Capital Diary: Midsummer Roundup

It’s all quiet on the social front before the blitz of the fall parties and galas, but there’s fine summer fun in the offbeat events listed below. Some are kid-friendly, to stave off mid-vacation doldrums (at top: “Bee Flower,” painting courtesy of the artist, Kathy Ann Meyers of Laurel, Maryland).

July 26
Zip over to Baltimore for a morning class on how to fly on a trapeze, and fulfill your early dreams. After safety rules, learn the knee hang, hip hang, pulling taffy, lion in the tree, and other moves on a low-hanging trapeze.

July 28
Celebrate Peruvian Independence Day at a pisco party and fashion show at Hotel Monaco’s Poste Moderne Brasserie. Melanie Asher, founder of the award-winning Macchu Pisco liquors, will provide pisco sour specials. Featured jewelry is from co-host Evelyn Brooks Designs. Trendsetting styles are from iKY Clothing, Dar Be Dar Fashion, and Corte Salon. The event benefits Peru’s earthquake victims, hardest hit in the Pisco/Ica region. Sponsor: Coprodeli USA, a charity that promotes education and job training in Peru, (860) 608-6380.

August 1-2
From 2 p.m. until midnight on August 1, Washington Improv Theater presents Improv-a-palooza 2009. During the comedy marathon, the actors improvise 10-minute skits from audience suggestions. You can check it out at the Source Theatre on 14th Street. The Washington Improv is one of the Source’s resident companies.

Improv-a-palooza is part of the Tenth Annual MiDCity Dog Days events. On August 1 and 2, shops, theaters, and restaurants on the 14th Street and U corridor feature sidewalk sales, giveaways, shows, and restaurant specials.

Studio Theatre (at 14th and P) hosts its annual garage sale of stage items from recent productions on August 1 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The intriguing props include Edie Beale-style hats and scarves from Grey Gardens, furniture, home accessories, clothing, and collectibles. Raffles throughout the day.

On August 2, the Source Theatre holds an open house, with sing-alongs, T-shirt making, lightsaber combat training, and other entertainment especially for kids in the morning, with performances by the Source’s three resident theater companies in the afternoon.

August 6
Fiesta time! Learn the cumbia and tamborito. Grufolpawa (Grupo Folklorico de Panama en Washington, D.C.) teaches the Panamian folk dances to live music performed by Jario y sus Muchachos, Kogod Courtyard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 5 p.m.-8 p.m.

August 9
Kayak on the Potomac from sunset into the moonlight. The International Club of D.C. offers the evening kayaking. Club founder Sanjaya Hettihewa says, “We have timed it with the full moon illuminating the monuments, to make it even more spectacular.” A candle-lit picnic dinner at the club’s Georgetown dock follows the ride.

Plan Ahead: The Hampton Cup Regatta

“It will scare the fish out of their scales,” say the locals, when some of the world’s fastest watercraft compete August 14-16 in the Hampton Cup Regatta: Wild in the Wake.

Called “Wild in the Wake” with good reason, the regatta numbers about 100 20-foot-long hydroplanes and Jersey Speed Skiffs reaching speeds of up to 170 miles an hour.

Held once again in Hampton, Virginia, on the Chesapeake, this will be the 83rd sortie of America’s oldest continually running hydroplane race. It is also one of the last remaining boat races that is free of charge.

Daily side attractions include a show space with muscle cars, motorcycles, and antique cars; a model boat flotilla; and a children’s area with clowns. The band Element performs on the night of August 14 at the regatta’s Bash on the Bridge party.

Hampton, one of the nation’s oldest cities, is a pleasant three-hour drive from Washington, or an easy train ride. For information on accommodations and sights in this historic city: Hampton Convention and Visitors Bureau; the photo of the race is thanks to the bureau’s Ryan LaFata, the city’s biggest booster.

Plan Ahead: The Duke Ellington Jazz Festival

It will be a hot time in old D.C. from June 5 to June 15 when the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival brings headliners from New Orleans for the fifth anniversary of the marathon music fest named after Washington’s native son. (Ellington grew up on Ward Place, at 22nd and M Streets.)

Most events throughout the city are free; some charge a fee. The Phillips Collection starts things off with a piano jazz concert on the eve of the festival, June 4, and holds free Jazz n’ Families Fun Days on the 6th and 7th. Other events include “Jazz in the ‘Hoods” programs at more than 30 neighborhood clubs, free concerts on the Mall, and a performance at the National Gallery of Art’s sculpture garden. On June 10, the French embassy features the legendary clarinetist and saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera, the festival’s artistic director, joined by Dr. Michael White and his Original Liberty Jazz Band. The Kennedy Center programs, featuring free Millennium Stage events, will conclude with a Concert Hall benefit performance on June 15 honoring pianist and composer Ellis Marsalis, the patriarch of the Marsalis family. The concert includes members of his family, Harry Connick, Jr., and others.

Charles Fishman, the festival’s founder/producer, is a composer who was Dizzy Gillespie’s manager for many years. He has produced international music events, and as a native Washingtonian and jazz fan, he felt the nation’s capital deserved a festival honoring America’s only original art form―so he started one.

He has lined up an impressive list of chairmen: New Orleans-born Thomas Hale Boggs, Jr., of Patton Boggs, LLP; Walter Isaacson, the president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, who was also born in New Orleans; Sheila C. Johnson, CEO of Salamander Hospitality and the president of the Washington Mystics; Marc H. Morial, the former mayor of New Orleans, now the head of the National Urban League; and political consultants James Carville and Mary Matalin, who currently live in New Orleans. Steven Stolman is the new president of the festival’s fundraising Ovation Society.

Today considered an important musician as well as a prime jazzman, Edward Kennedy Ellington, who died in 1974, was nicknamed Duke as a boy for his dapper style. Always elegant, he never changed his manner, whether he was at the Cotton Club in Harlem or at Carnegie Hall. A composer, pianist, and bandleader, he appeared in movies and wrote film music. His score for “Paris Blues,” starring Sidney Poitier and Paul Newman, is considered a classic.

