Essex born journalist Richard Littlejohn claims that the Royal Family are a “bunch of tax-evading adulterers” (more…)
Tag: USA
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Richard Littlejohn
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Paul Johnson Calderon: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”
The Steeple Times asks Paul Johnson Calderon: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”
The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force?
Wit, cunning and sheer will.
“Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?
Trust no one.
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David Patrick Columbia
This gentleman giant is the editor-in-chief of Quest magazine and the founder of the New York Social Diary. A revered social chronicler, “DPC” as he is widely known, previously collaborated with Debbie Reynolds on her autobiography and has also variously been an actor and stockbroker. He is seen at all of New York’s best events and amongst his favoured lunching spots are Michael’s and Swifty’s. Of dinner parties, DPC states: “You really never know who you will get as a dinner partner. It is a roll of the dice. I look forward to meeting different people from all walks of life — that is what makes life interesting”. -
Lillian Pulitzer Rousseau (born Lillian Lee McKim; 1931 – 2013)
This Palm Beach based “Queen of Prep” was the daughter of a Standard Oil heiress who began her career selling orange juice on Worth Avenue. Customers loved Pulitzer’s bright dresses and seizing on this, she began to sell them. Soon, her creations became the favourites of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Caroline Kennedy and members of the Rockefeller, Vanderbilt and Whitney families. Sales reached $15 million a year in the 1960s and 1970s and net sales in 2010, by which time the company was owned by Oxford Industries, were $122.6 million. Lily Pulitzer’s designs remain as “must-have” items in the wardrobes of wealthy socialites and jetsetters and “The Lilly” is a household name. When told a specific print could not be used for an exhibition of her works because it was expensive, she answered simply: “A budget… How embarrassing”. -
Collecting a view
The sale of a 15,000 square foot Hamptons home complete with a private island and a room with a truly spectacular view
Andrew Zaro is a collector with a difference. This philanthropist and Democratic donor leads a life that is no doubt the envy of those from whom his firm, Cavalry Portfolio Services, “helps create affordable solutions to resolve their debt”.
Zaro’s wife, Lois Robbins, is a native New Yorker who has appeared in Sex and the City, Ryan’s Hope and Law & Order. She has been cast in the upcoming film Blowtorch, expected to be released in November 2013, where she will star alongside Billy Baldwin.
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Jess Black: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”
The Steeple Times asks artist and animal rights activist Jess Black: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”
The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force?
I think humour. Life is so blah when taking too seriously. I try to find the humour in everything.
“Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?
“No one will fight for you harder than YOU”. You will get a lot of advice, solicited and unsolicited, but at the end of the day you have to trust your own instincts.
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Baroness Gabriella Langer von Langendorff
The widow of the creator of White Shoulders perfume is well known in New York for both her “amply proportioned figure” and for being “highly made-up”. This resident of The Pierre loves bright colours and once told the New Yorker: “I never wear a watch at night. I don’t want to know what time it is at night”. The New York Social Diary suggests she even has her “fur coats dyed to match her emeralds, rubies, diamonds, and sapphires”. They add: “The baroness is one of those individuals of indeterminate youth and age, to put it politely, whose legend, long having departed reality, provides a rich lore that may be more enticing than the facts”. -
Video of the week: Bond’s Range
The launch of the 2014 Range Rover Sport
Tomorrow, 26th March 2013 at 7.30pm EDT, the 2014 Land Rover Range Rover Sport will be unveiled at the 113th New York Motor Show. In a departure from the traditional way in which cars are launched, Land Rover have drafted in James Bond star Daniel Craig to star in a video advertising campaign that will accompany this. It will conclude with a live-stream movie shot in “secret locations” around Manhattan.
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“Where are they now?” – Monica Lewinsky
What has become of the world’s most famous intern Monica Lewinsky?
Monica Lewinsky, it seems, is making a return to public life. The world’s most famous intern was spotted at the birthday party of Heather Kerzner at the Downton Mayfair restaurant last Tuesday night. In the company of amongst others the Duchess of York, Princess Eugenie and her former Admiral Codrington barman boyfriend Jack Brooksbank, Donna Air and the Duchess of Cambridge’s brother, James Middleton, the Daily Mail described her as wearing “dark layers with gem-laden accessories”.
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Has the tea explosion begun?
Michael Benjamin pays a visit to Marylebone tea shop, Amanzi
Try walking into Starbucks and just asking for a cup of coffee. It is now an old joke. The pun is that whereas you used to be able to go to a café and order a cup of coffee, you now have to have to specify whether you want a latte, a cappuccino, a filter coffee, or no doubt a host of other varieties. Moreover, you must specify the size of cup and the type of milk, if any, you desire.
Amanzi stocks an impressive range of teas 
The interior of Amanzi’s first UK teashop This has not yet happened to tea. Ask for a cup of tea and the response will be: “Do you take milk or sugar?” Tea has not progressed very far. Sure, a café might have green tea or peppermint tea, but there is not much point in asking if they have any green dragon pearls, or white peony because they won’t. Speciality teas are largely the preserve of luxury hotels.
This could change if Amanzi, a new teashop in Marylebone, have their way. They have a bewildering selection of loose-leaf tea. From Assam, genmaicha, lavender chamomile, various types of rooibos, through to a selection of kids’ teas with names such as “Tutti Fruity” and “Coco Loco.” And then there are tea based non-alcoholic cocktails such as “lychee mar-tea-ni,” smoothies, tea based frappes and something they call “bubble tea”. Don’t ask – just go and try one!
A complaint I have with the way tea is served in some establishments is that the cups are thick china more suited to drinking coffee. My ideal choice for tea is a more dainty bone china cup. Amanzi have struck a reasonable balance and gone for a sturdy glass, but one with a handle, which makes a perfectly pleasant drinking experience. Another thing that they seem to get wrong virtually everywhere but luxury hotels is the temperature of the water. I am appalled at how often green tea is served with boiling water. Amanzi do not make that mistake: they serve it correctly at 82 degrees.
The company charge £1.85 for a regular cup and £2.00 for a large cup, but some teas, including my personal favourite of silver needle, have a 50 pence premium. This is not too dissimilar in price to Starbucks, but the tea choice is vastly superior.
Amanzi’s cake and pastry offering includes something named “Ugly Cake” If there was one disappointment, I thought their pastry and cake selection somewhat expensive and not the most appetising. However, I am informed that is set to change. I certainly hope so.
Amanzi is an American chain of teashops. The owners of the company have big plans. While they currently have just one shop in the UK, they envisage an initial ten and then even more. They also want a wholesale tea business and to develop a fully functioning UK website. Neil Sanyal, who works with the owner of the business, David Elghanayan as head of operations, mentioned that a different American teashop chain, Teavana, with 300 locations, recently sold out for $620 million. It is clear what he has in mind for Amanzi.
I have no idea whether they will be successful. What I do know is that I am now back at home drinking some of the company’s lychee pomegranate green tea and that it tastes rather good.
Amanzi, 24 New Cavendish Street, London, W1. Website: http://www.amanzitea.co.uk
Follow Amazi Tea on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/amanzitealondon