On Broadway

I have to run to Florosny for stuff to kill the grubs (they're everywhere I haven't treated yet, feasting lustily on my plants) and a connector thing for the hose so I can water the bottom of the garden (the hydrangeas look like a sorry lot of thirsty, ignored plants, which they have been until I got busy down there yesterday, weeding and pruning), so I thought I'd leave some visual material of my previous number 2 subject matter (just after our renovations -- hold tight, we're supposedly live and online in July! -- and before the garden) -- Barack Obama turned POTUS and his Michelle, becoming in black and as First Lady.

The Republicans are just a little bit jealous because they wouldn't be able to get a table at Blue Hill. They don't serve Red Hill politicians.

Is the choice of a restaurant by that name loaded or what?

Also, I'm not sure Les Mis is still running now that they are out of office.

Oh, it's back, it seems. Since 2006. Running, perhaps, as recent US social commentary?

Of course, in true form, the Repugs are diverting attention from the significance of the Obama's evening out, beyond the critical importance of the First Couple supporting cultural expression and learning, namely, the subject of Joe Turner's play Come and Gone -- the scars left by slavery -- and the importance of the nation's first president with African ancestry and his wife, an African American, attending.

They're certainly also feeling a little hostile because they know their leaders would be pummeled with organically grown tomatoes anywhere near New York City, let alone Greenwich Village, while the Obamas are served them, and fiddleheads, with gratitude, joy and pride.

We might also mention the tiny little fact that if the Obamas have enjoyed, and perhaps even encouraged, the parallels with Camelot, there is a terrifyingly possible one they face with grace and courage, living publicly and beyond the protection of the White House walls and the limousine's bullet-proof windows to remain visible and participant role models and reminders that no one cannot become President or First Spouse if, as Michelle Obama tells an assembly of girls and young women in the UK on her first official visit to their school, they work hard, in school and after, and live with passion.

Keep on, Obamas.



I think I'll get a new dress and ask my husband to take me out tonight.
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Black tie is so

"George Bush, Texas Nouveau Riche, Wall Street, 20th century.
Wear the Exact Outfit of Steve Jobs for $458."

To an inaugural ball?

Casual January 20?

I don't know. I don't think so. That's just not working for me. How about you?

Do parents insist that their kids wear something appropriate for "the occasion" anymore, or is a plaid shirt, North Face fleece vest and a pair of hiking sneakers -- black long-sleeved t-shirt and expensive jeans if you're as cool as Steve Jobs -- good for every occasion these days?

I thought even guys were sick of being "dressed down" all the time? Or was that just a marketing stunt placed in the New York Times fashion section to get men to start buying clothes again rather then searching the bottom of their hamper before heading to work?

Come on, even my son loved wearing his first tuxedo when he was in kindergarden (He dressed as James Bond for Halloween specifically so he could wear one, and James Bond is pretty cool, too.), and he had a suit, 5 dress shirts, 5 ties, and a nice overcoat before his 16th birthday. He insisted. I just taught him how to use a pants hanger.

Barack has reportedly bought his first new tux in 15 years, and, as Katharine Q. Seelye headlines her December 8 article in the New York Times, "In a New Tux, Obama Seeks the Proper Tone."

Yes, in a new tux, and as everyone knows by now, that new tux will be union made in America. Jobs, guys. It's about jobs for Americans, too. And, wait, are those Levi's Jobs is wearing? (I can't quite make out the pocket stitching detail.) Where are those American Levi's made these days?

Uh-oh.

ShoppingBlog.com reports, "Barack Obama is getting a new tuxedo. His current tux is fifteen years old. The new tux will be union-made by Hart Schaffner Marx." You can get one, too, at Nordstroms for just $895, according to MSNBC's report (see below).

And, according to a Women's Wear Daily report in the same post, "Bruce Raynor, the general president of Unite Here, the big apparel union, talked to Women's Wear Daily about the President-Elect's new tuxedo," and here's what he had to say:

Raynor told WWD that he was recently on a phone call with the President-elect and six other union presidents when the talk turned to what Obama would wear on the big day, which is expected to draw from 1 million to 4 million people to Washington. "As soon as he got on the phone, he told me he was working on his new tuxedo from Hart Schaffner Marx," Raynor said. "He said after 15 years, it is time for a new one." The Chicago-based men's wear firm, founded in 1883, was one of the first clothing companies to enter into a collective bargaining agreement with a union in 1911. Homi Patel, president, chairman and chief executive officer of parent Hartmarx Corp. said he is working with the President-elect's staff to determine whether Obama will wear a suit with a topcoat to the inauguration ceremony.

I don't see anything about comfy jeans and understated black t-shirts there.

But let's see what Henri Bendel (That's in New York City, on Fifth Avenue, guys.) stylist to the celebrities Seth Rabinowitz had to say on MSNBC...

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Mmmm, nope. No jeans there, either. Obama's too cool and elegant for jeans, Seth says, and "he's a really athletically built guy, so they're very excited about getting their hands on him [pause... gulp... did I really just say that?] and designing for him."

I guess you guys are just going to have to get dressed for this occasion. It's what your president would do, and he's no George W. Bush. Besides, Michelle would smack him and not speak to him for a week if he pulled on a pair of jeans and a Stave Jobs t. And that older black woman who was a little miffed when we said that our ball tickets wouldn't be free and replied, "I certainly expect that it will, and I intend to pay for an occasion for this Occasion"? She'd be knock him right upside the head, right alongside Michelle.

By the way, I hear the Texans at the Texas State Ball over at the Gaylord on the 20th are planning to wear their boots and Wranglers to Texas Two-step.

No Texas nouveau riche black tie over there.

Oh, and George W. Bush? He's from Greenwich, Connecticut. But you knew that, right?

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The garden side goes yellow

(finally)

Today Joaquim himself came with Georges. I asked where José was, and he said, "When you said that he did such wonderful work, I had to come and do some of it myself!"

"I knew it!"

"But I never should have told you that, now you know something about me --" He laughed.

"As if I didn't know that already. I saw," I looked at Georges and he nodded, "how you took it when I complimented José's work. You're supposed to be proud of what they do, not jealous! Prideful. Just prideful!"

He was delighted with himself for today's work. The yellow has always been sort of the pride of the affair, no matter how critical the brown is.

"I have one regret," another one regret, "you know what it is? It's the brown. You were right. It's much better very dark."

"You see? I wanted it almost black. You need the contrast, but it scared everyone. We'll get it with the stain."

Yup. We'll get it with the stain.

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