An Epiphany...for "Epiphany"... January 6th, 2014...

Tonight's sunset over Greenwich Village....... it's said that the first Monday after New Years may be the most depressing day for a great many people every post-Holiday season. The Winter stretches out in front of us, bills must be paid, there are no Holidays of any note coming in the calendar before Spring arrives... If you find yourself one of those folks who feels seriously "blue" at this time of year, do the following; rekindle and work at your friendships, go to theatre, museums, cafes with friends, take up a hobby, make your home more cheery, do your Spring cleaning NOW to invite new energy and perspective into your life, and definitely, DEFINITELY GET OUT OF THE HOUSE! Do NOT be a shut-in in the cold weather.... Apropos of that, here's the sunset I walked in tonight!!! Sybil Sez!

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Darling! An ounce of prevention.....

   Dear Sybil, I am writing to you about my New Years Eve celebrating…..I may overdo it!! Is there really any tried and true cure or prevention for hangovers??? Sincerely yours, Blowing Chunks.

   Dear B.C., There IS a series of things you can do that I have collected from some of my very favorite (and most notorious!) drunks…do the names John Barrymore, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Jackson Pollock mean anything to you??? First of all, eat before you party…LOTS!!! And don’t be afraid of dairy!!! Milk, yogurt, cheese, ice cream. LOTS!!….this will accomplish two things: 1) It will coat your stomach and slow down the absorption of the alcohol….and, 2) IT WILL FILL YOU UP…PERIOD!!! You won’t be drinking on an empty stomach and using the booze as an actual NEW YEARS “food group”, (as if the F.D.A. would ever recommend alcohol as a food group to anyone other than W.C. Fields!...did you ever meet him? Oh, that nose!) Then, later when you have finished “partying” and are back home, you can do a couple of things right away….some folks opt to “purge” right on the spot, even if they’re not feeling queasy! It IS a Roman approach to overdoing it, isn’t it? But it DOES clean out everything before it’s absorbed and processed by your poor body! Far less strain on your brain, stomach, liver, kidneys…oh HELL..EVERYTHING!! BUT, if you’d rather not voluntarily throw up, (or even if you do!), take two or even three aspirin with lots of H2O!! LOTS!!!...this will get a head start on any headache you may have, and I’ve been told that it starts to counter-act all the awful toxins that the booze turns into in your body as it’s being eliminated…have you ever smelled formaldehyde???…yuk!!! Lastly!! Whatever you do, DO NOT subscribe to the “hair-of-the-dog” cure….Your dear, sweet body ( the ONLY one you’re getting, Stupid!) is doing everything it can to save you, and itself, from your lack of judgement! Do NOT put more booze back into your system! Imagine that you’ve gotten a terrible sunburn!! JUST AWFUL!!! And someone suggests that you go back out in the sun for two more days, and then sends you to a steamroom! You’d shoot them, wouldn’t you??? Well, the next time that some old sorority sister or a dumb brewsky-boy says to have another beer on your hangover, KILL THEM!!! The courts will find you innocent. XOX!

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YUM!!!... A little Christmas treat for myself....

