It’s said that besides death and divorce, moving is the next worst thing in your life. Well, in these last two weeks, I moved our Dan’s Papers office to its new home in Southampton and I moved myself into my new home in Quiogue, a small village tucked between Westhampton Beach and Quogue, and I’m still here to write about it!
If anything ever “took a village” to do, this was it!
Ali Jabbour, the publisher of Dan’s Papers, with the help of my assistants Brie and Jackie, masterfully organized our thousands of papers and navigated us to our new office.
At the same time, I needed to close on my new house with the July 1 date looming because I needed to vacate my rental home. Somehow, someway, it got done!
To my great joy, I had surprise visitors land at my dock days after I moved in: Geraldo Rivera and his beautiful wife Erica, with Geraldo’s brother Craig and their friends.
Erica had called and asked me if I would be home and I was. They arrived on the bay, but their boat had an antenna that couldn’t fit under the Turkey Bridge (so named because there were turkey farms on the bay and often a few would get away and land on the bridge, blocking traffic).
I saw their boat at the bridge just yards away from my home. They couldn’t make it under!
Erica called to say they were going back to my neighbors’ house around the bend in Quiogue to switch boats. Sure enough, within a half-hour, they reached me and I was delighted that they were the first boat to be docked at my house!
They disembarked and walked up to my patio to have drinks and snacks. I felt like I was living a dream. What fun!
That evening was Dan’s Rosé Soirée featuring wineries on the East End accompanied by great chefs’ food. They prepared delectable dishes that were paired with great rosés.
It was a picture perfect night, warm and lit by the nearly full moon.
The spectacular event was hosted at The Muses in Southampton, the beautiful property owned by the Greek Orthodox Church of Southampton close to Montauk Highway.
The event, featuring plenty of food, drinks, dancing and laughing, started at 7 p.m., but to my chagrin, there was a flood in the bathrooms on the main floor of my new home and I had to wait for the plumber to arrive and clean up the mess! I wasn’t going to wait until the morning for the plumber. After all, I had my son, his wife and their friends sleeping at my house!
I did make it to the party by 9 p.m. and was thrilled to see it was a roaring success, with stilt walkers, a DJ and an electric violinist delighting the crowd! It was so great to see 800 guests having such a good time! What a magical night!
Our next events will be Dan’s GrillHampton on Friday, Aug. 5, followed by the inaugural Dan’s Bubbles on Saturday, Aug. 6. Visit DansTaste.com for tickets and more information!
A riveting read
My friend Joe Calderone, a Pulitzer Prize winning writer, sent me his recently released book, “Don’t Look Back,” which tells the story of the 343 FDNY firefighters who were killed on 9/11 and the fight to find the truth about why they died.
From the first pages of the first chapter, Joe had me hooked! The book is a page turner and I felt as if I was with the firefighters as they climbed up the hundreds of steps of the World Trade Center as it burned.
The story tells how communication with the fire department leadership broke down and FDNY personnel on the scene were not told to evacuate the building. Instead, they kept climbing higher and higher as the flames grew bigger and bigger.
Joe tells the story with compelling realism that made me feel I was with them in their battle, first to survive and then with the families of those lost to search for justice for them.
Joe is a Queens boy who went to Holy Cross High School in Bayside and then went out of town for college. But the tone of the book reflects the urgency of a true New Yorker. It’s a compelling story that must be read.
Read it and you will be riveted by the power of the families’ fight to bring the firefighters’ deaths the respect they deserve. What a fantastic read!
