http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/1429056
Holiday parties. Down at Swifty’s we had a holiday luncheon for our contributors to the New York Social Diary. This is of no particular interest to readers, I know, but it does amaze me and JH that there is a core group who provide interesting edit for the NYSD on a weekly basis.
Present at the luncheon were: Jeanne Lawrence (SF and Shanghai Social Diary), Alex Lebenthal, the chronicler of changing times amongst the Wall Street crowd; Jesse Kornbluth, book review blogger (Headbutler.com), social commentator, and our literary Boswell of the world; Hilary Geary Ross who pens the Palm Beach Social Diary during the season; Charlie Scheips, the loquacious and peripatetic curator, art historian and uber-gadfly of the world of the creative arts; Jordana Zizmor, whose reviews and photos of the restaurants around town plus their bill of fare can make your mouth water no matter the time of day; photographer Ann Watt who covers many events for NYSD with her camera; Carol Joynt who records the Washington scene for us, and came up from the nation’s capital on the Acela to join us; Roger Webster who handles a lot of the NYSD public relations and events as well as contributes with his camera and reporting abilities; Wendy Lerman who reports on the New York Shopping Diary; Sian Ballen who has been working with JH and me since Avenue magazine in the late 90s, and Quest in the early Aughts, and who with Lesley Hauge, (also since Avenue) conducts the weekly NYSD HOUSE interviews; Gail Karr who goes out into the world and sells those beautiful advertisements that we see on the NYSD, and Sam Dangremond, a recent college grad and newcomer to New York who is working for New York magazine fulltime and occasionally contributing his reporting services to the NYSD. Missing were Anita Sarko (who was under the weather), Jamee Gregory, who had another lunchdate, Jill Krementz who is committed every Wednesday to volunteering at the Memorial Sloane-Kettering Cancer Center; Augustus (Clemmer) Mayhew who writes so many wonderful Palm Beach real estate and history pieces, and Ki Hackney who has been away from the fray for awhile but when she is present is a crackerjack reporting on things fashionable and stylish.
JH and I started the NYSD in September of 2000. For a long time it was just the two of us – he on the camera and the technological and I at the Diary and whatever. Over time we’ve added, and are still adding to a staff of contributors who enhance the NYSD in so many ways. I know that many regular readers check out the Diary and the Party Pictures and forsake the other diaries and report, for whatever reason. Just so you know: the talent producing them is the best and there is very possibly something you will love learning.
Swifty’s provided us with a menu of choices in the appetizer, main course and dessert departments. For the seventeen of us, the bill came to a little more than $800 plus tip, or $960. That included three courses, drinks, coffees, teas, etc. which works out to a little more than $45 a person for a complete and delicious lunch. The service at Swifty’s is excellent. You feel like the staff cares about you. I report this just in case someone is looking for something like this.
Many of our contributors barely know each other, if at all. Although as New York goes, many of them know of each other from one direction or another because they are all pros in their fields. And so, from the moment they were seated at table, the decibel level of conversation was very high and unrelenting. Sometimes when I’d tap the glass with my knife to get attention, I’d get no attention because they couldn’t hear it through the din.
New Yorkers love to talk. And talk. And talk. We met at 12:45 and luncheon was over at 3 pm. Nothing was accomplished except everyone getting a look at Who Else and possibly enjoying their conversation.