Okay, Darlings! Many of you know that one of my favorite things to do is grab a nice little brunch or lunch in a cozy place with the latest issue of my beloved New Yorker magazine as my only companion. It's the height of luxury to me to sit in the window of a charming establishment glancing out the window as the world rushes by, and eat delicious food while Adam, Henrik, Rebecca, Peter, Alex, Joan, Hilton, Jill, Nicholas, Anthony, Emily, Ian, and a host of other fascinating folk all harangue, seduce, or beguile me... Well, after shopping for presents for my staff and the assorted eccentrics that are the mainstay of my life, I decided to go to my favorite little restaurant in Greenwich Village, and it happens to be a block from where I live; The Quarter, 522 Hudson Street on the corner of West 10th. I've decided that whenever I go there, I just tell my friend and chef extraordinaire Jason Avery to make me whatever he wants to...and it is a wise decision. Today, he surprised me with an "apéritif suprême"!! On a large bed of cracked ice and seaweed, he served up the most succulent blue-point oysters in the shell with crudo of fresh salmon topped with a ginger emulsion of corn, cilantro, and lime. The lady sitting next to me stared in amazement and asked if they were raw oysters...I said Yes, of course. She claimed she'd never eaten a raw oyster and thought they might be awful... I offered her one, and, like Auntie Mame who I am always being mistaken for, I encouraged her "to try something new!". Well, she did... and was absolutely converted! Jason's version of the dish is so rich and yet refreshing, that I'll bet not even a die-hard shell-fish-sissy can resist them! Today, they were like dessert!....BEFORE the entrée!... And as to the entrée, Jason made one of his very favorite dishes dating back to his days at Johnson & Wales in Rhode Island... An elegant but still generous N.Y. strip steak, very rare, served with a sumptuous au poivre sauce that was then topped by the best and brightest sauce béarnaise I've ever tasted. Béarnaise is a "daughter" of Hollandise, one of the proverbial "5 mother sauces'' that chefs have revered since the 19th century, and Avery does Collinet, its creator, proud!!  The luscious brown heft of the au poivre was lifted right up into the air by the light creamy smoothness of his shallots, chervil, and taragon! And on the side was an order of the extra crispy "house-cut" fries, and an order of the whipped-into-a-cloud sweet potatoes marbled with NY State goat cheese! Really!! Should a meal be one "dessert treat" after another? Let Jason work his culinary magic on broccoli, spinach, and other child-offending vegetables, and I swear we'll have a whole generation of children addicted to eating healthy!!! Are Bill de Blasio and the Board of Ed. listening?? I would have called for a stretcher to wheel me out, but Jason and his partner TJ insisted on finishing my pancreas off once and for all......  so, dessert ( yes! The ACTUAL DESSERT, thank you!) was Jason's famous Chocolate Crème Brûlée. No!...there's nothing to say. You can just imagine how fabulous it was! ..or you can go to The Quarter yourself, and see!! And then you can thank me with fine jewelry!...Sybil Sez! http://thequarternyc.com/ 

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In Passing...... December 15, 2013.

In passing..... Joan Fontaine (October 22, 1917- December 15, 2013).........and Peter O'Toole (August 2, 1932- December 14, 2013). We can't really be surprised of course, with either of them. Fontaine had a wonderfully long and accomplished life. 96 years old? ..and with that wonderful work behind her. And as for O'Toole, by his own admission, he was surprised after all his drinking, smoking, and heavy carousing to be living on and on, year after year.

So many people die long before they're 81, taking very good care of themselves. I often wonder how some people live such long lives. It's genetic of course (partly!), and "environment" and how people take care of themselves, but I think sometimes it's something else.... I think some folks live a long life in spite of all sorts of abuse, self-abuse, and even despair and loss. I think people live a long time who burn for life. Literally burn for it. They may be disappointed and even heartbroken, but they love the journey. And even on the worse days, they find something to love in the world. A tune they hum, the taste of warm bread and butter, the sound of rain on leaves, a cat purring, a dog smiling, any and every sunset.... those are some of mine.

Jack London once wrote,
“I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.”

London died at 40 as it turns out, truly burning up like a brilliant spark. But I think he was on to something. Life force is a kind of fuel. One could use it all up very fast I suppose. But I often wonder if Van Gogh hadn't committed suicide, would his passion and vision and thirst to see and make beauty have kept that wonderful heart beating for a century. Picasso's nearly did. John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Newton, Galileo, Einstein, various artists, actors, writers, the list goes on of people lived much longer than their contemporaries and the “average life span”. And in our own circles, family members or friends that have lived long lives....mine have always been intensely present to everything. "Mindful".... Maybe that's it.... mindful; present to all of life in all its aspects, almost minute to minute. And burning their fuel gladly, knowing that as it is used, so shall it be replaced. I think Life is meant to be used… and with passion.

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Facebook Etiquette 101.....

