This and That by JL

There’s a book of adjectives that I draw upon to describe our friend Eugene Grant, who passed away recently, some three months before his 100th birthday. The word “giant” comes to mind.  In physical terms, it would be an exaggeration, as Gene was medium in height. Yet his stature was gigantic. This heft was in […]

Jonathan Demme was known to the world as the Oscar Award-winning American filmmaker whose 1991 film “The Silence of the Lambs” was one of only three films to win awards in all of the major categories – Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, and Best Actress. In Westchester, he was known as a […]

They say a good man is hard to find. So when Sondra found Larry Salley some 42 years ago, she married him because Larry Sally was truly a good man.  I am told that a good man is a good son, a good father, a good brother and a good friend. Larry Salley was all […]

In the wake of the Orlando tragedy, I ask myself again a question that I ask myself frequently: “What is there about art that makes us turn to it in times of tragedy?” Governor Cuomo turned to the arts this week when he announced a million dollar art project to honor “all victims of hate, […]

When I think about the epidemic of violence that now grips our country, I reflect on the reign of terror that marked my childhood in the 1950s. It was called infantile paralysis, or polio, for short. It inflicted more than 100,000 between 1952 and 1954. Parents and children were terrified. It was thought that the […]

  I had quite forgotten how spectacular the view is at Kykuit, the Rockefeller estate in Tarrytown. This week, it was glorious as Friends of ArtsWestchester shared a visit. (These are our special members whom we take to stellar arts places.) Henry Moore was at Kykuit to welcome us. Not in person of course, but […]

Back in the day, my dad, Irving, thought of himself as a cross between Irving Penn and Ansel Adams. As a photographer, his signature mark was cutting off people’s heads… in the photos, that is. My brother Charles and I were his subjects. We would stand for hours in a bow, curtsy or other ridiculous […]

Long after my mother passed away at the age of 96, I still think about calling her on the phone to tell her about something that happened to me that day. The urge, the habit, the fulfillment of reporting a success, a regret, a stumble, a gift, has not left me, nor do I think […]