He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and the French Legion of Honor. In 1965, he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. When he didn’t receive it, he said, aged 67, “Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn’t want me to be too famous too young.” On his centennial in 1999, the Pulitzer Prize Board finally recognized him with a special citation as one of the most influential figures in American music.

And one more honor: Four months ago the U.S. Mint launched a new quarter, dedicated to the District of Columbia and graced by an image of the city’s own Duke next to a grand piano.

Spotlight On: Edward Liang

For this issue, I am pleased to introduce guest contributor Cyd Miller Everett, treasurer of the Women’s Committee of the Washington Ballet. She is on the left in the photo, with the choreographer Edward Liang and the author and journalist Gail Scott. She writes about Liang’s “Wunderland,” the concluding program of the Washington Ballet’s season:

The work by the former New York City Ballet soloist was stunningly sensuous and compelling, and the audience loved it.

Dedication to the ballet has been Liang’s life. He took his first ballet lessons at age five, after his family arrived in the United States from Taiwan. At the New York City Ballet, he became the principal soloist. He has since made the transition from this envied role to choreography and is now creating ballet instead of dancing it. He has seen his efforts rewarded at all stages, garnering numerous honors.

We at the Washington Ballet hope that during the upcoming season we will be presenting more of his avant-garde excitement, done within the classic confines of the ballet form.

Liang illustrates an important aim of the Washington Ballet: to showcase new choreographers without neglecting classic works. This journey to find the right combination and balance of programs is both exciting and enriching. Under Artistic Director Septime Webre, an innovative choreographer himself, the ensemble continues to amaze and delight the ballet world while winning a new generation of fans.

At the Table: Korean Delicacies

We don’t usually think of food as being “beautiful” or “adorable,” but the recent gala dinner “Experience the Art of Korean Cuisine” at the Willard Hotel was a showstopper. Oohs and aahs echoed around the room as each dish was produced, each a work of art, with harmonious, balanced colors and forms. The food on the intriguing, flower-bedecked plates and bowls was delicious, too. The chefs, food, flowers, special dishes, and place settings were all flown in from South Korea.

The hosts who welcomed us were Han Duk-soo, the ambassador of the Republic of Korea, and Yim Sung-joon, president of the Korea Foundation.

The sumptuous Willard was the perfect setting, and although the Willard itself sets a splendid table, for this dinner the Korean chefs took over. The hors d’oeuvres buffet offered an outstanding variety of blossom-shaped food and pencil-slim, meat-wrapped vegetables. A favorite: small white globes impaled on a spray of tiny green blades (looking much like very thin spikes of rosemary), the whole tied with a minute red bow. The globes, to be nibbled off the herb, were redolent pine nuts; these little bouquets were adorable.

Young pianist Cho Sung-jin performed for the appreciative audience. Dubbed “Korea’s Chopin,” he won the 6th Moscow International Frederick Chopin Competition for Young Pianists when he was only 14.

In his address, General Colin Powell spoke warmly of American-Korean friendship and paid a heartfelt tribute to Korean food, saying that he wrote of his admiration for it in his autobiography. Rep. Charles Rangel of New York also spoke of Korean-American relations and of the Korea Foundation, which South Korea established in 1991 to enhance the country’s image around the world.

That night, the South Koreans certainly did just that.

Spotlight On: Helen Thomas

Relentless journalist and presidential gadfly Helen Thomas has covered every president beginning with John F. Kennedy. For years, as dean of the Washington press corps, she was seated in the front row, was called on for the first question at presidential press conferences, and made famous the phrase “Thank you, Mr. President” at the conference’s end.

In tribute to her news career of almost sixty years, and her four books chronicling the White House, Christine Warnke of Hogan & Hartson and publicist Janet Donovan gave a dinner in her honor at Teatro Goldoni. (Photo: Helen Thomas, right, with me; courtesy of Janet Donovan.)

One of the guests, professor and presidential historian Martha Joynt Kumar, attended many of those press conferences too. (Helen credits two of Kumar’s papers for pointing her in the right direction for her books, saying they helped her attain a historical perspective of the presidency.) Otherwise, with a few exceptions, most of the twenty women invited were young, upwardly mobile members of the media, all of whom probably aspire to Helen’s pinnacle. This was a chance for them to listen, learn, and even query, as turns to pose a question went round the dinner table.

Their questions ranged from the serious to the cheeky:

Q: “What would she now like to ask George W. Bush that he avoided answering during his presidency?”

A: “The invasion of Iraq, Mr. President, why?”

Q: “What president would you most like to have slept with?”

A: “None of them!”

Asked about her favorite journalist, she gave a quick answer: her late husband, Doug Cornell, of the Associated Press, for his news sense, his writing skills, and his ability to dictate flawless copy. (Former rivals, he AP, she UPI, they had been dating discreetly, out of sight of the newsroom, but both Helen and Doug were scooped at Doug’s White House retirement party when First Lady Pat Nixon unexpectedly announced their secret wedding plans from the podium.)

Her favorite journalist now? Answer: Sam Donaldson. On hearing this, Sam’s wife, TV correspondent Jan Smith Donaldson, seated next to her, started victoriously pumping the air with her fists. Sam once inscribed a book to Helen: “All the bad habits I have in covering presidents, you taught me. And I am grateful.”

In her latest book, Watchdogs of Democracy?, Helen faults the press for failing the public by being reluctant to carry out its watchdog role, so important in a democracy: questioning the government and probing for the truth.

During the George W. Bush era, Helen was demoted to the back row and seldom called on. (“I ask too many questions,” she explains.) At Barack Obama’s first press conference, however, the new president invited her to ask the first question, and she was again seated in the front row.

Back up where she belongs.

Capital Diary: Summer Rayne Oakes’ Ecostyle

Strikingly beautiful, Summer Rayne Oakes is a model, shoe designer, successful businesswoman, and activist, whose main concerns are socioenvironmental issues, sustainability, and international fair trade practices.