FACEBOOK ETIQUETTE 101: Well, now that we're all being sent all kinds of Facebook holiday postings, comments, announcements, and invitations, it might be a good time to remember some basic courtesies and niceties, even here on the internet. We don't have to worry anymore about beautiful penmanship and lovely stationery, so it's only fair that perhaps we spend our "mental calories" on keeping other aspects of our communicating with our "friends" as gracious as possible. After all, manners are just another way of letting other folks in the community of life know that we acknowledge, respect, and value them and their contribution to our lives. Apropos of all that, here are some FB tips... When you read someone's post as you're scrolling through your newsfeed, if you've taken the time to READ it, take the time to "LIKE" it. The "like" option doesn't necessarily mean that you agree with the person on their political statement (if that's what they've posted!), but it does mean that you've read it and that you're acknowledging that you've done so. If you choose to agree or even disagree, you may "comment" on it, which is even more interactive, but if you don't, at least have the courtesy to let the original poster know that you visited his or her thought. Certainly, if the post has nothing to agree or disagree with (e.g., a photo of a puppy playing in the snow with a name and birthdate underneath it), you can easily "like" it with no compromising of your political standards or affiliations! And if you post something of your OWN, (a promotion at the perfume counter, a successful naked fondue party, a round of applause about your new coloring book, your dog had kittens!!) be sure to acknowledge each and every single comment that comes in wishing you well and congratulating you. Imagine standing on a chair in the corner of a large cocktail party and announcing to the hundreds of guests at the top of your lungs the events of your day, and then when folks actually stop their own conversations, look your way, and say nice things to you, you just keep yelling your stuff out over their heads. We actually have some noted Facebook folks who do that all the time here....they depend on the attention of hundreds of people they call "friends" for gratification, but never acknowledge their acknowledgement. I'd give their initials, but many of you would palm-slap your foreheads and say, "OF COURSE!".... If you are spending the calories posting photos and news about your life on this public "bulletin board" in the "town square" of the Internet Age, you can observe some of the niceties of the 19th century. A tip-of-the-hat to your neighbor who just passed you in that new FB group about "The Propagation of Oblong Vegetables And Their Danger To Unattended Children", the "The Woes Of Under-Appreciated Film Actresses Whose Careers Spanned The Years 1918 to 1923", or "Words That Rhyme With Purple".... when they comment on your brilliant bon mot, give 'em a tip-of-the-hat back.... "like" is "thank you", it's "I see you", it's "I appreciate you as I would like to be appreciated" in FB chatter. It's time for people to get down off the chair in the corner and join the conversation as partners in an adventure...Sybil Sez...

A Girl's Gotta Eat!!! ..... Roast chicken thighs with onions.

Well, Darlings, Mummie just finished making her fabulous roasted chicken thighs with onions.... Salt and pepper four thighs (organic!), and then brown on both sides in a pot with olive oil and butter (leave the skin ON!). Lift them out and remove the skin but throw it back in the sizzling pot with two large onions (chopped but not diced), seven cloves of garlic (chopped but not minced), and 6 heaping table spoons of tomato paste. Sauté them until fragrant, then throw the thighs back in with 2 cups of chicken stock and a large lemon cut in half. Cover it and put it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 60 minutes. On top of your stove fill a large pot with water and put a handful of sugar and a large lemon cut in half into the water. Bring it to a boil and drop in 4 ears of corn. In five minutes, turn off the heat but leave them in. Check the thighs at 60 minutes to see how they're doing. If the meat is falling off the bone but looking cooked, good! If it's still a little pink but falling away, pull it off with two forks, and cover it with the sauce. Put the pot back in for another 10 minutes... Depending on your oven, it should be done. Don't bake it any more than 80 minutes!! The chicken should be unbelievably moist and flavorful. Carefully cut the corn off the cobs on a generous cutting board, preferably one of those plasti-sheet types that will catch all the kernels and juice. Dump all of the corn and juice into the chicken thighs and sauce, stir thoroughly. Follow with optional sprinkling of chopped scallions and/or parsley. Serves only about one very appreciative woman who's staying home on a cold Winter night....

Tuesday, December 10th, 2013

Every place is beautiful when it snows! Every neighborhood in NYC has that same wonderfully quiet feel to it, cold and yet somehow cozy, and clean as the snow starts covering every twig, every edge, every detail... But it's Greenwich Village that I always think of when it snows. Even when I've been dying of the flu, I've gone out walking in snowstorms in Greenwich Village. If you get a chance today, take a walk where you live and be present to that same beauty that's yours to enjoy. Yesterday is gone... tomorrow never comes. It's only today, and our job is to be "present".... because it IS a "present"....

Some DOs and DON'Ts of Champagne and wine....

Darlings, starting in November, everyone is getting ready to share Holiday meals whether as a host or a guest! And wine and champagne play an important part in those traditions... Here are a couple of handy hints (of the Gazillions we could discuss!) that might come in handy when it comes to libations. 

When you store wine or champagne in your house, the usual rule of thumb is to keep the bottles on their sides.... why? With wines, it's to keep the cork moist. If the bottle is upright for long periods of time, especially in low humidity (like dry heat in the Winter) it can begin to shrink allowing air into the wine and turning it into vinegar...or worse! Although wine connoisseurs may get picky about the exact angle for subtle chemical variations, the basic principle for the average home is to store the bottle horizontally.

