By Dee Richard
That is always a fun party and a great way to break up the summer doldrums. I guess we all have remnants of the child in us as everyone arrived in their Hawaiian shirts, straw hats and flower leis.Some of the guests were Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Queens District Attorney Dick Brown, Borough President Helen Marshall and her husband, Don, and former Borough President Claire Shulman. Also there were Councilmen Dennis Gallagher and Joe Addabbo, Frank Gulluscio, Assemblyman Tony Seminerio, Rabbi Pomerantz, Andrew and Mrs. Bauman, Tom and Anke Long, Dolly DeThomas, Estelle Cooper, Audrey Pheffer, Glen Riddell, Vinney Tabone, Phil Ragusa, Joe Pappilo, Peter Boudouvas, Stephen Graves, Cassandra Mullen, Gloria Pikarski and Meilin Tan, and the list goes on and on as the party filled up both rooms at the Roma View in Howard Beach.The luau was the first time we have seen Shulman since her operation, and she looks great. It is so good to have her back as we really missed her. Seminerio also looked rather well since his bypass surgery. He lost a lot of weight and it is most becoming. At the party there was lots of interesting political talk. All the candidates are getting geared up for the new election season. This year, with a few contested races, it looks much more interesting than the usual rubber stamping of the incumbents, so stay tuned.Last Thursday Mayor Mike and Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff made a presentation in the Queens Museum of Art promoting the 2012 Olympics. The plans look interesting enough but there seems to be some differences of opinions in several aspects of it. They do have time to resolve their differences providing we are lucky enough to get the nod from the Olympic Committee.In addition last Thursday, Cooper told me that Eileen Auld was having a surprise birthday party for her mom at Dazies Restaurant on Queens Boulevard. I offered to stop by and take a photo, but Cooper said she didn't know if Eileen would want that. But happy birthday to your mom anyway, and may she have many more.On Saturday we attended the 14th Annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival, which is rapidly becoming one of the biggest and best festivals in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The usual cadre of politicos were there, including U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez, state Sens. Frank Padavan and Toby Stavisky, Assemblyman Barry Grodenchik, Councilman John Liu and his son, Cooper, Henry Wan and Fred Fu, Betty Letterese and many others.If you have never gone to one of the dragon races, be sure to put it on your calendar for next year. The entire family will enjoy it, and what's more – it's free. Marshall sponsored a Queens Borough Hall Dragon Boat this year and it came in fourth in its category. Her team's participants had so much fun that they are looking forward to next year.Hip, hip hooray! The Dems are back in town. The opening gambit was Councilman David Weprin's annual barbecue at his Holliswood Homes' backyard. Just about everyone was there.The attendees included U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer; Council Speaker Giff Miller; state Sen. Frank Padavan; Stavisky; Jim Rogers; Councilwoman Melinda Katz; Archie and Christine Spigner; Dora Young; Martha and Bob Taylor; Chet Szarejko; Lois Marbach; Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano; Councilman Vincent Gentile of Brooklyn; Peter Koo, the new president of the Chinese Businessmen's Association; Diccia Pineda-Kirwan; Bernice Siegel; Sylvia Weprin and her new husband, and David's brothers Mark and Barry. By the way, David and his wife, Ronnie, have some beautiful young ladies as daughters. We forgot to mention that one of our favorite ladies, Honey Miller, was also there.After we left David's barbecue we drove to the Roma View Restaurant in Howard Beach where William Johnert was giving a 60th birthday surprise party for his wife, Ruth. Some of the folks there were Tom Manton's son John and his wife, Rita, as well as Marge Adams, Olga Finneran and Gisel Mengela. The rest were close friends or relatives.This is it for this week. Check the Focus on Queens Page. We will probably print David's party photos and save Serf's photos till next week as we have not printed any Dem photos in a few weeks due to the Boston convention. So this week it's their turn.Call me on my voice mail at 718-767-6484, keep the faxes coming to 718-746-0066 or if you prefer, e-mail me at deerrichard@aol.com.Till next week, Dee
