Wag Magazine January 2019

ONUR TUNA Our 2019 Most Fascinating Man JUDGED A

TOP

MAGAZINE

IN NEW YORK STATE 2014, 2015, 2016

WESTCHESTER & FAIRFIELD LIFE JANUARY 2019 | WAGMAG.COM

Designer Michael Aram Chef Daniel Boulud Broadcaster David Cone Lalique CEO Silvio Denz The late Zen master Bernie Glassman Medicine’s Alan Kadish Actor Rufus Sewell

Activists Colin Kaepernick and Khizr Khan Energy specialist Mike Richter Artist Russ Ritell Entrepreneurs Val Morano Sagliocco and Ted Yang Developers Randy Salvatore and Andy Todd

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An immigrant’s golden moment

About men (and women, too)

A Master-ful approach

The whirl of Ted Yang Rooted in life

Leading Lalique

Diamond gladiator

Just our type

A designer of magical thinking

Culinary virtuoso

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Multifaceted doctor

Building dreams

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CONTENTS Lighting an environmental solution

Taking a knee as a stand to end racial violence

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Fighting homelessness one brownie at a time

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Building up and out

72

COVER STORY

Onur Tuna Turkish delight THIS PAGE:

Onur Tuna. Courtesy Es Films.

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WAG’s Fascinating Men

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FEATURES H I G H LI G HTS

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WAY Bold and beautiful

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WHAT’S COLLECTIBLE? Animal magnetism

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WARES Where every man is king

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW? How Nole got his mojo back

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WHERE ARE THE NOW? Staging more success

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Attaining another summit

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WHAT’S NEW AGAIN? A man for all seasons

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WANDERS Silver and gold and snow

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WANDERS The dapper chef

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WANDERS Turkish Charm

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WHEELS Zoom, zoom

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WONDERFUL DINING Brothers know nest at The Hill Bistro

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WINE & DINE The revolution in wine making

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WELL Preventing injuries on the slopes

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WELL Tennis as a means to wellness

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PET OF THE MONTH The heart of Dixie

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PET PORTRAITS Helping pet parents in need

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WHEN & WHERE Upcoming events

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WATCH We’re out and about

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WIT What’s your idea of a “hot guy?”

ONUR TUNA Our 2019 Most Fascinating Man JUDGED A

TOP MAGAZINE

IN NEW YORK STATE 2014, 2015, 2016

WESTCHESTER & FAIRFIELD LIFE JANUARY 2019 | WAGMAG.COM

Designer Michael Aram Chef Daniel Boulud Broadcaster David Cone Lalique CEO Silvio Denz The late Zen master Bernie Glassman Medicine’s Alan Kadish Actor Rufus Sewell

Activists Colin Kaepernick and Khizr Khan Energy specialist Mike Richter Artist Russ Ritell Entrepreneurs Val Morano Sagliocco and Ted Yang Developers Randy Salvatore and Andy Todd

COVER: Onur Tuna.

Courtesy Es Films.

See story on page 72.

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Dee DelBello

Dan Viteri

PUBLISHER/CREATIVE DIRECTOR dee@westfairinc.com

GROUP ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER/CREATIVE dviteri@westfairinc.com

EDITORIAL Bob Rozycki MANAGING EDITOR bobr@westfairinc.com

Georgette Gouveia EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ggouveia@westfairinc.com Mary Shustack SENIOR WRITER/EDITOR

Audrey Ronning Topping CHINA FEATURES WRITER

Peter Katz COPY EDITOR

ART Sebastián Flores ART DIRECTOR sflores@westfairinc.com

Kelsie Mania ART DIRECTOR kmania@westfairinc.com

PHOTOGRAPHY Anthony Carboni, Sebastián Flores, John Rizzo, Bob Rozycki

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Jena A. Butterfield, Ryan Deffenbaugh, Aleesia Forni, Gina Gouveia, Phil Hall, Debbi K. Kickham, Meghan McSharry, Laura Joseph Mogil, Doug Paulding, Jennifer Pitman, Giovanni Roselli, Bob Rozycki, Gregg Shapiro, Barbara Barton Sloane, Seymour Topping, Jeremy Wayne, Cami Weinstein, Katie Banser-Whittle

PRINT/DIGITAL SALES Anne Jordan Duffy ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER/SALES anne@westfairinc.com Lisa Cash, Barbara Hanlon, Marcia Pflug, Patrice Sullivan ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

MARKETING/EVENTS Tracey Vitale EVENTS COORDINATOR tvitale@westfairinc.com

Marcia Pflug PROMOTIONS/SPONSORS DIRECTOR mpflug@wfpromote.com

Meghan McSharry DIGITAL CONTENT DIRECTOR mmcsharry@wfpromote.com

CIRCULATION Marcia Rudy CIRCULATION SALES marcia@westfairinc.com

Sylvia Sikoutris CIRCULATION MANAGER sylvia@westfairinc.com Robin Costello ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGER rcostello@westfairinc.com

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Billy Losapio ADVISER

Some readers think WAG stands for “Westchester and Greenwich.”

We certainly cover both. But mostly, a WAG is a wit and that’s how we think of ourselves, serving up piquant stories and photos to set your own tongues wagging.

HEADQUARTERS A division of Westfair Communications Inc., 701 Westchester Ave., White Plains, NY 10604 Telephone: 914-694-3600 | Facsimile: 914-694-3699 Website: wagmag.com | Email: ggouveia@westfairinc.com All news, comments, opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations in WAG are those of the authors and do not constitute opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations of the publication, its publisher and its editorial staff. No portion of WAG may be reproduced without permission.WAG is distributed at select locations, mailed directly and is available at $24 a year for home or office delivery. To subscribe, call 914-694-3600, ext. 3020. All advertising inquiries should be directed to Anne Jordan at 914694-3600, ext. 3032 or email anne@westfairinc.com. Advertisements are subject to review by the publisher and acceptance for WAG does not constitute an endorsement of the product or service. WAG (Issn: 1931-6364) is published monthly and is owned and published by Westfair Communications Inc. Dee DelBello, CEO, dee@westfairinc.com

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TH E TALENT B EH I N D O U R PAG E S

JENA A. BUTTERFIELD

ROBIN COSTELLO

RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

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GINA GOUVEIA

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COVER STORY: PHIL HALL, PAGE 72

NEW WAGGER KATIE BANSER-WHITTLE, who makes her debut in WAG as our What’s New Again columnist, is the New York City-area regional director for Skinner Inc. She works with private individuals, institutions and estates on appraisals and the purchase and liquidation of fine and decorative art, jewelry, wine and several other collectible categories. Katie holds a bachelor of arts degree in art history and anthropology from Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana. She is also a graduate of Richmond, The American International University in London, having received her Master of Arts degree in art history with a concentration in art of the Italian Renaissance there. Katie lives in White Plains with her husband, son and twin daughters.

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EDITOR’S LETTER G EO RG E T TE GO U VEIA

WE

We begin our year of fascination with a theme that we plan to make an annual one — the most fascinating man/men. We don’t have to tell our readers that in the #MeToo era, men have come under greater scrutiny, so they are certainly a timely if controversial subject. And we know, too, that “fascinating” is not necessarily a synonym for “good.” But we at WAG love, as the song says, “to accentuate the positive.” And so, we have rounded up more than a few good men for the first Fascinating Men issue, whose virtues are enumerated in publisher Dee DelBello’s message.

With her unerring eye for talent, Dee has discovered our first Most Fascinating Man — Turkish actor Onur Tuna, star of Netflix’s “Filinta,” the Ottoman Empire detective series.