As to champagnes, there are two schools of thought: upright or horizontal. The "upright" camp says that the cork and wire closure is firm enough and that exposure of the cork to the champagne over long periods of time can cause an adverse reaction eventually. The "horizontal" camp says champagne and wine corks should be treated the same way, with the cork in constant contact with the liquid.. I've always stored my champagne horizontally. It's the way I was taught, and saw everyone deal with as I grew up both in fine restaurants and in private homes. I DID learn one very important lesson over the years though, and from a friend of mine who was very high up at Veuve Clicquot. Never keep champagne stored in your home for years!! The champagne that is sold is ready for consumption! You don't need to add to its aging. Buy it and serve it in a timely manner. And store it on its side until you do in a dark place with a steady temperature...never too cold or too hot. Never in a garage or a basement that can fluctuate either in temperature or humidity extremes. And never store champagne in a refrigerator! Always chill champagne right before you serve it! ALWAYS!.... chilling champagne too long before opening can absolutely kill the flavor. A friend of mine had an extremely expensive bottle of champagne that he kept in his refrigerator for "that special occasion" which never seemed to happen. Finally after about a year, he found a perfect time to open it with a group of special guests.... the champagne certainly "popped", but the flavor was gone!! Absolutely GONE!...a flavor and festivity fiasco! 

The so-called bouquet of wines is a very real part of the experience...some folks want to "air" the wine after they open it. But many connoisseurs claim that that initial bouquet should not be lost. It may in fact depend on the particular wine being served. I err on the side of always getting the wine into the glass and letting everyone experience it from the very start! Isn't exploring the wine with your guests part of the fun?? Let them decide how it "evolves". As to champagne, well the bubbles tell you everything you need to know, right? They seem to be saying, "Let's party!"... but a couple of tips: Uncork the bottle slowly! It may seem more macho to let that cork fly up at the chandelier, but all it really does is waste the fizz, and possibly some of that wonderful bubbly! You can get a nice satisfying whispery pop from the bottle that satisfies your onlookers and shows your confidence and appreciation for the finer things!

And that can go for your beverage accessories too; champagne flutes are much better than those flat champagne "coupes" from the 1950s, supposedly modeled on the breasts of Marie Antoinette. They were neither modeled on her breasts, nor are they good for champagne....the carbonation quickly disperses, the wine goes go warm, and they don't hold very much on top of it all! Feel free to toast with them and throw them into the fireplace! The long vertical shape of the flute is ideal for chill retention, fizz, and quantity! To add to the elegance, always hold your flute (and indeed ALL stemware!) by the the stem itself. Etiquette experts say that one should avoid ever holding any stemware by the "bowl" of the glass, even a "snifter" if one can manage it. Besides, the warmth of your hand on the champagne flute itself will warm the champagne...(I guess if it lasted that long in the glass!) And if you find yourself pouring champagne, a lovely trick to do it expertly without it foaming up and over the rim is to simply tip the flute at a 45 degree angle and pour slowly and steadily. You'll look ever so "in charge" as it smoothly fills the glass, foaming and tumbling, but never climbing out of control towards a tabletop disaster!! Amusez-vous, mes amis!!

A New Sybil's "WHO'Z DAT?"... LEE PATRICK (November 22, 1901 – November 21, 1982)

Darlings! Mummy has made a decision! After reading dozens of posts and having hundreds of conversations with well-meaning folks who just don't know about the great CHARACTER actors who gave films the depth and genius that surrounded and supported the so-called "stars", I am going to post an occasional, special entry called SYBIL'S "WHO'Z DAT??"....there'll be photos and a mini-bio, and the next time you see one of those familiar, fabulous faces that you just "can't quite place".......well, maybe these posts will help. Some of these actors worked more, had longer and broader careers, and ended up happier, more loved, and even wealthier than the "stars" that the public "worships"......I think there may be a metaphor in that! What do you think??? While you’re mulling it over, I want to introduce one of my best girlfriends and one of the great, GREAT (and unsung!) actresses of Hollywood. An actress who was pretty enough to play the ingénue and leading lady in the 1920s, and then who evolved into such a wide variety of character roles that she left audiences unaware of who they were actually seeing. She was so talented that she completely disappeared into her roles… a veritable Female Lon Chaney Sr., if you will… except that she was so much prettier!!! How rare is that?? And she WELCOMED her evolution into the character roles. The actress I’m speaking of is Lee Patrick (November 22, 1901 – November 21, 1982).

