Riverside Drive. 12:45 PM. Photo: JH.

February 17, 2010. It snowed steadily throughout the day, yesterday in New York. None of it stuck. Although it was beautiful in the Park, with the perfect grey light making the white sumptuous. Because of the inclement weather, it was easy to get around: a lot of people stayed home and midtown traffic was fairly light. I went to lunch at Michael’s. Michael’s was even on the quiet side although it seemed every table was taken. Next to me, Richard Rubenstein, the pr exec was lunching with a client; Director Irwin Winkler was with director Joel Schumacher. Patricia Duff was next door with a table of political people. On the other side of the directors Stan Shuman was lunching with Chancellor of the Schools, Joel Klein. And next to them advertising magnate Carl Spielvogel was with Eliot Spitzer. Across the way from them, Jamee Gregory was with Anne Eisenhower Flottl, and Tina Brown was with someone whose face I didn’t see.

Click above to watch DPC's drive through Central Park in the snow ...

More scenic Central Park snow scenes.

I saw Mr. Spitzer a few days earlier on a video on zero hedge, a daily financial site I read. The subject was “The Cataclysm of 2008-2009.” I realized while watching it that I’d never seen the man speak before. It was impressive. I think he’s doing some teaching now. He must be a very good teacher; I wanted to know what else he thought about the state of things. After the talk, which was before the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, there was a brief session of questions and answers. All questions had been submitted in advance and selected. One question gave him the opportunity to talk about politicians and being in politics. He said something that I hadn’t heard since I was very young. He said that any person who ran for public office was at least somewhat motivated by tradition of serving the greater good. That’s what we were taught when I was in school. It was highly ideal but that’s what motivated a generation behind John Kennedy either before or not long after he’d become President. Kennedy motivated a higher ideal in a lot of people in my generation. To serve. He was also asked if he’d ever run for office again. He sort of said “no,” and gave reasons that were credible. However when you hear him speak about the work of government, you hear a voice of reason, of a man who sounds like he knows what he’s talking about. Whether or not Eliot Spitzer ever runs for office again, is immaterial to me. He shows that we need more people who can clarify things. We hope. Mrs. Spitzer – Silda Wall Spitzer I know. She’s being honored this year at the annual City Harvest luncheon at the Metropolitan Club May 11th. It’s their big luncheon fundraiser. City Harvest, if you didn’t know, is doing something crucial and sensible and decisive in the community, redistributing the food and feeding those of us who risk going hungry, including many thousands of children in New York City. This matter is so simple and basic that few realize how profoundly important it is to all of us. They honored me at this luncheon last year. The honoree also gets to speak. The year before me they honored the highly amusing and informative Dr. Mehmet Oz.

The Hope Lodge snowman, which was made by a caregiver from Puerto Rico.

On February 23rd The American Cancer Society is hosting its 15th annual “Mother of the Year” luncheon honoring Tory Burch.

Which, speaking of honoring, next Tuesday, February 23rd, at the Pierre, the American Cancer Society is hosting its 15th annual “Mother of the Year” awards luncheon. And this year’s Mother will be Tory Burch who has four or six kids – I’m not sure of the number. Last week on the day of the Big Snow, Tory went over to Hope Lodge New York City to have a tour and meet some of the patients and caregivers who are staying there. Hope Lodger is a home-away-from-home for out of town cancer patients that is completely free of charge. She also got to see the snowman which was made by a caregiver from Puerto Rico. This is a good luncheon. My friend Diana Feldman has been involved with it since its inception. Diana gets into the party mode with it, plus it’s interesting. They’ve had a great variety of “mothers” including the two Ford sisters, Charlotte and Anne, Sue Bloomberg, the mayor’s former wife, Cokie Roberts, the Washington journalist, Libby Pataki, wife of former governor George Pataki and of course many others. They were all different, and all interesting on the subject of Mother – an infinitely interesting subject.

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