Tuna embodies many of the qualities found in our male lineup, not the least of which is persistence. Our guys are willing to put themselves on the line and go for it to create public lives of accomplishment and private lives of satisfaction, be they entrepreneur Ted Yang; developers Andy Todd and Randy Salvatore; restaurateurs Daniel Boulud, Val Morano Sagliocco, Scott Conant and Iggy and Ramzi Khoury; artist Russ Ritell; jewelry and home accessories designer Michael Aram; actor Rufus Sewell; activist Khizr Khan; or athletes Colin Kaepernick, David Cone and Mike Richter.

And, as if that isn’t enough, we’ve included a list of 43 fascinating men — many of whom we’ve covered in WAG. (We’ll be giving women equal time in July with the launch of our Most Fascinating Woman/Women issue.)

What we find most fascinating about these men is the passion they bring to doing many things well. Sagliocco balances a life in restaurants with one in landscaping, while Ritell maintains his day job in animation as he pursues his dream as a fine artist.

It’s one thing to multitask, another to reinvent yourself. Cone — an articulate star of the brilliant bad-boy New York Mets of the late 1980s and early ’90s — reemerged in New York as a Yankees’ ace, spokesman and now broadcaster. Goalie Mike Richter found life after the Stanley Cup-winning New York Rangers with BFranklin, leading an energy efficiency startup.

Often that reinvention has been in service of others. New Canaan’s Yang dropped a high-powered career in finance to help care for his two surviving children after his wife 10

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gave birth to premature triplets. Kaepernick, who now makes New York his home, sacrificed his NFL career to stand up for Black Lives Matter by kneeling down in protest. The late Bernie Glassman quit aerospace engineering to blend Buddhism and brownies in the Greyston foundation and bakery, which help the jobless in Yonkers to self-determination.

We’re struck by the compassion of men like these, including Khan, the Gold Star father who turned the pain of losing a son in the Iraq War into a quest to help educate students about the Constitution; and Boulud, who feeds the homebound through Citymeals on Wheels and mentors young chefs and high school students with culinary aspirations Their empathy and multifaceted flexibility are qualities usually associated with women.

So perhaps what makes men fascinating is a degree of feminine energy, eh?

It’s a fun idea. And we have fun, too, with the theme and some traditional guy stuff.

Bob’s back with the McLaren Speedball, which men will enjoy vrooming around in, while Cami helps them create the perfect man cave.

And a shout-out to our Wanderer Jeremy and Sagliocco again for their impressions of our subtheme — Istanbul.

But what we want you to take away most from this issue is that at a time of crisis, there are still a lot of great guys out there. Maybe they’re not sung in the pages of a magazine.

But they’re appreciated by their bosses and co-workers, their significant others and children; and the countless strangers they encounter each day.

These gentlemen give hope to other men, hope to women, hope to that terrible, wondrous, fragile, invincible thing we call the human race.

A 2018 Folio Women in Media Award Winner, Georgette Gouveia is the author of the “The Penalty for Holding” (Less Than Three Press), a 2018 Lambda Literary Award finalist, and “Water Music” (Greenleaf Book Group). They’re part of her series of novels, “The Games Men Play,” also the name of the sports/culture blog she writes at thegamesmenplay.com. Readers may find her novel “Seamless Sky” and “Daimon: A Novel of Alexander the Great” on wattpad.com.

The editor’s idea of a man — the Apollo Belvedere (circa 120-140), marble copy of the bronze original circa 350325 B.C., Vatican Museums, Vatican City.

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About men (and women, too)

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

IN THE 1952 FILM “HIGH NOON,” MARSHALL WILL KANE (GARY COOPER) IS SET TO RETIRE AND BEGIN A NEW LIFE IN ANOTHER TOWN WHEN HE LEARNS AN OUTLAW THAT HE SENT TO PRISON IS ABOUT TO BE RELEASED AND BOUND WITH HIS GANG FOR REVENGE. Kane tries to enlist the help of his fellow lawmen and citizens to no avail. Even his Quaker bride (Grace Kelly) suggests that he flee. But Kane is firm in his belief that he must stand and deliver.

"They're making me run," he tells her. "I've never run from anybody before."

In its day, the film was viewed as a metaphor for those who stood up to Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s anti-Communist witch hunt and the subsequent Hollywood blacklist of party members past and present. Today, however, it represents an idealized view of men celebrated in many westerns and war films — the strong, silent type whose incisive actions and modest words speak with moral authority.

This has not always been the case in our own times.

The election of President Donald J. Trump and The New York Times’ exposé on the alleged sexual abuses of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein have spurred the Pussyhat, #MeToo and Time’s Up movements, in which

“Working the problem:” Deke Slayton (checked jacket) shows the adapter devised to remove excess carbon dioxide from the Apollo 13 Lunar Module cabin, which was dramatized in the movie “Apollo 13, based on “Lost Moon” by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger. From left, members of Slayton's audience are flight director Milton L. Windler; deputy director/flight operations Howard W. Tindall; director/flight operations Sigurd A Sjoberg; deputy director/Manned Spaceflight Center Christopher C. Kraft; and director/Manned Spaceflight Center Robert R. Gilruth. Photograph courtesy of NASA.

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men have found themselves angrily opposed by many of those who have birthed and, in a variety of ways, nurtured them — women. Those movements have in turn spawned a backlash — particularly post-Brett Kavanaugh’s elevation to the U.S. Supreme Court amid allegations that he attempted to rape Christine Blasey Ford when both were teenagers — that have some wondering if women’s righteous anger and quest for justice go too far and come too late.

Certainly, we would not want to deny the crossroads at which men find themselves. But neither would we want to treat them with the injustice that they have often visited on women.

There is much that is fine in men. First and foremost, they created civilization and civilizations.

Most of the great achievements were made by men, with women weaving what novelist Anna Quindlen once called “the fabric of society” that has held those achievements together. That men did so on the backs and bones of other men, women and children, who were denied opportunities, must also be acknowledged, as must their impulse to destroy much of what they created, as successions of past civilizations illustrate. Today we find ourselves in a world in which creativity and destruction can no longer be thought of as mutually exclusive. What we create — chemically, biologically, geopolitically, digitally — can also destroy us.

What is good in human nature, however, remains, and so it is with men. En route from Manhattan to our White Plains office recently, I found myself bottlenecked with others on a Grand Central Terminal platform, thanks to two older women who could not make it down the steps to our waiting train with their large suitcase.

Suddenly, a younger, male stranger came up behind me, picked up the suitcase — with the two ladies now trailing — deposited it on the lower platform and took off.

The man’s behavior was typical of men at their best — kind, decisive, effective, with no need of thanks. I’ve always admired this in men and, particularly, in the male bosses I have worked for. Indeed, when I addressed a meeting of Professional Women of Westchester a while back, I told the (mostly) female audience that I thought there was much women can learn from men, not the least of which is to take more calculated risks, to be less perfectionistic.

“You have to put yourself out there,” developer Andy Todd says in my profile of him.

Men don’t sweat the small stuff, which is why they’re often fun. (Of course, you don’t tend to sweat the small stuff when you’re not the one

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There is much that is fine in men. First and foremost, they created civilization and civilizations. Most of the great achievements were made by men, with women weaving what novelist Anna Quindlen once called “the fabric of society” that has held those achievements together.

primarily responsible for small children.) Men don’t take everything personally — including, the humorist Fran Lebowitz once observed, the aforementioned children. They compartmentalize — particularly their emotions. True, there are contexts in which these would not be sterling qualities, because context drives perception. But there are also times when we need to separate our emotions from the tasks at hand if we’re going to advance as human beings.

“We're not going to go bouncing off the walls for 10 minutes, 'cause we're just going to end up back here with the same problems,” Commander Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) tells his squabbling crewmates in “Apollo 13,” the 1995 film about the “successful failure” of the aborted 1970 moon landing. Meanwhile on the ground, NASA’s lead flight director Gene Kranz (Ed Harris) tells his tense troops, “Let’s work the problem, people.” To me, this story crystallizes the commanding leadership that men have often exemplified.