She came to town recently when Juleanna Glover hosted a party for the Washington launch of Summer’s book Style, Naturally: The Savvy Shopping Guide to Sustainable Fashion and Beauty. That’s a big title, but it is a 350-page book with more than 500 illustrations, tightly packed with information on sources for styles, new sustainable fabrics, and beauty products that are easy on the environment and terrific.

Summer began modeling while at Cornell, graduating from the university with a bachelor of science in natural resources as well as entomology. A Morris K. Udall Scholar and a fellow of the National Wildlife Federation, she worked as a research assistant at the Cornell Waste Management Institute, writing papers on such unglamorous themes as organic chemicals in sewage sludge.

In 2007, Vanity Fair named her a “Global Citizen.” The magazine got that right: Today, you can find her checking rain forest regeneration in the central highlands of the Dominican Republic or trekking through Mozambique for sustainability studies. She is a spokesperson for the Discovery Networks’ “Planet Green,” and has appeared on CNN, MTV, BusinessWeek TV, to name a few programs. And a curriculum she developed, EcoFashion 101, brings environmental awareness to schools.

Plan Ahead: Bernadette Peters at the Strathmore

Bernadette Peters, one of Broadway’s most beloved musical comedy stars, will be at Rockville’s Strathmore Music Center this weekend. Act fast―her other Strathmore performances have sold out each time. Only single seats may be available for the April 18 and 19 concerts, and not many of those. You can attend just the show, or listen to her sing and contribute to charity at the same time. The April 18 concert, at 9 p.m., is part of Strathmore’s annual black-tie spring gala, which benefits community outreach programs. Gala tickets include dinner and after-party packages; concert information with contact details for the gala.

On the 19th, Peters will do a special 4 p.m. concert to benefit the Parkinson Foundation of the National Capital Area, with a cocktail reception for foundation members and supporters. Sponsor tickets also include a dinner. To participate, call the foundation at (703) 287-8729.

For tickets to the performance only: seat reservations.

Quick Notes 4/13

Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera provided the title and the dress code for the annual wine tasting and auction fundraiser hosted by the Women’s Committee of the Washington Ballet at Meridian House. (Pictured: Leilane Mehler, Leanne Boland, and Pat Skantze.) The liveliest guests donned some memorable masks, including lots of black feathered ones and some with colored plumage. Carole Randolph matched her dress with a royal blue satin number, complete with a sweeping blue plume, while Mary Kopper opted for red, gold, and white for her domino.

Fine food matched the excellent Italian wines, and there was an all-the-glasses-you-want Veuve Clicquot table for $50, poured generously by Steve Bellman of Paul’s Wines and Spirits, who donated the bubbly.

Among the guests: Septime Webre, the ballet’s artistic director, Kay Kendall, its president, and Barbara McConaghy Johnson, the president of the Women’s Committee. Also seen: Annie Totah, in a red-plumed headdress, David Keller, and Debbie and Don Sigmund. The evening benefited the ballet’s community outreach programs.

A Celebration of Hope was the inspirational title for a fun evening with a serious purpose. The benefit was for The Wellness Community, a quiet but effective charity that provides emotional support, educational programs, and stress-reduction classes to people with cancer and their families.

The TWC’s new center, on Grosvenor Lane in Bethesda, offers programs free of charge, thanks to donations from individuals, corporations, and foundations. One of the largest contributors is the Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, which supports local organizations and services.

After excellent hors d’oeuvres and a very good dinner, Bob Madigan, WTOP’s “Man About Town” host, was a genial master of ceremonies. Paul Quinn, of Quinn’s Auctions, proved adept at raising funds painlessly and with humor as he auctioned valuable trips and restaurant splurges.

Caryn Steakley and Hal Vasvari co-chaired the benefit, and TWC’s energetic CEO, Paula Rothenberg, kept the evening on course. Guests included Mary Bird, Dr. Ziad Deeb and wife Leila, Richard de Sonier, and three fashionista stylists: Sharon Glickman, Barbara McConaghy Johnson (with husband Robert) and Marcia Nelms (with spouse Dr. Rafik Muawwad).

The high point of the evening came when the Johnny Esquire Band took the stage. The seven-member group is totally dedicated to classic rock and blues―and to helping charities. The band has one strict rule: You can’t pay them! They play for the joy of playing, and to help others. They include six suits, meaning five attorneys and an architect―plus one mom―and they are terrific. Here is a sample song list, with some audio clips.

The Johnny Esquire Band has helped raise more than $1 million for charities as diverse as Habitat for Humanity, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and the Jewish Foundation for Group Homes. And the band members not only perform for local benefits for free, they’ll even pay for a professional light and sound company to ensure a great show.

Making up this remarkable group: Len Mitchard, Esq., on the keyboards, Jonathon Reavill, Esq., drums, Karen Vartanian, M.O.M., vocals and flute, Tom Vartanian, Esq., guitar, Brian Harvey, Esq., guitar and vocals, Dean Brenneman, A.I.A, vocals and guitar, and Jack Gordon, Esq., bass.

Guitarist Tom Vartanian, who also handles the bookings, was named a 2008 Washingtonian of the Year by Washingtonian Magazine for his charitable work. In addition to being a musician and a top banking and e-commerce lawyer, he co-founded an over-40 baseball team that competes around the country. Each year, the All Stars team presents the Special Olympics with a check for about $25,000 raised by Vartanian from friends and colleagues.

Capital Diary: Nathans Celebrates Its 40th

Last week’s 40th-anniversary dinner at Nathans, the much-chronicled pub/restaurant at the prime Georgetown location of M and Wisconsin, was a funny, friendly evening, packed with fans. Many of them told nostalgic stories, some touching on owner Carol Joynt’s unending struggle to keep the bistro afloat. After her beloved husband, Howard Joynt III, died of pneumonia twelve years ago, grief-stricken Carol―reeling from the sudden onset of his illness, from her three-week vigil as he lay on life support, and from explaining it all to their five-year-old son―again faced new shocks.

