All Is Well in Town & Country

The magazine, that is. It's a Hearst publication and is the oldest consecutively published in America; born of the merger of two newspapers in 1901.

The January, 2013, issue is particularly fine.  The cover promises "An Intimate Story Never Told" abut Gloria Vanderbilt.  After she was conned out of substantial amounts by her lawyer and her shrink, she had to sell her country place and live in her painting studio for two years.

It shouldn't have surprised her much; she had a terrible track record with men.  She'd already run through four husbands - Pat DiCicco when she was 17; he beat her; she divorced him.  Next up was Leopold Stokowski, considerably her senior, folowed by Sidney Lumet and finally Wyatt Cooper.  After his death she had a "romantic relationship with photographer Gordon Parks" until his death in 2006 when she was 83! 

Another very interesting feature "White House After Hours - Late Night Antics from JFK to Obama."  Each president is rated by from one to five flutes of champagne.

Obama - four flutes
State Dinners - six in first term.
Drink:  margaritas, beer, martinis, wine.
Idea of Fun - Pick-up basketball games
Hosting Skills - the president and his wife pride themselves on their dancing prowess and hip friends such as Beyonce and Bruce Springsteen.

Contrast Richard Nixon with four flutes.
Drink: wine or a dry martini
Idea of Fun - piano, golf, poker, espionage
Hosting Skills - rather surprisingly Nixon loved partying with jaqzz musicians and broke all the rules of his Quaker background regarding drinking, dancing, gambling and swearing.

But my all-time favorite is a section in the "Society Network" simply entitled "Weddings."  These are thumbprints of the people, their job titles, clothing and something the editors chose to call "Fun Facts" which, frankly, aren't.

"Fun Fact" The groomsmen's gift was a custom oyster knife from Carolina Shuckers."  Or "The bride wore Vera Wang."

This is the kind of fun fact I would truly appreciate:  "The matron of honor over-served herself on the champagne, took umbrage at a remark and bent over, flipped her skirt up and flashed her thong while bellowing at the guests, "Y'awl kin jes' kiss my rosy red..." when her husband came at a dead run, swooped down, picked her up and set her in the horse tank. The even was being held at the Astoria-Rockefeller Farms in Southampton.

This "social gossip" beats out bleats about the Kollected Kardashians by several hundred miles.  Dip in and read for yourselves - townandcountry.com