Now men find themselves increasingly sharing this leadership, this power, with women in a time of transition and technological revolution in which the fault lines are thrown into sharp relief — white and nonwhite; native and immigrant; conservative and liberal; red and blue; Republican and Democrat; nationalist and globalist; and, especially, men and women, even though some

today are challenging whether we must limit ourselves to two genders, or define ourselves by any gender at all.

So how do we navigate these divides?

The answer may lie in an idea whose fragility has some pundits worried nowadays — community. Both The New York Times’ columnist David Brooks and Sen. Ben Sasse, a Republican out of Nebraska and author of “Them: Why We Hate Each Other and How to Heal,” have written about the breakdown of communities in the digital age.

But communities are still intact. People still attend houses of worship. Families and friends have just enjoyed the holidays together. The Boys & Girls Clubs of America — and countless other nonprofits as well as businesses — aren’t going anywhere.

Men and women live and work side by side. In so doing, men could listen to women more and take their grievances more seriously. They could learn from women how to collaborate and multitask to get things done, how to be more patient and pay more attention to detail.

We are in a time of transition, but as President Franklin D. Roosevelt noted during his fourth inaugural address with World War II flickering and the Cold War heating up: “The great fact to remember is that the trend of civilization itself is forever upward” — even if that progress is at times zigzag.

The whirl of Ted Yang

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA PHOTOGRAPH BY BOB ROZYCKI

IF YOU EVER FIND YOURSELF TALKING TO TED YANG AT A COCKTAIL PARTY, YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO POSE THE FAMOUS ICEBREAKER, “SO, WHAT DO YOU DO FOR A LIVING?” Or rather, pose away, settle in and get ready for a real ride.

For at heart, Yang — a self-styled “serial entrepreneur,” an engineer who never practiced engineering, a would-be writer of video games who never wrote one — is a storyteller. And his story — which ultimately bridges the profit and nonprofit worlds, work and family — is indeed a compelling one.

We at WAG know Yang — a Suffern native who now makes his home in New Canaan — as president of Cantata Media, owner of Daily Voice, which Yang describes as “the leading suburban news provider in the New York metro area…with almost two million unique visits monthly.” It’s also the digital partner of Westfair Communications Inc., WAG’s parent company.

Publishing — Yang says over coffee and tea at Charlie’s Café in The Exchange, the White Plains office park now home to Westfair — “is a more recent passion.” From 2012 to ’14, he was the founding chief technology officer of MediaCrossing, a company that does quantitative analysis of digital advertising and that he describes as “Wall Street meets Madison Avenue.” But that is just one of myriad businesses and organizations that Yang — whose mind is like a pinball machine, always pinging — has been involved with.

He, Adam von Gootkin, Pete Kowalczky and Matt Wilkerson, founded Highclere Castle Spirits — along with the eighth Earl and Countess of Carnarvon, whose Highclere estate was the setting of “Downton Abbey.” Their first spirit — Highclere Castle Gin, a smooth, lightly sweet blend of Highclere botanicals — makes its debut in March. (Highclere Castle Cigars, a separate company, bowed in 2017. More on this in WAG’s 16

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Ted

Yang

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February cover story on Lord and Lady Carnarvon.)

“The intent is also to do a whiskey,” Yang says.

“There’s a barn on the (Highclere) property that can be turned into a distillery.” But, he adds, first things first. It’s the laser-like linear side of a man who also describes himself as an easily bored, attention deficit type with a constant need for fresh challenges.

Highclere, not surprisingly then, is just one of his 11 profit and nonprofit ventures that include ChemPacific Corp., Connex Partners, Stamford Innovation Center, Epiomed Therapeutics, IRAmarket and the Connecticut chapter of Social Venture Partners.

By now, you get the drift — a far-ranging success story engineered by a far-ranging mind, one honed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he got his master’s in engineering at only 21, and on Wall Street. (He worked for the proverbial Who’s Who of wealth management firms and hedge funds, including Lehman Brothers, J.P. Morgan, Salomon Smith Barney, Citadel Securities, Bridgewater Associates and Tudor Investment Corp.)

And there the story might have a typically satisfying end if not for an event that happened in 2008: His wife, Christine, gave birth to triplets at six months of gestation. One of the two boys, Raymond, died a week later. The other, Daniel, and his sister, Sofia, survived although she required a breathing tube and round-the-clock care. (Daniel came off the ventilator and breathing tube after three months in a neonatal intensive care unit.)

Up to that point, Yang had been a self-described “insufferable ass and managerial bear” at Bridgewater, where his I-can-do-it-all style as deputy CTO put colleagues off. Once the surviving triplets came home, however, Yang became a full-time part of a team of family members, housekeepers and doctors devoted to helping the preemies survive and thrive.

When he returned to finance, as deputy CTO and enterprise partner at Tudor, he left after a year.

“Finally, there was no point,” he says. “It wasn’t fulfilling anymore.”

It was the beginning of a transformation that he acknowledges did not happen overnight.

Like Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Ulysses, Yang is a product of all that he has met. Indeed, you might conclude — and he certainly believes — that everything he experienced was to prepare him for that moment when his children were born in 2008. He himself is the child of Chinese immigrants. His biologist father, Cheng-Hsin, who was born in Japanese-occupied Manchuria, came from a family of doctors. His chemist mother, Rebecca, was the daughter of a landowner who was the youngest general of Chiang kai-shek, leader of the Republic of China. Yang’s parents met at college in Canada and ultimately married and immigrated to the United States, settling in Suffern, where Yang and his younger brother — Timothy, who teaches Japanese history at the University of Georgia — were born and raised.

Yang graduated from Suffern High School and

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was rejected by Harvard University — one of several blessings in disguise.

“Had I been accepted, I would’ve been forced into a premed program,” he says of his father’s wishes. Instead, he went off to neighboring MIT. “I wanted to write video games, but OK, engineering — that was cool, too.”

But the video game internship didn’t materialize and, though he got the engineering degree, that career didn’t either.

Instead, he went into finance — because that was not only where the money was but where his friends were headed as well. And because, he adds, Wall Street in those days was full of knotty challenges. Little did he know that the greatest challenge of his life to date lay ahead.

Today, Daniel is autistic and Sofia has vocal chord and lung damage that causes her to speak very softly and pronounce words incorrectly as well as muscular-skeletal weakness on the left side of her body. But out of adversity can come compassion and transcendence. Christine is vice president of The Tiny Miracles Foundation in Darien, supporting parents of preemies.

And Yang has discovered his true center — his family, not in that political-I-need-to-spend-more-timewith-my-family way but in the most profound sense.

They are his sun around which his corporate and nonprofit planets revolve.

Still, you’ve got to admit those are some pretty interesting planets.

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BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

VAL MORANO SAGLIOCCO IS TALKING ABOUT HIS TRIP TO ISTANBUL AT LAGO RISTORANTE & WINE BAR IN THE SILVER LAKE SECTION OF HARRISON — ONE OF THE MANY FOOD AND LANDSCAPING BUSINESSES FOR WHICH HE SERVES AS PRESIDENT. Though he likes to splurge on good food, good wine and good accommodations, he’s by no means a cosseted traveler. Rather, he’s an adventurer, even when the adventure puts him in the line of fire.

In 2013, he and a surgeon friend arrived in Istanbul and inadvertently found themselves in the midst of protests against the retail development of the city’s Taksim Gezi Park, for which Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan awarded contracts to his friends.

“It would be like Mayor Bill de Blasio giving his friends the rights to develop Central Park,” Sagliocco says over one of his famous five-hour lunches with WAG; Lisa Morano, his aunt and business manager; and Samantha Hochman, his marketing director.

Traveling under an Italian passport — Sagliocco has dual citizenship and speaks the language fluently — he and his travel companion found themselves in a cab with a driver who spoke only Turkish but nonetheless managed to communicate that their hotel was on the other side of the protest. After making their way there, the two realized it wasn’t to their liking and found better accommodations.