Emmy-winning Carol’s world was television. She worked hard as a TV producer for Larry King. Busy with her own career, she was not involved in Howard’s business affairs. His lawyers told her the IRS had been investigating him for tax fraud, with a bill that would run into the millions―and he had no life insurance. “Give up and let it go,” his lawyers advised. But she wouldn’t hear of it. “I could just hand over the keys to the IRS and walk away,” she said, “but Howard founded this Georgetown institution. Marriages have begun here, and children have been named after it.”

She paid off his bills but watched as their houses, cars, and more went to the IRS. Carol faced a tough lease, a mountainous rent, and an obsolete restaurant kitchen that needed overhauling, but she persevered. It has been a cliff-hanger: Her lease is up in April, and her sympathetic but intransigent landlords had put the building on the market for $18 million. Recently, they have made her some concessions. With the possibility of a continuing lease, Nathans may yet survive. The watering hole is still a hangout for the hip and the well known, the brunches are great, and her “Q&A Cafe” Wednesday interviews with notables are usually wait-listed. Read her fascinating, very intimate blog, “Swimming in Quicksand,” in which she recounts the daily details of her life; it is like a far-reaching conversation with a close and witty friend.

Plan Ahead: Mami Wata Exhibit

Beautiful and seductive, dangerous yet protective, the legendary African water deity Mami Wata is sometimes depicted as a mermaid, sometimes as a snake charmer, and sometimes as a combination of the two. Her name is pidgin English for “Mother Water,” and she will star in an exhibit from April 1 through July 26 at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art.

“Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and its Diasporas” will feature headdresses, masks, bronze objets d’art, and masquerade figures. Lectures, films, storytelling programs, and hands-on workshops relating to mermaids and other sea creatures will complement the show.

Plan Ahead: Pink Tie Party

On March 11, mingle with some of Washington’s brightest achievers at the trendy Liaison Capitol Hill Hotel. The celebrity host for the National Cherry Blossom Festival’s Pink Tie Party is genial chef and cookbook author, Art Smith of Art and Soul. At this sneak preview, you’ll enjoy special cocktails, as well as “Cherry Picks”―tastes of dishes by top D.C. chefs.

The evening benefits the National Cherry Blossom Festival’s free cultural and community events. Sponsors include Shiseido, Washington Life, The Liaison, and WMAL. On the host committee: Kara Kennedy, Senator Ted’s daughter, WJLA’s Alison Starling, Sissy Yates and TV and film producer Angus Yates, journalist Jeanie Theisman, corporate VP and blogger Pamela Sorensen, events consultant Jayne Sandman and The Examiner’s Jeff Dufour, Children’s Law Center member Mariella Trager and lawyer husband Michael, and Linda and John Donovan.

Bonus on the Web site for the organization: a bloom watch for the cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin.

Travel Talk: Trump in Waikiki

Just after flying in from Palm Beach and Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, where I covered the Red Cross Ball (see the recap below), what loomed up on my first stroll out of the hotel in Waikiki but a mammoth new Trump project.

The soon-to-be-completed Trump International Hotel & Tower neighbors the Waikiki Beach Walk, the brainchild of the Hawaiian-based Outrigger Enterprises Group. The hotel company championed the revitalization of Lewers Street. Once ugly with decaying buildings and tired stores, this lovely curved avenue and surrounding area is now a local attraction, with fine shops and restaurants, live music, and a thriving nightlife.

Three years ago, all 464 units planned for Trump’s luxury condo/hotel combo were put on the market in what was to be a two-day sale. No second day happened. All the units sold in a mere eight hours, for $700 million, a record-breaking event, with almost 600 would-be buyers disappointed. Lesson: the value of a brand name.

At the Table: Hawaiian Treats

In the heart of Obamaland, Oahu, the T-shirt you see most often shows our 44th president’s face with the proud phrase “Homegrown.” Barack Obama was raised on the island by his Kansas grandparents. Mainlanders and Hawaiians alike line up for “shave ice” (no “d” at the end). Obama raised questions worldwide when he announced he was looking forward to having it on his vacation in Hawaii last August. No, it isn’t the syrup-covered snow cone we’re familiar with: ice ground to the consistency of small hail. Shave ice is made of ice shaved by the knife blade of a machine until it is fine snow, then packed into a cup mold, with exotic syrups poured over it.

Doug Gibson, a pal with encyclopedic knowledge gleaned as a 41-year Oahu resident, saw to it we sampled shave ice at Island Snow in Kailua, one of the stops Obama made with his family (photo by Alex Brandon, AP). The photo appeared in a USA Today article posted at the shop.

The shave ice was great, with a duo of mango and passion fruit syrups over it, the way Obama likes it, the “shavers” at Island Snow told us. As a schoolkid, Obama dished up ice cream part-time at a Baskin-Robbins not far away.

My cousin Will Brown showed us the Punahou School, Honolulu’s expensive, top-rated college prep that Obama attended on a scholarship. Punahou’s annual carnival was in full swing, a mammoth affair where funds are raised for outstanding but needy students, such as Barry Obama, as he was then known.

The school served one food you won’t find at a school fair in D.C., malasadas, sugared, fried dough rounds originally brought to the islands by Portuguese workmen homesick for their native dishes. The Punahou School carnival has served as many as 300,000 of these treats during its two-day celebration.

Another Obama fave is spam musubi. Don’t shudder; it isn’t bad. Spam is highly regarded in Hawaii, but since the 1970s, this sandwich invention has helped raise the canned pork meat’s image so high that well over 6 million cans a year are consumed in the Hawaiian islands alone.

Spam musubi is made of a fried slice of the meat pressed between two slabs of vinegared rice, wrapped in nori seaweed. Sounds weird, but it’s a rather interesting, portable snack.

Japan’s influence on the local cuisine is also evident in the popularity of mochi ice cream. The Japanese dessert is a favorite in Hawaii, which has many visitors from Japan and a large population of Japanese-Americans.

