my editor in Tribeca. On the way to the restaurant, we passed the entry to the loft building where Read More
It was the summer of 1999, a few days after John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette and her sister died in the plane crash off Martha’s Vineyard, and I was going to lunch with my editor in Tribeca. On the way to the restaurant, we passed the entry to the loft building Read More
It has come round again: the day of the year I most cherish and dread. I am not drawn to the commerce of the occasion- the forced buys of somehow-not-as-fragrant-as-in-the-past lilacs (Where have the true aromatic lilacs gone? To botanical heaven, every one?) Certainly I’m avoiding the pink, blushing cards with cloying images of “MOM.” Read More
Beneath the cement and schist of the city, the Four Seasons spa is undergoing a top-secret $3 million makeover that won’t be unveiled until September. However, on a recent afternoon, I was able to meet with the “creative team” responsible for the renovation. When they began to speak of brain-wave treatments and electronic kneading thumbs, Read More
This is father season. The greeting-card racks have changed from pink (Mother’s Day) to blue. The most popular logo is a small, motorless boat, either a sail or a dinghy; second runner-up seems to be a golf club or a steer horn. But someone might mention that for many potential card buyers, the boat has Read More
For 11 years, I have stared out my front windows at the most mysterious mansion in New York: 124 East 80th Street, until April 11 the home of Mohammed Al-Douri, the now-ousted Iraqi ambassador to the U.N. These days, the block trembles with reverberations of that historic eviction. People are still talking about the Last Read More