The next day, they checked out the scene in Taksim Square. Riot police stood about the square in what Sagliocco describes as more of a watchful than aggressive manner. Protest leaders and burnt cars lined the entrance to the park, which is one of the smallest in Istanbul and one

Val Morano Sagliocco at the Morano family estate in Calabria with daughter Sofia.

Courtesy Val Morano Sagliocco.

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of the last green spaces in the district of Beyoğlu (historically, Pera). Sagliocco made his way inside the park, where tents filled with protestors had sprung up. There were families and older people.

“They could’ve been me or you,” he says.

Later, Sagliocco and his friend were enjoying dinner at the Mikla restaurant atop the Marmara Pera hotel — where the city lights twinkle beyond the liquor bottles rimming the terrace — when tear gas started wafting into the space, destroying the moment. “It felt like someone had taken a torch to your lungs.” They nonetheless persisted in their Turkish visit, savoring the sights of the city — including the Roman aqueducts and the iconic Hagia Sophia, which was once a Greek orthodox cathedral and Ottoman Empire mosque and is now a museum — before pushing on for some fun in the sun in Bodrum, which stretches into the Aegean Sea along Turkey’s southwest coast.

But Istanbul wasn’t done with its intrigue. Because he had forgotten his American passport at home, Sagliocco found his solo departure from the city delayed. The meandering cab ride to the airport — more like through the countryside — did not appear promising. Nor did the contents of the trunk, which included a rope and a gas canister, allay Sagliocco’s fears. At one point, the driver stopped and starting running from the cab in the direction of a young man. Sagliocco jumped out.

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Was this a kidnapping gone wrong? Was the cab going to explode?

The young man came over to Sagliocco to explain: “He doesn’t know where the airport is.”

This story — there would be similar adventures on the West Bank and in Colombia — is typical of Sagliocco, a man who likes to be where the action is. WAG was first introduced to him — and in turn introduced him to our readers — three years ago.

Since then, we have found him to be one of the most generous of our subjects — generous with his time, his family, his food and other products, his willingness to help, his very self.

And that’s no small thing when you have as many irons in the fire as he does. To refresh readers’ memories, there’s Café La Fondita in Mamaroneck, with its piquant Latin American décor and offerings; Morano Landscape Garden Design, also in Mamaroneck; Weaver Gardens, a landscape design and education center in Larchmont; and Ridgeway Garden Center in White Plains.

There’s also Oliveto Morano, oil made from olives grown and pressed on the family’s ancestral estate in southern Italy’s Calabria region, where Sagliocco’s mother, Rosina, planted more than 2,300 olive trees in honor of her late father, Angelo Morano, who founded the landscaping business. The olive oil launches this year and will be on sale in the fall.

Born in White Plains and raised in Mamaroneck, where he attended Rye Neck High School, Sagliocco always loved landscaping, working alongside his grandfather and father, Domenico, even as he studied finance at Fordham University.

His heart, however, wasn’t in investment banking.

He instead committed to the family business in 2006, studying horticulture and design the following year at the New York Botanical Garden, a place he has called “magical,” across the street from Fordham in the Bronx.

Though his vacations have gotten a little less adventurous — he and wife Francisca Ferreira are the parents of Sofia, who just turned 1 — he continues to push the boundaries professionally, partnering with Plant the Future, a Miami-based design firm that fuses the visual arts and nature and, more recently, with The Xmas Designers, which does seasonal décor for luxury hotels and residences worldwide. Among his collaborations with The Xmas Designers were the holiday decorations at The Peninsula New York.

How does he keep all the balls in the air?

“It just happens,” he says. “It falls into place.”

For more, visit moranolandscape.com, weavergardens.com, ridgewaygardencenter. com, olivetomorano.com, lagoristorante.com and cafelafondita.com.

Just our type

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

NO ACTOR LIKES TO BE TYPECAST. BUT BRITISH STAR RUFUS SEWELL — WHO HAS IGNITED THE SMALL SCREEN RECENTLY WITH TWO VERY DIFFERENT ROLES IN PBS’ “VICTORIA” AND AMAZON’S “THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE” — HAS ASSIDUOUSLY WORKED TO AVOID IT. The son of a struggling, artistic Welsh-Australian family in Twickenham, Sewell told Harper’s Bazaar last year that when he was at The Royal Central School of Speech & Drama in London, “my fear was that I would get stuck in the one thing that came naturally to me, which was comedy.

I remember the first time I got offered to play a bad guy, it seemed like a wonderful opportunity to break away from the kind of brooding period drama characters that I always felt pigeonholed in. So I did it as an experiment and, low and behold, I was trapped in a new typecast.

“Now, I think people realize that what I've actually been doing all this time is acting, rather than just representing some ‘type’ that I am. And my career is panning out to be the one I kind of always wanted.”

And how. In “Victoria,” which returns to “Masterpiece” on Jan. 13, Sewell nearly stole the first two seasons as the dashing, sympathetic, eminently judicious Lord M — alias William Lamb, the second Viscount Melbourne — who mentors the headstrong young Queen Victoria even as he offers her both a father figure and a safe first crush. Indeed, the scene in season two in which the queen takes her leave of the desperately ill Lord M, leaving him a mechanical, musical birdcage for comfort, was all the more poignant for its

Rufus Sewell arriving at the Land of the Lost Premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, on May 29, 2009.

Dreamstime.com.

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proper Victorian reticence.

Ironically, the real Lord M was the victim of the archetype that has also fit Sewell like a kid glove — the Byronic bad boy. As “Victoria” fans well know, Melbourne’s wife, the Anglo-Irish Lady Caroline Lamb, had a most public affair with poet George Gordon Byron, whom she famously described as “mad, bad and dangerous to know.” It was the talk of 1812 only to become more so in 1816 when Lady Caroline did the only thing a notorious woman could do — write a tellall in the form of a Gothic novel, “Glenarvon.”

That Lord M not only survived but thrived amid such scandal — and could reconcile, albeit for a time, with his wife, whose passing he sincerely mourned in 1825 — says something about the man in the statesman.

While Sewell never played Byron, despite bearing more than a passing resemblance — those lustrous raven curls, those cut cheekbones — early in his career he played a Byronic, Chopin-esque political writer, Will Ladislaw, in the superb 1994 BBC adaptation of George Eliot’s novel “Middlemarch.” It was a beguiling performance that set the stage — and whetted fans’ appetites — for his captivating antiheroes (the

sensual title character in the BBC/A&E’s “Charles II: The Power and the Passion,” the brilliantly outspoken Alexander Hamilton in HBO’s “John Adams,” an honest but troubled cop in the BBC/ PBS’ “Zen”); and his compelling no-goodniks (the Confederate arms-dealing Count Armand in “The Legend of Zorro,” the controlling Crown Prince Leopold in “The Illusionist,” a terrifically underrated film).

Even in Nancy Meyer’s romantic comedy “The Holiday,” a perennial guilty pleasure, he had to humiliate girlfriend Kate Winslet at their newspaper’s Christmas party by announcing he was marrying another. In the upcoming “Judy,” about Judy Garland’s sell-out concerts in London in the late 1960s, he’s Sid Luft, the tough-guy agent who was her third husband.

No doubt, though, many fans are finding his current assignment one of his darkest roles to date. In Amazon’s “The Man in the High Castle,” based on Philip K. Dick’s alternative history novel in which the Axis Powers win World War II, Sewell appears as John Smith, a U.S. Army Signal Corpsman who joins the Nazis and rises to Reichmarshall of North America where he investigates the American Resistance while living with

his family in New York City. This being based on a 1962 novel about the role of propaganda in shaping “truth,” nothing is what it seems, least of all Sewell’s traitorous “villain.”

