Where can patriotism be?
We relived 9/11. That whole day and night my street heard sirens. Ambulances. Police cars. Fire trucks. Emergency vehicles. My friend Dr. Bob Lahita, who runs New Jersey medical facilities and is on their emergency responder list, manned the triage unit across the river 24 hours nonstop.
I also remember the cohesion, unity, togetherness immediately afterward. The patriotism. Taxis flew the American flag. Buildings sprouted stars and stripes. People wore red, white and blue buttons, caps decorated with symbols. It was one-for-all. For patriotism. For the United States.
That’s lacking today. Desecrating, burning, tearing down the flag? Destroying monuments? Few remembering what we are, who we are, what we stand for. What happened to patriotism? The world is trying to crash into the United States of America while its citizens are dishonoring it?
Yes, we remember 9/11. We must also remember World War II. The hate. The killing. The destruction. And always maybe remember the Godblessus best country in the world — the United States of America.
Buyer be wary
Sept. 27, for 14 days, Ian Halperin’s selling the lone copy of his new book, “Blondeshell: The Four Blondes,” about the early deaths of Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Anna Nicole Smith, Grace Kelly on KnownOrigin NFT auction site.
Saying he interviewed 700 lovers, colleagues, staffers, kinfolk, he claims to tell why all died early and that:
- Marilyn’s death was no barbiturate overdose
- Bobby Kennedy’s odd whereabouts leading up to her death
- Pregnant Monroe was forced into an abortion
- Halperin’s intimacy with Smith
You will not find this in the stacks of our 42nd and 5th library.
Flotsam and jetsam
Tom Moran, Mutual of America CEO and some emerald green behind Smith & Wollensky, left in his will that His Eminence our Timothy Cardinal Dolan can down a double 18-year-old Jameson whiskey free. On the arm. Forever. We who treasure him would give him the whole distillery . . . Curtis and Mrs. Sliwa’s studio apartment just added a 17th live-in cat . . . Radio City Music Hall’s back, Rockettes back, Christmas show’s back, camels back come November . . . Rossana Scotto, Fox TV’s morning show anchor since before Lincoln, was on-air, live, on camera, sitting to a side and, while her co-anchor read off a teleprompter, she texted on her cellphone . . . Fashionista iconista Iris Apfel celebrated 100. About her yellow flouncy cape a snotty stylist whispered: “Looks like from H&M” while Iris told guests Donna Karan, Joanna Mastroianni, Tommy Hilfiger and photog Bruce Weber, “I hope to see you all again in another hundred years.”
Down in Mexico
We know COVID restricted international travel. We read parts of Mexico have some un-nice businesses which somehow misplace folks who sometimes hasta la vista, sometimes don’t return. Now, travel writers from everywhere are finally holding their get-together. Where on the globe is this enclave? Iowa? No. Switzerland? No. Mexico. Where allegedly reports allege an allegation that it would almost seem not everyone returns . . . Another thing. High-class eateries are again feeding high-class eaters. Big-time Avra makes big-time VIPs open heavy-time Hermès bags to schlep out their required vaccine cards.
It’s Fashion Week. Shmatta season. Clothes, dinners, parties, going out, entertaining is back in style. It’s dress-up time again. So this semi-society sweetie said to her stylist: “Thanks, the dress you’ve shown me is very nice — but it’s a lot less than I wanted to spend.”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.