DIARY2

June 11. Marian lectures at India House on the glories of St Petersburg. Invited to lunch and lecture by Diana and John Hertzog. She is the president of Smythe & Co, a dealer in antique stocks and bonds, historic Americana, etc. The talk was well received by the members of India House. Several, in fact, plan visits to St Petersburg this summer. Afterwards, went up to J & R to buy an Epson printer.
June 17. Marian's retirement party in the Velez Blanco patio at the Met. Given by Phillipe de Montebello, this lavish party, featuring Marian's favorite smoked salmon, fresh strawberries and Veuve Clicquot champagne, was attended by more than a hundred people. Attendees included friends like Dan Wheeler, the Wards, M Laing, and the Valconiers, funders like R Lanier, colleagues from the Met, like the Stones, department heads and colleagues from NYU, like C Eisner. The organizer? Marcie Karp, who has taken over many of Marian's duties at the Met. After the party we retired to Marian's carrel, where the high temperature forced us out in a short time.
July 13. Up to Carmel, NY to visit Margarete and Richard, two psychiatrist friends. Lunch on their porch with three of their friends. The house is an old red school house dating from 1790. They bought it from Richard's uncle Tony, who joined us for lunch. Uncle, now 91 years old, possessing a mind like a steel trap and an incredible vocabulary, was one of those people who can turn everything you say into a joke. It was the most amusing company I've ever had in my life.
July 30. Evening visit to Larissa F, who treated us to a delicious evening meal in her apartment in Queens. On the way to her apartment you would imagine yourself in the outskirts of New Delhi. The meal, taken from the memoirs of an 18th century chef in St. Petersburg, included asparagus soup, Kulebiaka, croquettes Pozharsky (chopped meat cutlets), roasted quail on rice, turnips in malaga, wine and berry aspic. The meal entailed a lot of research and a shopping tour to pick up tableware appropriate to the eighteenth century.
Oct 4. Blawenburg, to the memorial service for Virginia Wageman, a friend and former editor for the Art Department in Princeton and the College Art Association in NY. For the past 7 years she and her husband Jim have lived in Hawaii. Suffered for a year and a half with a brain tumor. Met Jim, her son and daughters at the home of Clem Fiori, a good friend of Virginia during her years in Princeton and an expert photographer for the Art Museum. Were shown a travel book by Virginia, issued in 2002 and designed by her husband. Absolutely beautiful. We will order a copy, available only from a publishing house in Hawaii.
Oct 7. Third visit to the AOH Hall in Stamford, Conn, where Marian talked on the great Irish houses of the 18th century, both in Dublin and in the country. Many stories to tell about Glynn Castle near Limerick, a 'stately B & B". run by the Knight of Glynn, where we have stayed on the last two tours of Ireland, the Proctors House of Trinity College, Dublin, etc.
Oct 15. Prokofiev and his Contemporaries at the NY Public Library, 40 Lincoln Plaza. Talks about the composer, including a discussion by Harlow Robinson of the newly-available diaries of Prokofiev written in the years between 1917 to 1930. The diaries have been published in Russian, but are now being translated by Harlow.
Oct 18. WINTERTIME at McCarter. Love in a ski lodge! Boring dialog helped along by mugging and showing of everyone's bums. If I had to see the bare rear end of a seventy year old actress once more, I would have burned down the theater. Marsha Mason should be ashamed of participating in this farce.
Oct 24. Dinner at the Harvard Club, hosted by Cormac O'Malley, an Irish-American art collector. Other guests: Pat Murphy, a great Dublin collector of Irish art, whose house we have visited twice in the past two years of travelling abound Ireland with the Met. Anna O'Sullivan, a former art dealer, also present. Was surprised at the dozens of stuffed animals on the walls of the dining room