As he told Daily Actor last summer, “For me, that’s what’s interesting about it, is the fact that there’s a clash between the man (Smith) would’ve been and the man he ended up being.

The man he would’ve been is still in there under various layers.”

Much has been made about the parallels between the series’ scenario and our own age of rising nationalism. Though he once referred to President Donald J. Trump as a “catastrophic knob-head” — this after the president said Meryl Streep was “overrated” — Sewell has dismissed comparisons between the series and our own time, except in one respect and that is the ability of the series’ characters and present-day individuals to construct their reality.

“The unfortunate truth is that people who think of themselves as good people, people who think of themselves as moral, as victims, can use that belief to become monsters and not know it,” he told Daily Actor. “People who think they’re Poland, when in fact, they’re Berlin.”

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Culinary virtuouso

BY GINA GOUVEIA

THE SMALL HAMLET OF KATONAH CAN NOW BOAST OF BEING HOME TO A CELEBRITY CHEF OF THE MEGAWATT VARIETY, AND ONE OF THE GREATEST CHEFS TO EVER COME OUT OF LYON, FRANCE: DANIEL BOULUD. For the past two years, Boulud, his wife, Katherine, and their two young children — he also has an adult daughter, Alix, who was married this past year — have been settling into their country home.

“I wanted something far enough away from New York but not too far,” he says during a recent interview in the chef’s skybox, overlooking the humming kitchen of his eponymous flagship, Daniel, on East 65th Street in Manhattan.

Rather than jumping right into his backstory, we start with a free-wheeling discussion of some establishments that formerly had their heydays in the hills of northern Westchester, like the Box Tree Inn, a luxe inn and restaurant under the stewardship of an eclectic Bulgarian he knew well, Augustin Paege, in Purdys. This brief glimpse back to local lore with someone who has reached the top of his ranks is delightfully indulgent and unexpected.

So, what are the places he and his family frequent? There’s The Whitlock over by the Katonah train station, and The Reading Room for coffee and interesting wares, he tells me, also in town. He’s a fan of Dave DiBari’s places, The Cookery and The Parlour. In the neighborhood of Daniel in Manhattan, where he maintains a residence above the restaurant, he likes JoJo, Jean-Georges’ cozy townhouse restaurant, for Sunday dinner, Mezzaluna for pizza, Yasuda for sushi and Casa Enrique, a popular

spot in Queens, for authentic Mexican.

But, don’t get the impression that this chef is kicking back too much. He tells me that some of his clients host him frequently at their clubs to play golf, something he took up later on in his career. When I inquire about his game, he responds, “How would it look if I told you I was a scratch golfer? People would think I wasn’t paying attention to my restaurants.”

And Boulud is a chef and restaurateur who pays meticulous attention to every aspect of his operations — his faithful clientele, back and front of the house employees, menus, vendor relationships and we haven’t even begun a discussion of his philanthropic endeavors. Time is a precious commodity on his schedule, but one he shares generously.

Meeting with Boulud on Giving Tuesday, the day set aside to encourage charitable giving through social media, we turn to his own philanthropy, before getting to that backstory or talk of his empire. On the world culinary stage, the talent, artistry, success and status he has achieved is matched only by his humanitarianism, one of the key ingredients that make him great. He becomes especially animated when talking about the organizations he supports and the programs he has developed for young chefs.

More than 20 years ago, Boulud saw the need to join the ranks of New Yorkers committed to giving

Chef Daniel Boulud preparing to serve a meal to friends at his home.

Photograph by Thomas Schauer.

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Daniel Boulud in front of his namesake Manhattan restaurant. Photograph courtesy Daniel Krieger.

back to the community and supporting those in need. In his case that has been, foremost, Citymeals on Wheels, an organization for which he serves as a co-president of the board of directors. Since 1997, Restaurant Daniel has annually hosted one of the organization’s many yearly fundraisers, the spring gala named simply Sunday Supper — a festive, multicourse affair for 150 guests.

He can rattle off all the facts and figures that tell the story of the group’s mission to feed homebound, elderly New Yorkers by delivering meals to some 18,000 recipients. In 2014, he co-developed an offshoot program, together with chef Charlie Palmer, called Chefs Deliver, wherein a pool of 50 rotating chefs from city restaurants prepare and deliver a specially created chef’s meal, featuring a menu their clients may not normally experience.

Taking the extra step, enhancing the experience for others, is the common thread of Boulud’s ethos. Take the case of his chairmanship of another foundation, Ment’or, which provides opportunities to members of the culinary community to further their studies through continuing education programs.

“It’s a way for them to feel and be supported,” he says. “It is structured for an existing, serious cook already in the path of becoming a chef, to travel to other kitchens or spend time in programs that will further the culinary training they have already received.” He cites an example of a young female pastry chef in New York City who was given the opportunity to apprentice in the kitchen at Le Meurice, the Michelin-starred restaurant of Alain Ducasse in Paris.

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high school students who are considering pursuing a culinary career.

Further discussion ensues about the famous Boulud “alumni,” culinary luminaries in their own right who trained with Boulud and other masters, as he did, before setting out on their own. To discuss all the stories of the many talented Boulud alumni could be a book in itself. Legions of highly regarded chefs and restaurateurs have worked under and alongside him in kitchens around the world — his network in the industry, enormous, and their camaraderie, well documented.

The award-winning pastry chef, Dominique Ansel, was the pastry chef at Restaurant Daniel for six years, before he opened the highly acclaimed Dominique Ansel Bakery in SoHo, birthplace of the “cronut.” In the foreword of the book, “The Secret Recipes” by Ansel (Simon & Schuster, 2014) Boulud writes, “As a chef-owner, I always focus on our own program, but I strongly support the talent of my team members. I was happy to see that he (Dominique) could make his dreams come true on his own.”

Boulud speaks with me about his great fortune in being raised in Lyon, the fertile breeding ground of classic French cuisine. The landscape enabled him to serve in many capacities, even working for a producer of foie gras and a vintner along the way. He cites his appreciation for the chances he was given, the opportunities that presented themselves along the way as he did his “tour de France,” honing his craft “with the finest masters in the world — chefs whose lineage and birthrights helped them advance easily along their paths to those who worked their way up the ranks solely on their own.”

He told me, also, about an interesting phenomenon of which I was unaware, what he called “the flock of French chefs that came here for the World’s Fair in 1964

and stayed in New York.” These talented chefs went on to open some of the most iconic, classic French restaurants “of the day,” such as Le Pavillon, Le Grenouille, La Côte Basque, Le Chantilly and many more.

His own journey to the United States in 1981 was preceded by time in Paris and Copenhagen, until he was lured by a fellow chef from Lyon to assume the head duties in the kitchen of a European diplomatic embassy in Washington, D.C. But, a year later, New York beckoned, and Boulud traveled north to cook in the kitchens of Le Polo (with Roger Vergé), La Régence in the Plaza Athénée and Le Cirque, ironically the space where Boulud’s restaurant came to be located.

A man of drive and passion for all aspects of restaurant operations, Boulud says he had some good opportunities and generous partners, but adds, “to be a success, you have to provoke it.” He had set his sights on opening his own restaurant from the time he was growing up and, eventually with the support of partners, he was able to open Daniel on East 73rd Street, now home to Café Boulud, and the rest is culinary legend.

His is a long “histoire” of accomplishment in furthering the movement started in the 1980s, he explains, of creating lighter, more modern takes on French cuisine steeped in tradition. In Boulud’s domain, the numbers speak volumes. There are currently seven restaurants in New York City, not counting the three locations of Épicerie Boulud (his grab-and-go gourmet cafés), and nine more in other U.S. cities, plus London, Paris and Singapore. There are also 10 cookbooks, plus 1,800 Boulud employees in New York and other locales. We pause, briefly, to highlight this responsibility, something even Boulud seems to finds incredulous.

