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Butler’s Holiday Break: I’d light a fire, pour a tumbler of bourbon — wearing a silk robe and monogrammed slippers, like in old movies — and wallow in these books.
By
Published: Dec 26, 2021
Category:
editor's letter
SPECIAL DISPATCH: ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU, 1931 – 2021
Mary Wald has been the unofficial press coordinator for the Nobel Peace Prize laureates for more than two decades. How well did she know Archbishop Tutu? Here’s the start of her must-read remembrance:
The last time I saw Archbishop Tutu, we sat together on the deck of a house in Laguna Beach, the conversation periodically punctuated by a crashing wave, our faces warmed by the autumn sun. He was concerned that I hadn’t been able to get one of my projects funded.
He told me he would send a message to one of his many celebrity friends, asking him to fund the project for $200,000. He would tell his friend: If you don’t fund this project, you’ll go to a very warm place after you die, and I don’t want to see you burn up. Then he let out his famous cackle, the contagious one, the one that warms your soul just remembering it….
—
Head Butler now lowers the curtain on 2021. In this city, that’s an achievement. On Broadway, more and more curtains aren’t going up. Restaurant doors remain closed. A break for a week doesn’t usually feel like a long interval. Now it feels like a card game in which the dealer is working with a deck of only wild cards.
I’m hoping to close out my book in this break, but if I had world enough and time, I’d light a fire, pour a tumbler of bourbon — because, in a paisley silk robe and monogrammed slippers, that’s what they did in old movies — and wallow in these books.
Thanks for spending time with me. I wish you safety, health, and all the happiness you can grab.
FIRST THINGS FIRST
You don’t want to spend even a day in bed getting over Omicron. Here’s a survival kit.
CRIME FICTION
The Plot – An unknown writer dies. His writing teacher appropriates the germ of his book.
The Glass Key – Dashiell Hammett uncovers dirt in politics.
Peter Temple — Each novel defines “the best.”
CLASSIC FICTION
Edith Wharton — In “The House of Mirth,” it’s a terrible fate to be beautiful, social… and single. Not that much has changed.
Fifth Business – A snowball with a rock in the center hits a pregnant woman, and…
Old Filth – “Failed in London, try Hong Kong.” So he does.
Somerset Maugham — There’s a reason he was the world’s richest, most successful writer.
Remains of the Day – A loyal butler serves a man who’s consorting with the Nazis.
NON FICTION
Madam – Polly Adler “entertained” gangsters, executives, and New Yorker writers.
Putting It Together — the backstage story of “Sunday in the Park with George.”
THE HOME TEAM (FOR THE BORED OR CURIOUS)J
JFK and Mary Meyer – She was killed a year after he was killed. Her diary was burned. I re-imagined it.
Married Sex – The deal was: If tempted to stray, bring that person home. It never happened. And then it did.