Washington hostess Isabel Ernst has put a delicious version of it on the map locally. Encased in a delicate but crisp wafer of rice flour, the mochi ice cream she serves at her mansion enchants her guests, and her children call it their favorite dessert. She gets it at Trader Joe’s. I expected the mochi ice cream in Honolulu to be equally good. But the one time I bought it, at the food court in the huge Ala Moana shopping center, I waited in line for half an hour for a version that, to me, seemed vastly inferior. The ice cream had a pasty covering that tasted like an uncooked egg-roll wrapper.

Nevertheless, this style has its fans. The Japanese couple ahead of me spent 20 minutes discussing which flavors to choose, and ended with a dozen of the little frozen cakes ensconced in a gift box that could have been used for jewelry.

Biggest culinary surprise in Oahu: to discover an America’s Classics Award-winning restaurant in a nondescript storefront in an industrial district of Honolulu. The honor―the Oscar of the American food world―was bestowed in 2000 by the James Beard Foundation, an organization inspired by the legendary TV personality and gourmet author. (Jim Beard was a longtime friend I had the nerve to cook dinners for on a Pibigas grill, when he spent a summer in a pied-à-terre my former husband and I had located for him near us in Provence.)

The award-winning spot is Helena’s Hawaiian Food, on North School Street. The 63-year-old restaurant was made famous by Helen Chock, a remarkable Chinese woman. It is now run by her grandson Craig, aided by her daughter, Elaine, a fourth-generation Hawaiian who lived for several years in Silver Spring.

On the wall, you can see a photo of Helen, lei draped and flower crowned, as she accepted the award at the foundation’s headquarters, housed in the home in Greenwich Village where Jim lived.

My order from the brief but classic Hawaiian menu included luau-style, smoky kalua pork and excellent ribs, but where was my order of squid? And what was this marvelous, dark green vegetable dish with morsels embedded in it?

Mirabile dictu, it was pureed taro leaves with bits of squid, the tenderest squid I’ve ever tasted.

The food at Helena’s is authentic, the prices are minuscule, and the walls are covered by the works of noted painter and printmaker Jean Charlot. A good friend, he was a devotee of Helen’s cooking. He earned her a mention in the Congressional Record, when he was quoted speaking of the meals she catered at his home.

Capital Diary: The Red Cross Ball

Many Washingtonians make their way to Palm Beach in winter, especially for the annual International Red Cross Ball. The D.C.-based foreign ambassadors invited each year are one of the ball’s most colorful features (photo by Lucien Capehart, courtesy of the Red Cross Ball, Palm Beach Chapter).

The ball starts with formality―the receiving line of ambassadors standing before their respective flags as they greet guests, then their processional down the red carpet to the ballroom―and ends with fun. As always, everybody danced to the Peter Duchin Orchestra, the ball’s favorite band.

This year, the countries represented included Switzerland, Portugal, Oman, Afghanistan, Luxembourg, Romania, Monaco, and Liechtenstein (the latter’s lively ambassador, Claudia Fritsche, could easily have won the cup for best dancer, if one were given).

The first woman chairman of the national Red Cross (and former U.S. ambassador to Finland), Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, down from Washington, spoke of the evening’s serious purpose, the ball’s role in raising funds for the work of the Red Cross, whether it be battling hurricanes in Florida or floods in Ecuador. She presented the Chairman’s Award to Michele Kessler for her commitment to fighting measles as well as the scourge of malaria in Africa, which has been reduced by 90% since the Red Cross effort began.

The night before the ball, Michele and husband Howard Kessler, the magnate who pioneered the idea of affinity credit cards, hosted the glamorous Ambassadors Dinner at their 25-acre estate, with every beautifully appointed room holding art treasures.

Washingtonians were again a strong presence at the ball. Seen: the ball’s chief of protocol (and former U.S. ambassador to Denmark) Stuart Bernstein and wife Wilma, and two former State Department protocol chiefs, Marion “Joe” Smoak and Nancy Brinker, who just finished her stint on that job. Others present included Smoak’s wife Francie; Susan Eisenhower and Bucky Carlson; our former ambassador to the U.N. Esther Coopersmith, wearing decorations awarded her by Thailand; Mary Ourisman, until the week before our ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Judy and Ahmad Esfandiary; Mary Mochary and Dr. Phil Wine; Dr. Mary Frances Smoak and husband Bill Walde; and developers Al Pierce and Lola Reinsch.

Also in attendance were two couples who split their time between Palm Beach and Washington, Bill Tiefel and his beautifully bejeweled wife, Norma, and Brad and Denise Alexander, she sporting the loveliest parure of the evening, a shower of turquoise and diamonds adorning her neck and ears.

The ball’s warm and hospitable co-chairs for the last three years, Nancy and William Rollnick, said this is their last year as chairmen; they will be a difficult act to follow. Nancy is an award-winning Broadway producer and an acclaimed photographer with a dozen books to her credit, and Bill Rollnick is the retired president of Mattel, who helped guide Barbie to fame.

Donald Trump flies the diplomats down from D.C. on his private plane. For many years I have been aboard, too, but lost my spot this year because there were more ambassadors than usual. Often, diplomatic dropouts happen because of events in their country, or illness, but this year, there weren’t any crises and the ambassadors were all disgustingly healthy, so no room for me.

Trump is continuing the tradition begun by the late cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, who lived in Washington and flew ambassadors from D.C. to Palm Beach in her private plane. The ball is held at her 62,000-square-foot vacation mansion, Mar-a-Lago, which Trump bought and has redone as a private club.

He has given Palm Beach new life since he began investing there, but not without irritation and legislation. Palm Beachers were irked by some of the changes The Donald hath wrought.

The sight of the American flag waving high above the club as I walked into the ball reminded me of one such dispute. Trump had erected a no-no in front of Mar-a-Lago: an 80-foot flagpole. The limit is 42 feet, said the town council. Six months of legal wrangling and the threat of fines of $1,250 per day followed. Trump contributed $100K to charities for war veterans and VA hospitals, moved the pole back from the waterfront, and dropped his $25 million lawsuit against the city. His flagpole is now at a tall 70 feet. Everyone made nice.

