Gotham Diary:
Pontismo
3 October 2013
Thirty-two years ago today, Kathleen and I, freshly married, walked through the door of the New York Junior League, and upstairs to the reception that Kathleen’s mother had arranged with a view to perfection, which was in fact reached. It was a perfect day.
Today’s not so bad, either. I almost forgot about our anniversary, for just about the first time, because I’m so excited about the wedding of our very good friend Ms NOLA, which will take place in two days, on virtually the same October weekend as ours. I spent the afternoon with the bride-to-be and her mother, at the Museum, where we took in the textile show. The mother of the bride, nothing less than a gifted couturière herself, took the great interest in the fine needlework on display at the Museum.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do tomorrow,” said Ms NOLA, as we were leaving. Do tomorrow? I retorted. You’re going to take it easy and get ready for a party! That’s what I told her, and that’s what I’ve decided to do myself. I’ll celebrate the conjunction of anniversary and wedding with a little pontismo. Back on Monday!
***
The other night, when I was reading the Claudia Roth Pierpont piece about Philip Roth and his writer friends that I mentioned yesterday, I was driven into a pothole by a reference to Bellow’s being “in low spirits, recovering from the death of both his brothers and the end of his fourth marriage.” I threw down the magazine. “I’m sorry,” I burst out to Kathleen. “I think it’s fine that the Wife of Bath married five times, but any man who marries more than three times has a broken axle.”
When the lava cooled, Kathleen asked, “But why does the Wife of Bath get to marry five times?”
“Men.”
I’ve got a date with Kathleen for dinner at 8:30, and not in Yorkville.