Twenty-five years later, Daniel, the restaurant, continues as a bejeweled crown, oozing with graciousness that starts with the chef and ripples down through every rank-and-file member of his formidable team. Creativity abounds and the gastronomic achievements have reached heights that only a boy from Lyon, with talent for the ages and a strong team of driven professionals, could ever have hoped to achieve: The legendary madeleines, the tableside cocktail preparations, the finesse and presentation of cuisine rooted in the French gastronomic heritage ever evolving with a nod to the seasons.

The reviews, articles and interviews are already logged, the volumes have been written and innumerable accolades and awards have been bestowed upon Boulud. Restaurants in his portfolio are regularly updated, and a new addition will be welcomed when One Vanderbilt, his latest venture, opens in 2020 on the ninth floor of the 57-story, 1 Vanderbilt Tower opposite Grand Central Terminal. Meanwhile, Boulud’s domain is flourishing around the globe and the Michelin stars are shining brightly at restaurant Daniel.

For more, visit danielboulud.com, citymeals.org, mentorbkb.org and ccapinc.org.

Building dreams

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

LUXURY DEVELOPER ANDY TODD HAS ALWAYS BEEN ENTREPRENEURIAL. It’s in the genes. His father, Al Dicker — Todd now uses his middle name as a last name — was a special education teacher in the Bronx who founded the Dicker Reading Method in Scarsdale.

It’s designed, Todd says, to teach anyone how to read, including the learning disabled, through the creation of a nonjudgmental environment and the use of repetition.

Todd’s mother, Debbie Dicker, owned the now-defunct Village Goldsmith in the Heathcote section of Scarsdale for many years.

For the Hartsdale-raised Todd — co-founder with Barry Prevor of Greystone-on-Hudson, a 100-acre luxury development on the former Josiah W. Macy Jr. estate in Tarrytown — the biz bug bit early. After attending Greenburgh and White Plains public schools — he played basketball, soccer and track at Woodlands High School in Hartsdale — Todd continued his love affair with basketball at the State University of New York at Binghamton. After an away game at the University of Maryland during his sophomore year, he and a classmate noticed the school’s fraternity-sorority shop, its apparel emblazoned with Greek letters. They hit upon the idea of starting one back at SUNY Binghamton. Todd turned it into a business that he later sold privately.

After a number of other ventures, he wound up in real estate. Things seem to happen accidentally, he says. But listen to him talk over coffee and tea at Tarrytown’s sustainable, pooch-friendly Coffee Labs Roasters — with its black Labrador décor — and you realize that his success is no accident.

Here he is on why he became a developer: “It’s just in-

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credibly fun to me at the end of the day to create something that wasn’t there before, learn from your mistakes and not take anything personally.

“The main thing is you have to put yourself out there, take risks and don’t be afraid to make mistakes … and do what you love.”

Todd’s passion for development — combined with an easygoing personality, a ready laugh and a willing ear — makes him ideally attuned to the needs of his clientele.

“Our clients are the most affluent in the world,” he says. “They like what they like. They want what they want. We listen to and understand their needs.

These people are so busy. We make it easy for them.

We have the best architects. The houses are beautiful, comfortable.” And prospective homeowners can be as involved in the design as they like.

The result is an increasing array of imposing stone manses and charming Dutch Colonials tucked behind winding, sycamore-studded Carriage Trail high above the Hudson River. As we tool around the development in Todd’s sleek black Tesla Model 3, it’s clear the place is bustling, with workers securing trees that will be preserved and cranes placing steel beams. There are 21 lots, with 10 sold and five houses partially or completely built.

We pass by 6 Carriage Trail — site of several business gatherings, including WAG’s first home design event last March — where Todd and his team made

“The main thing is you have to put yourself out there, take risks and don’t be afraid to make mistakes … and do what you love.”

— Andy Todd a dramatic discovery that we first wrote about when we introduced you to Greystone two years ago. It was an 800-pound marble that appeared to be from ancient Rome.

“We were shocked,” he recalls. “We were like, what could this possibly be?”

What it turned out to be after much art historical detective work on the part of him and his business

partner — “Barry was obsessed with it”— was the funerary pillar of Tiberius Claudius Saturninus, a former slave who collected inheritance taxes for the Emperor Claudius in Greece, “the first freeman to become a Roman official.”

In 1893, Josiah Macy’s widow, the former Caroline Louisa Everit, bought it at auction at Rome’s Villa Borghese. In time, however, the couple’s Greystone Castle and its treasures went the way of many of the great Hudson River estates — until Todd and his team began excavating for 6 Carriage Trail. Today, the funerary pillar, or cippus, flanks The Met’s Leon Levy and Shelby White Court in the Greek and Roman galleries.

The Tarrytown development is not Todd’s only luxury development. There’s a shingle-style Hampton country home that sits on 28 acres atop the highest point in Bedford, 702 feet above sea level, and designs for 10 condominiums on Dune Road in the Hamptons on Long Island that will be built on the site of the old Hampton Ocean Resort.

Todd is a Long Islander, too, living in Dix Hills with wife, Meryl, and their three daughters. Family is everything to him, he says, but he has also enjoyed re-acquainting himself with Westchester County — a place he never explored as a child beyond his school and athletic commitments.

“I had no idea how beautiful it was,” he says.

For more, visit greystone-on-hudson.com.

PRINCE WILLIAM HAS PRINCE HARRY, SNOOPY HAS SPIKE – YOU KNOW, THE BAD-BOY BABY BRO WHO’S A CHUNK OF CHARM AND A TON OF TROUBLE. That’s what WAG Weekly is to WAG. In our e-newsletter, we let down our hair (and occasionally, our grammar) to take you behind behind-the-scenes of the hottest parties and events, offer our thoughts on the most controversial issues of the day, share what couldn’t be contained in our glossy pages and tell you what to do and where to go this weekend – all while whetting your appetite for the next issue.

If you can’t get enough of WAG — or you just want to get WAG unplugged — then you won’t want to miss WAG Weekly, coming to your tablet each Friday a.m.

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Colin Kaeper 36

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Taking a knee AS a stand to end racial violence

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

TELL SOMEONE THAT YOU ARE WORKING ON AN APPRECIATION OF COLIN KAEPERNICK AND YOU GET ONE OF ONLY TWO RESPONSES: “I LOVE COLIN KAEPERNICK. WHAT A HERO.” “I HATE COLIN KAEPERNICK. WHAT A JERK (OR ANOTHER FOUR-LETTER WORD).”

About the only thing that everyone agrees on is that he may be the most divisive sports figure since Muhammad Ali in the 1960s. And, as with Ali, we might not be able to take the full measure of the man for years to come.

One who thinks we will not have to wait that long is Lonnie Ali, the champ’s widow.

When Kaepernick received the Sports Illustrated Muhammad Ali Award in 2017, she said: “I am proud to be able to present this to Colin for his passionate defense of social justice and civil rights for all people. ...Like Muhammad, Colin is a man who stands on his convictions with confidence and courage, undaunted by the personal sacrifices he has had to make to have his message heard. And he has used his celebrity and philanthropy to the benefit of some of our most vulnerable community members.”

To date, Kaepernick has donated $1 million to grassroots charities as part of his “Million Dollar Pledge,” with the final $100,000 consisting of 10 $10,000 matching grants.

He is also the recipient of Amnesty International’s 2018 Ambassador of Conscience Award and the 2018 W.E.B. Du Bois Medal presented by the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University.

Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers looks on from the sidelines during the team's NFL game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Oct. 23, 2016. Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images.

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As quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, Colin Kaepernick gets set to face the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field on Sept. 9, 2012. Photograph by Mike Morbeck.

Heroes, as we wrote in our December WAG story on activist-tennis star Arthur Ashe, are not born. Rather they are made by their response to their times. Kaepernick was percolating along in the most glamorous, influential of sports positions, that of NFL quarterback. And not just quarterback for any team but that of the San Francisco 49ers, for which Joe Montana — rated by many as the greatest QB to date — and fellow Hall of Famer Steve Young were past signal callers.