That standoff was settled amicably, with benefits for all, a way Trump often handles such things (after he applies some muscle, natch).

Because it was Palm Beach, there was of course the usual scandale du jour, this time Laurence Leamer’s latest, Madness Under the Royal Palms: Love and Death Behind the Gates of Palm Beach, which had just come out, skewering some well-known islanders and madly embarrassing a local playboy, who is banned from one entire country because of his antics on its national airline.

Larry’s latest was being printed as an even bigger and farther-reaching scandal broke, seasonal Palm Beacher Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. The official, 163-page list of his victims named 569 residents of the Beaches, including some of the town’s most generous charitable donors.

These financial wounds raised concerns that this year’s ball might suffer, but it rolled merrily along, still the high point of the Palm Beach Season, just as it has been for the last 52 years.

Quick Notes 2/2

Dateline Palm Beach: Washington socialite Mary Ourisman, who has served for the last two and a half years as U.S. ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, is here in Florida–along with a score of other Washingtonians–for the International Red Cross Ball, the important annual fundraiser for the relief service held at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club. She came down the red carpet with ambassadors from around the world, actress Anne Archer, racer Kyle Petty, and other special guests at the glittery event.

Mary’s posting to the Caribbean just recently ended, after an embassy flag ceremony and a host of tributes to her successful mission. No “cookie-pusher” ambassador, Mary visited each of the seven countries in her assigned region numerous times. Furthering U.S. interests and cementing our global friendships, she managed a precedent-setting total of 155 trips, in addition to her embassy deskwork in Barbados.

Mary is in Palm Beach to relax for a bit before returning to D.C. She says she plans to “overdose” on movies here, as she had time to see only one during her 30-month stint.

Speaking of films, test your Academy Awards trivia smarts on the just-launched Oscar Dress Quiz from the Washington Post, and match which supporting actress wore which memorable gown.

On the paper’s interactive Web site for the 2009 Academy Awards, you can also watch trailers for the nominated films, check out details on the actors who’ll be part of the big event, read reviews, and get local show times to see the movies before the Oscars on February 22.

Fun look backwards: the you-are-there rundown on 2008’s big Oscar parties.

Plan Ahead: Pianist Eric Himy

Internationally acclaimed, Eric Himy launches the 2009 concert series for the Washington International Piano Arts Council (WIPAC) with “A Prelude to Spring Concert” on February 20, under the sponsorship of Ivan Vujacic, the ambassador of Serbia, and his wife, Jelica Petrovic Vujacic.

Widely hailed—the Post describes him as “enchanting his audience with an inspiring recital,” the New York Times calls his playing “flawlessly poised, elegant, and brilliant,” and the Los Angeles Times has dubbed him “a keyboard poet”—he will play works by Debussy, Gershwin, and Liszt, performing on the Steinway seven-foot grand piano in the Great Hall of the Charles Sumner School Museum.

A reception precedes the concert. WIPAC, a nonprofit founded by Chateau and John Gardecki, will use the proceeds from the concert to benefit two musical events it will present later this year, the “Winners Grand Prix Concert” at the Mexican Cultural Institute in April and the 2009 Washington International Piano Artists Competition in July, held jointly with the institute, the embassies of Poland, Mexico, and France, and the music department at GW.

At the Table: Valentine’s at L’Auberge

The special day for lovers is coming up, and if your thoughts are turning to romance, think of reserving at L’Auberge Chez François. Owner and chef François Haeringer, born in Alsace, founded the restaurant more than 50 years ago in downtown D.C., eventually moving it to Great Falls in the Virginia countryside. His son Jacques Haeringer, the restaurant’s chef de cuisine, is the author of Two for Tonight, a cookbook with a definitely aphrodisiac slant--if you’d like to cook the Valentine’s dinner yourself. Or attend one of Jacques’ 11 a.m. cooking lessons, the “Seafood Lovers’ Valentine” on February 13 or the “Carnivore Lovers’ Valentine” on the 14th, each followed by a five-course, three-wine lunch.

He is a television personality as well as a chef and author. His Web site, ChefJacques.com, includes video demonstrations, archived recipes, a newsletter, and upcoming events at the rustic Alsatian inn.

“Engagement parties, weddings, and anniversaries are our raison d’être,” says Jacques. He sees a definite and intimate connection between food and love. “The pleasures of the table, fine food and wine, are an essential part of a passionate life.”

He explains just how you might bring this passionate state about in the comments he adds between his cookbook’s easy-to-follow recipes. Chapter titles include “Breakfast in Bed,” “Tête-à-Tête,” and “Love in the Afternoon.” Along with cooking tips on his culinary creations, he dispenses ample history and lore. Convinced that cooking for one’s love is an amorous act in itself, he tells that in ancient Rome cooking eggs--those erotic ovals of legend--for your lover was a sign of deep affection.

The Incas considered avocados a stimulant, he says, and one of his recipes, for the best of all possible worlds, combines them with eggs in Avocado Crème Brûlée.

Some of his recipes include a touch of those other amour-inducing eggs: fish eggs. He prefers caviar from the osetra sturgeon, but includes, for the poorer of purse but the hopeful of heart, salmon eggs as well.

His cooking tips are often tongue-in-cheek Gallic. Referring to the nervousness home cooks feel over a soufflé--can they get it to the table before it falls? will it rise high enough?--he divulges this mock-culinary secret: “Many chefs are now adding a little Viagra to their soufflés, for greater staying power and heightened presentation.”

Two for Tonight and an earlier book, The Chez François Cookbook, are available from local publisher Jeremy Kay of Bartleby Press. (Among his books: Ernie Davis: The Elmira Express, a biography of the Heisman Trophy winner that provided the basis for the film “The Express.” Released last fall, it came out on DVD this past week.)

Capital Diary: Two Fun Inaugural Balls

Ed Perez, chairman of the Texas State Society’s Black Tie & Boots Inaugural Ball, said, “There may not be a Texan in the White House, but that doesn’t stop Texans from throwing the best party in town.”