Born in New York City, she first became interested in theatre through her father who was the editor of a trade newspaper. She started off on the stock stage as a teen and debuted on Broadway in THE GREEN BEETLE (1924), becoming a long and popular NY stage presence during the 20s and early 30s with such scene-stealing roles in the original 1929 production of JUNE MOON by George S. Kaufman and Ring Lardner, and later in LITTLE WOMEN (1930), and BLESSED EVENT (1931). For more than a decade, she was constantly employed and established herself as a popular actress, and reprised her role in the 1933 revival of JUNE MOON. Her success in the Broadway production of STAGE DOOR (1937) by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber led her to Hollywood to reprise her starring role in the film version, which would have been a huge break for her career. But eventually the part was rewritten and split from a single major character into TWO characters which were played by Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers. Patrick had made her film debut in 1929, but since that time, had not appeared in another single film, and RKO was reluctant to star an unknown actress in a film which they were beginning to realize had great potential. Her disappointments continued when she was considered and then rejected for the lead role in STELLA DALLAS (1937) in favor of Barbara Stanwyck.

Her difficulties in establishing a career as a leading actress were often attributed to a long-standing feud Patrick had with gossip columnist Louella Parsons. Patrick's husband, Tom Wood, a journalist and author of The Lighter Side of Billy Wilder, once wrote a magazine article which was very critical of Parsons, and she earned the enmity of not only Parsons but of the Hearst Publishing empire which was her employer. She remained in Hollywood, and appeared in a wide variety of films such as BORDER CAFE (1937), a Western starring Harry Carey and in THE SISTERS (1938), a romance starring Bette Davis and Errol Flynn. But the toll on her career was serious. Over the next several years she played numerous supporting roles, without attracting much critical attention. However, in 1941, Patrick appeared in THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) as Effie Perine, the loyal and quick-thinking secretary of Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade. Perine was one of Patrick's most enduring film appearances. In an iconic film that is filled with some of the most eccentric character portrayals of all time, Patrick stands out as perhaps the most accessible and charming of them all…. the “normal” center around which all the drama swirls and perhaps the only person that the audience can actually identify with given Bogart’s morally ambiguous Sam Spade.

That same year, she appeared in a leading role as an intelligent, crime-solving nurse in the murder mystery THE NURSE’S SECRET, but she got very little publicity or career advancement from it. Among her other films are NOW VOYAGER (1942), again with Bette Davis, this time as a passing acquaintance she meets while traveling, MRS. PARKINGTON (1944), GAMBLER’S CHOICE (1944), MILDRED PIERCE (1945), and WAKE UP AND DREAM (1946).

It was in 1950 that Patrick made a shocking decision to star in the controversial and nearly censored CAGED, a potboiler film about women in prison also starring Agnes Moorehead and a host of Hollywood character women turning in over-the-top performances in this thinly veiled Lesbian drama. Patrick’s villainous Elvira Powell is unforgettable as she maneuvers and bullies the younger and weaker convicts in the prison. Switching back and forth in chameleon fashion, a wide of range of comic and dramatic appearances followed with THERE’S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS (1954), VERTIGO (1958), AUNTIE MAME (1958), PILLOW TALK (1959), SUMMER AND SMOKE (1961), and 7 FACES OF DR. LAO (1964).

Even as she was making films in the 1950s, Patrick was also appearing in the new medium of television on the CBS situation comedy TOPPER (1953–1955) as Leo G. Carroll’s befuddled wife, with Anne Jeffreys, and Robert Sterling. She made several appearances as the mother of Ida Lupino in the CBS sitcom MR. ADAMS AND EVE (1957–1958), also starring Howard Duff, Lupino's third husband. Her final film role was a reprise of her Effie Perine character in a reworking of the Sam Spade story THE BLACK BIRD (1975). Starring George Segal as Sam Spade, Jr., forced to continue his father's work, and to keep his increasingly sarcastic secretary, the film attempted to turn its revered predecessor into a comedy.

Long and happily married to newsman-writer Tom Wood, Lee was plagued by health problems in later years and died of a heart seizure at Laguna Beach, California in 1982 on the day before her 81st birthday. They had no children. After her death it was discovered that she was ten years older than she had ever revealed. Shaving a decade off her age was a decision she made early in her career, and at the time of her death, many of her friends mistakenly believed that she was in her early seventies.

Small Business Saturday!

Small Business Saturday....EVERYDAY!

Folks, speaking as someone who walks around NYC all the time, I spot small businesses everyday that have that special entrepreneurial touch that means so much to me in service and products. Take the time to look for small businesses in your own town, and pay them a visit. Remember, the health, patronage and success of small local businesses has far-reaching beneficial effects on your entire community. Let's make Small Business Saturday EVERYDAY!!!