Kaepernick — who succeeded Alex Smith as the Niners’ quarterback after Smith suffered a concussion in the middle of the 2012 season — was building a similar golden boy résumé. Super Bowl appearance (in Super Bowl XLVII against the ultimately victorious Baltimore Ravens). Check. Advertising contracts with companies like Jaguar and Nike. Check. Covers for GQ and ESPN’s Body issue.

Check, check and check.

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or highly mobile quarterbacks like Robert Griffin III, formerly of the Washington Redskins, Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks, Cam Newton of the Carolina Panthers, Andrew Luck of the Indianapolis Colts and even Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers. (For that matter, the Greenwich-raised Young had been a running quarterback who rushed the Niners all the way to victory in Super Bowl XXIX.) And then someone noticed Kaepernick wasn’t running or even standing, but sitting during the presentation of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the third preseason game. In a post-game interview, Kaepernick said, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder,” he added, referring to a series of police shootings of black men that led to the Black Lives Matter movement. He said he would continue to protest — which evolved into taking a knee as a

mournful sign of respect after he talked with former NFL-er and military veteran Nate Boyer — until the country and its symbols once more represented what they should.

Needless to say, all hell broke loose. Others joined in — and weighed in, burning his jersey and making it the top seller. Kaepernick was praised, damned, threatened with death and blamed for the drop in the NFL’s TV ratings, which might also be attributed to the saturated coverage of what has become a year-round sport.

Meanwhile, Kaepernick lost and regained his starting job on the team but ultimately exercised his right to opt out of his contract, becoming a free agent in 2017. To no one’s surprise, he didn’t receive any offers from other NFL teams. This has led Kaepernick to file a grievance against the NFL, accusing the team owners of colluding to prevent him from playing. Arbiter Stephen B. Burbank, the David Berger professor for the administration of justice at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, has denied the NFL’s request to dismiss the case. A hearing is expected for early in this new year in Philadelphia.

The kneeling protests and the controversy have lingered — sparked in part by President Donald Trump’s disapproving tweets and comments in September 2017, which led to team displays of solidarity on the field, and by outrage as Kaepernick remains sidelined while someone like linebacker Reuben Foster, cited for domestic abuse, has been picked up by the Washington Redskins from the 49ers. The alleged blackballing of Kaepernick led Nike to put out a controversial yet calculated ad as part of its 30th anniversary “Just Do It” campaign, featuring the activist’s face and the words: “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” The company has also donated to Kaepernick’s “Know Your Rights” campaign.

In a sense, Kaepernick was born for this storm.

He was the child of a white mother, Heidi Russo, and a black father in a country where being part of two such worlds can seem as if you belong to neither. Rick and Teresa Kaepernick, who adopted Colin after losing their third and fourth children to congenital heart defects, have said they raised him to be proud of his heritage. But they could not protect him entirely from prejudice, particularly the well-meaning kind that might be more difficult to counter because it is more insidious.

In September 2013, Kaepernick told GQ about the childhood summer vacations when he’d be standing uneasily next to his family as they checked into a motel and someone would invariably come up to him and say, “Can I help you?” as if he didn’t belong.

For that issue, he posed on the cover like a model, abs and tats rippling and gleaming, his hair closely shaved and a smile on his chiseled face. Four years later, he was back on the cover in a black turtleneck and jacket and full-blown Afro, a new seriousness of purpose written on his features.

It’s a measure of how far he’s come.

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Fighting homelessness one BROWNIE at a time STORY BY JENA A. BUTTERFIELD PHOTOGRAPH BY BOB ROZYCKI

THE NEXT TIME YOU POLISH OFF A TUB OF BEN & JERRY’S CHOCOLATE FUDGE BROWNIE ICE CREAM, PUT ASIDE YOUR GUILT. Instead, raise your spoons to the outstanding legacy of Bernie Glassman, the vibrant, cigar chomping, Hawaiian-shirt-wearing roshi (a Japanese honorific title) who revolutionized the way southwest Yonkers combats homelessness. Glassman — who passed away Nov. 4 at age 79 — achieved that feat through an unlikely mix of Zen spirituality, social activism and gourmet brownie baking. (You read that right.)

Glassman, a Zen master, was galvanized in the early 1980s when he learned that Yonkers had one of the highest homeless rates nationwide. In 1982, he founded the now widely admired Greyston Bakery, named after a building that housed his spiritual community in the Riverdale area of the Bronx. Initially, the bakery was founded to provide jobs for 35 monks and students from his practice. But Glassman had a better idea. He wanted to extend viable jobs to Yonkers’ poverty-stricken inner city where residents struggled to achieve self-sufficiency but had no first rung to get there.

Greyston Bakery’s innovative “Open Hiring” model was critical to Glassman’s effort. It meant no résumé and no background checks. Incarceration and homelessness became nonissues under this no-questions-asked approach to hiring. And, still today, applicants simply put their names on a list and jobs become available on a first-come, first-served basis.

They have a saying at the bakery, “We don’t hire people to bake brownies. We bake brownies to hire people.”

Greyston’s headquarters — which houses its factory and offices — is still in a gritty Yonkers neighborhood overlooking the Hudson River. But the company’s beneficial influence on the community is unparalleled.

The open-hiring employment model did what Glassman hoped it would do. It broke barriers, created equal opportunity and became an inspiration to business owners around the world. In 1989, Greyston became the brownie supplier to Ben & Jerry’s.

Jeff Bridges and Roshi Bernie Glassman.

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Its fudgy brownies can also be found in the company’s popular Half-Baked flavor. Recently, Greyston expanded into Whole Foods Markets. At the Ridge Hill location, it has pride of place at the checkout counter as well as its own space on the shelves.

The factory reportedly churns out around 35,000 pounds of the rich and creamy brownies a day.

That growth was a result not only of Glassman’s business acumen but of his Buddhist spiritualism.

He began holding “street retreats” in order to witness, first-hand, the suffering and lack of dignity experienced by the homeless community. During the ’80s and ’90s, Glassman would often live for a week at a time with the homeless on the streets of Yonkers.

This allowed him to bear witness to the barriers the community faced. The act of “bearing witness’ is a main tenet of the Buddhism he practiced.

Glassman soon realized that creating jobs wasn’t enough. He needed to help remove the many obstacles to success he had observed in the community. Profits from the bakery sparked creation of The Greyston Foundation, sometimes called the Greyston Mandala, which grew to be a sustainable network of for-profits and nonprofits that address supportive needs such as jobs, housing, community gardens, quality child care and medical assistance.

Glassman believed in the interconnectivity of everything; that combating suffering and insecuri-

ty affects the well being of society as a whole. The Greyston Foundation continues to do just that, a few blocks away from the Yonkers bakery.

Glassman came from what he called a Jewish/ socialist family in Brooklyn and credited those beginnings for his activist spirit. But his verve and willingness to fight were never at odds with his more introspective, contemplative side.

Though he began his career working as an aerospace engineer, he was eventually drawn to Buddhism as a life’s mission. He went on to become a pioneer in the American Zen movement and a social and spiritual visionary.

Glassman started teaching Zen in 1967, eventually becoming one of the dharma heirs of Taizan Maezumi Roshi, a Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher and lineage holder in several Zen traditions. Upon Maezumi’s death, Glassman was given charge of his worldwide sangha (Buddhist community).

In 1980, Glassman started the Zen Community of New York in Riverdale, where he sought further to integrate his spiritual training with his innate drive for social activism. It is a blended approach often labeled Engaged Buddhism. The bakery and foundation were born from that effort.

Once Greyston reached an operational mode that satisfied Glassman, he moved on to co-found the Zen Peacemaker Order, an interreligious Bud-

dhist association that holds activism as another guiding principle. He continued his bearing witness retreats, taking practitioners to sites of tragedies, including the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau.