Partying like they were out to prove him right, 11,000 people whooped it up at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center at National Harbor.

Cowboy-hatted, boot-wearing, formal-gowned revelers seemed to be pouring hot sauce on everything except the cupcakes, using individual little bottles of it that were thoughtfully provided in the chow lines.

At the ball’s Texas State Fair, you could buy all things Texan, from boots to buckles. At booths in the ballroom, Native American women sold handcrafted items. Everywhere you looked there was Texas food galore and endless groups of down-home bands (I spotted Asleep at the Wheel).

Compared with most of the ten official balls, watching the varied crowd here was more fun. I saw knockout women in Neiman Marcus gowns and gorgeous Native American women in updated, 21st-century tribal outfits. Many of them, as well as their majestic escorts in full regalia, wore massive turquoise jewelry.

At the Lincoln 2.0 Inaugural Ball, held a night earlier at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, many of the guests wore hoopskirts or Civil War uniforms. But if that sounds sedate, the evening was far from it, especially with a champagne reception in a Victorian parlor and a room dedicated to Knob Creek, a nine-year-aged Kentucky straight bourbon, in addition to the many bars in the ballroom.

The Knob Creek bunch was disappointed; they couldn’t serve the snazzy drinks they had designed because the fruit juices would have stained the white marble floors, but they made the best of it by pouring with a generous hand.

One treat was the chance to roam this fine museum and the National Portrait Gallery without the usual crowds. On exhibit at the Portrait Gallery was an important new acquisition: a large-scale collage of “Hope,” the Shepard Fairey poster that played such an important role in President Obama’s campaign.

Musical groups were tucked away in different rooms of the huge building, but the main show was in the Great Hall. Eight-time Grammy winner Anita Baker warbled to the crowd’s delight, and blues guitarist and songwriter Keb’ Mo’ performed special songs to honor Obama.

From Hawaii, musician-singer-songwriter John Cruz, acclaimed as the best in the islands by Hawaii magazine, gained new fans here on the mainland.

Many guests were touched that they were attending a ball on the very spot where Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural was celebrated in 1865. We marveled that in this city about to observe the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth we were paying tribute to the election of an African American to the highest office in the land--unimaginable in Lincoln’s lifetime or even a few decades ago in ours.

Capital Diary: Inaugural Parties Kick Off

Watch your step! You could trip over a celebrity anywhere in Washington these days. You could perhaps even hear them, like the lucky listeners near the Lincoln Memorial when Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp did sound checks prior to their official performances. Astronaut and moon-walker Buzz Aldrin (photo) is also in town for the inauguration. He came without his wife, Lois, who had to stay in California. The 380 or so listed inaugural events got off to a great start Friday night with two terrific parties that had many of the guests gravitating from the Westin Fairfax Hotel to Café Milano.

At the Fairfax, Washington Life’s Nancy Bagley and her husband, Soroush Shehabi, hosted “A Musical Celebration of the Inauguration.” The D.C. Capitals, the National Journal, Celebrity Service, and the Atlantic co-sponsored the event with the magazine. (The magazine’s 2009 Social List and its who’s who in the new administration, which I wrote about last week, are now available online.)

Headliner Warren Hayes of the Allman Brothers provided the music, but two political headliners provided the clout: John Podesta, co-chair of the presidential transition team, and Nancy Pelosi.

In his introduction, Soroush lauded her as the first woman to hold the post of speaker, the third highest member of the government. She and Podesta, who is rumored to be under consideration for a Cabinet post, both addressed the crowd. Among the avid listeners: Rima Al-Sabah and Anne Nitze, who were deep into conversation, but broke off to hear them.

Many of the guests went on to Franco Nuschese’s Café Milano, including Arianna Huffington, Esther Coopersmith, and Smith and Elizabeth Bagley.

At the party Franco hosted at his chic restaurant/nightclub, distinguished speakers included Mayor Adrian Fenty, James R. DeSantis, the executive director of the Italian American Foundation, and Dr. Robert G. Gallo, who spoke about AIDS. The co-discoverer of the HIV virus, he heads the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland.

Café Milano rocked on until the late, late hours. Raising the glamour quotient were Bo Derek and Yvonne Baki, the former ambassador from Ecuador. Everyone wanted to talk to Buzz Aldrin. He told me he is continuing his work to advance space travel (see his Web site, BuzzAldrin.com), and we reminisced about the evening a few years ago when he and Lois--his adorable, pocket-Venus wife--took me to the opening of the Florida museum planetarium that was named after him. As Lois proudly says: “He is the only astronaut who is a rocket scientist!”

Seen among the two celebrations: Michelle Fenty, Catherine Reynolds, Ina Ginsburg, Kristina McLaughlin, Janet Donovan, CNN’s Ed Henry, Charlie Rose, Tracey Ellis, Chris and Kathleen Matthews, Mark Ein, Annie Totah, Carol Randolph, Dan and Rhoda Glickman, Joe Roberts, the Honorable Jaime Aparicio, Aziz Mekouar, the ambassador of Morocco, Said Jawad, the ambassador of Afghanistan, and his wife, Shamim, Congressman Roy Blount, Hilda Brillembourg, Juleanna Glover, Kevin Chaffee, Shane Doty, Michael and Meryl Chertoff, former California governor Jerry Brown, Amanda Downes, Ann and Lloyd Hand, Sam Donaldson, and Diane and Charles Bruce (just off the plane from England, who reported the Londoners’ enthusiasm for Obama, just as I found optimism about his presidency last month when I was in Peru).

Other guests included Susan Eisenhower, Nancy Brinker, Maximo and Sedi Flügelman, newlyweds Jamie Bowersock and Amin Salaam, BET’s Robert Johnson, Arnaud and Alexandra de Borchgrave, Alexine Jackson and her daughter Julia, Bobby and Mary Haft, Ann Geracimos, Roland and Diane Flamini, John Pyles and Barbara Harrison, Michael and Linda Sonnenreich, Kathy Kemper and Jim Valentine, and Norah O’Donnell and Jeff Tracy.

Now that’s your celebrity fix for this issue!

Plan Ahead: The Inaugural

Time clarifies all things, sort of: Seems that the inaugural crowds will be only half the original estimates of 4 million visitors, but even City Administrator Dan Tangherlini won’t predict how many will come to the city. Just know that Washington is going to be crowded.

Check the Washington Post’s Inauguration Central for event tickets, balls and traffic postings. The site is regularly updated.

Don’t even think of bringing a car into the city; taxis will be scarce and traffic jams interminable. Expect long, cold waits on Metro, with escalators turned off for safety. Is watching it on TV starting to look good?

Discount those early no-rooms-available reports that spurred Craigslist ads offering lodgings in private homes. More offers than takers.

Still available: Acclaimed New York Philharmonic conductor Lorin Maazel’s Virginia estate can lodge 50 guests luxuriously. He’s offering it to groups for $50,000 per night, including transportation and a private concert. Proceeds to benefit young musical artists through his nonprofit organization, The Châteauville Foundation.

For a guide to power players in the new administration, order Washington Life’s 2009 Inauguration Special. Limit five per buyer. This collector’s edition of the magazine, with an Obama cover by renowned artist Shepard Fairey, includes the 2009 Social List.

After the hectic hubbub of January 20, Helene Tartakowski of the Russian Chamber Art Society suggests that January 22 you relax and let music waft over you at the Austrian Embassy. With a soprano, a mezzo-soprano, a baritone and a bass, the much-lauded Society offers the Washington premiere of “Russian Fairy Tale Operas,” seldom-heard arias and duets by Glinka, Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky. A narrator will keep us clued in on the musicians, the singers and the action.

Spotlight On: Frida Burling

“Frida is the sexiest 93-year-old I’ve ever seen,” said a guest at the Georgetown House Tour Patrons’ Party. “No one ever says no to Frida. She’s flirtatious and charming even while she’s twisting your arm,” he added, speaking of her ability to persuade hesitant Georgetowners to open their cherished homes for the hundreds of strangers who troop through on the annual tour. For more than 60 years, Frida has focused intensively on the St. John’s Church-sponsored tour, along with all the other good causes she has helped. Monies from the fundraiser help many social service agencies.

This fall she was an honoree for the Citizens Association of Georgetown’s Black and White Ball for her years of community work for her beloved neighborhood. But her influence has spread even farther, raising her to iconic status for many organizations.

Her life did not always enable her to have the means and time for causes, as she noted recently when the United Way of America gave a luncheon honoring her in New York, at the United Nations.

In her autobiography, Finally Frida, she mentions early years when, because of a mostly absentee father, Laurence Frazer, both she and her interior decorator mother worked, barely managing but helped by Frida’s scholarships and by friends, who gave them boxes of outgrown clothing.

Her life changed after her mother married again, to wealthy Randolph Leigh. Frida was much photographed and written about as a high-spirited and pretty debutante. One fascinating item was in the first column ever by Igor Cassini--later the legendary New York columnist “Cholly Knickerbocker”--whose brother Oleg became Jackie O’s favored designer.

Igor described a pre-WWII Chevy Chase Club evening when Mussolini’s visiting son, Vittorio, was lionized by all the debs, but only spent time with Frida Frazer. He went back to Italy, so the romance never blossomed further, but it is intriguing to think that if it had continued until Il Duce had an American daughter-in-law, Frida might have changed the course of history!

Brian Gallagher, president and CEO of the United Way of America, spoke at the United Nations of the significant impact of Frida’s lifelong work on such issues as affordable housing, child health, and care for homeless children. (Diane Lebson of the United Way of the National Capital Area told me of Frida’s great energy, and her readiness to help whenever needed.) Civil rights have always been important to her also. Both she and her mother carried signs on the Mall among the throng hearing Martin Luther King’s speech in 1963. In 2003 she again hoisted placards, marching against starting the war in Iraq.

Frida says that her own difficult childhood has given her empathy with the needy and taught her the importance of helping others. She began her philanthropic career aged 20, as a Junior Leaguer whose first assignment was to gather contributions, door-to-door, for the precursor to the present United Way. “I had no idea 73 years later I’d still be fundraising for them at 93.”

Her interest in charitable initiatives was deepened on marriage to Thacher Winslow, a Roosevelt-era New Deal arrival in Washington. He worked for the International Labor Organization, and died suddenly at only 47, leaving Frida with three young children. She has written of her grief, quoting Edna St. Vincent Millay: “Life goes on; I forget just why…”

She then worked in real estate, spending long days to support her family. She rebuilt her life and struggled to help her children adjust to being without their father.

Four years later, she married handsome and very successful Ed Burling, of the prestigious Covington & Burling law firm (whose officers, ever supportive of Frida’s endeavors, turned out at the UN for her special day).

Her second marriage was a happy one, as her first had been. She and Ed successfully combined their families. He has since passed away, and Frida now has five children, 14 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.

When I asked her about the title of her fascinating, no-punches-pulled Finally Frida, she said, “I was always somebody’s daughter Frida, then somebody’s wife Frida. Now I am just myself, just--finally--Frida.”

I can’t agree. She has always been unique and multifaceted, and has always known exactly just who Frida is.

Quick Notes 1/11

Among the guests admiring Blake Ashburner’s collection of Baroque paintings at his holiday luncheon were three Washington doyennes--Gertrude d’Amecourt, Lolo Sarnoff and Françoise Ellis--who are all widely admired themselves for their charm and chic.

If you’re clearing out your closet to make room for inaugural togs, Heather Dawn Thompson urges you to make prom night magical for the girls of the Cheyenne River Reservation, a Lakota community in Eagle Butte, South Dakota.

Help provide happy memories of this big event in the girls’ lives by sending the things they need but have no money to buy: prom dresses (up to size 24), evening bags, shoes, jewelry and cosmetics. Send by February 23 to the Cheyenne River Youth Project.