Glassman wrote several books but gained prominence in 2013 with “The Dude and The Zen Master, “an edited transcript of a four-day conversation that took place between Glassman and actor Jeff Bridges about the Zen-like attitude of Bridge’s character in the cult classic film “The Big Lebowski.”

Thanks to Glassman’s legacy, and under the leadership of CEO Mike Brady, Greyston continues to create roads forward for its employees. It has initiated an effort to work with companies that may not yet have adopted the open hiring model but have agreed to hire veterans from Greyston. It’s an effort that continues to send Greyston veterans up the ladder of success and makes room for others to come through.

As Brady said in a tribute to Glassman, “Bernie’s unwavering belief in the potential of all people had the ability to remove bias in organizations around the world.”

Thanks to Glassman, for those organizations and for the workers who come through Greyston, success never tasted so sweet.

For more, visit greyston.org.

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An immigrant’s golden moment

BY GINA GOUVEIA

YOU MAY WELL REMEMBER KHIZR KHAN AS THE GOLD STAR FATHER WHO GAVE A BRIEF, BUT IMPASSIONED SPEECH AT THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION IN JULY 2016 WITH HIS WIFE, GHAZALA, STANDING BY HIS SIDE. Those six minutes on a national stage cemented his place in history and in our hearts as a father, humanitarian and activist. Thoughtfully and emotionally delivering his allotted 260 words, he then famously held up his well-used, pocket copy of the U.S. Constitution and offered to lend it to the Republican nominee, Donald J. Trump, so that he could read it, probably for the first time, he implied.

Since then, Khizr Khan has taken his message on the road, humbly and thoughtfully delivering lectures and speaking openly about his love for America and his profound belief in and advocacy for the human rights granted to all those protected by the Constitution. Recently, he delivered the 21st annual Jacoby-Lunin Humanitarian Lecture on the Fairfield University campus, “Defending Human Dignities.”

He proudly proclaimed to the audience that it was his 236th public speaking engagement since he first addressed the nation, and the world, “in that big, bright and noisy place in Philadelphia.”

Prior to that night in July 2016, Khan, a devout Muslim, was living a purposeful life unknown to many — practicing law and privately grieving the loss of his second-born son, U.S. Army Capt. Humayan Khan. Having sacrificed his life to thwart the efforts of a suicide bomber while serving as a platoon leader in Iraq in 2004, Humayan Khan, then aged 27, acted bravely to save the lives of others. On the night of the Democratic convention, his memory and heroism had been honored by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — his favorite basketball player — before the Khan parents took the stage.

Following the appearance at the convention, Khizr Khan received encouraging words and letters

from so many thanking him for what he called, “the reminder about rights and humanities.” He had given the speech, he said, to “dignify and pay tribute,” not only to his son, but to generations of veterans who had sacrificed the greatest gift they had been given — their lives — for others freedom. The decision to speak at the convention had been an agonizing one, he told us. Many family members, friends and even his two other sons, Shaharyar and Omer, had cautioned him against it, telling him that his closely guarded privacy and family life would be forsaken.

Khan said that he frequently received attention in the media after speaking out about Trump’s perceived prejudice as early as December 2015. Sometimes when he was out in public, immigrant parents would ask Khan to speak with their children to allay their fears about deportation in the Trump era. It was the receipt of a letter — co-signed by four elementary school friends seeking his counsel on behalf of a fellow student they feared would be deported — that he viewed as a sign that his late son would want him to take up this cause. Up until its receipt he had planned to give the Democratic convention’s organizing committee a firm “no,” contrary to rumors of his payoff that had been circulating in the press.

Achieving this unsought fame at the convention for pointing us all to Amendment 14, Section One — which mandates equal protection under the law of all persons born or naturalized in the U.S. — was no stunt. Khan can adeptly quote, recite and share his knowledge of the Constitution as well as the Declaration of Independence. He spoke of making many trips to the monuments in Washington, D.C. with his wife and young sons during the 1980s, reading aloud Khizr Khan speaking at Fairfield University.

Photograph courtesy Fairfield University.

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the words from the walls of the Jefferson Memorial, attesting to our shared entitlement to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Khan has lived his life in the U.S. — as a lawyer and a parent — upholding those words every day.

The eldest of 10 children, Khan was raised modestly in rural Pakistan in a farming family that placed importance on the value of education. He pursued his studies in his native country, receiving a bachelor of arts degree from the University of the Punjab and a law degree from Punjab University Law College.

He immigrated to the U.S. with his wife in 1979, but his love affair with the Constitution began in 1972, before he even dreamed of coming here, he told us at the outset. Then, came the acceptance by Harvard University, which he deferred initially, settling in Houston and working basic jobs to earn his keep while becoming established in his new country.

Resounding during the Fairfield University lecture in November was his reverence for democratic government. Khan credits the Founding Fathers with having tremendous foresight, particularly in bestowing the most power upon our nation’s Congress right in the first article of the Constitution. He takes umbrage with citizens who “have been given independence,” but do not fully understand or appreciate the enormous freedom to which they have been entitled.

As someone who lived under martial law and

through authoritarian regimes in Pakistan, Khan said the notion of true freedom had been abstract to him. Referring to the Bill of Rights as the “bill of human dignities,” he spoke of his respect for the divine in each person — a belief that was instilled in him at an early age. He told us that when he was 11, his grandfather asked him where God lives. After offering his naïve answers, none of which seemed logical to his elder, his grandfather pointed to Khan’s heart and told him that God lives in each of us. “Therefore, we are of equal dignity.”

He quoted statistics obtained from the FBI about the rising percentages of hate crimes in our country and how troubling that should be to us. He said that he encourages fellow Muslims to assimilate with their neighbors and become active members of their communities. “Go out,” he advocated, “and speak with people of all faiths in an attempt to defuse the hatred and convey messages of belief in the common doctrines and rights that bind us all together.”

In 2017, Khan published two books. The first, “An American Family: A Memoir of Hope and Sacrifice” (Penguin Random House), recounts his journey and his family’s life in America. The other is “This is our Constitution: Discover America with a Gold Star Father” (Penguin Random House), an audio book for middle school children about the Constitution, the meaning behind its words and why they matter to all.

Khan asked if we knew that it had just celebrated its 231st birthday, making it the oldest governing document in the world. Julie Mughal, associate director of the Fairfield University Center for Faith and Public Life posed a question, asking for his opinion as a scholar of the Constitution. His answer began, “First, I am not a scholar of the constitution. I am a student of the Constitution.”

Of the time he first read the Constitution, he said, “I didn’t have the courage in my heart to think I would ever be a citizen.” Yet, he studied for the citizenship test, taking its oath in 1986. Its first mandate? To support the Constitution. When he is out lecturing, Khan told us, he is frequently asked if he could add one more amendment, what would it be?

That all American citizens be required to read and uphold the oath of citizenship, he said.

He refers to our current administration as an anomaly — a storm we will weather. Khan received a question from a current university student asking how we are to have hope in this current political climate. He told her that she and others are “the candle bearers,” and they share a responsibility to do the hard work, make sacrifices and lead the way to further the enlightenment of others.

“I have seen the sun rise on the other side of the mountain,” he said directly to the students in the audience, “and I am humbled to be standing before our future leaders. You are the hope for this great nation.”

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Russ Rit WAGMAG.COM

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A Master-ful approach

BY MARY SHUSTACK PHOTOGRAPHS BY BOB ROZYCKI

HIS WEBSITE PUTS IT RIGHT OUT THERE: “RUSS RITELL — OIL PAINTER, ARTIST IN THE HUDSON VALLEY.” And while that description is certainly accurate, it only touches on the depth of Ritell’s story.

A recent visit to the artist’s studio, housed within a cabin in the woods of Cold Spring, offers a closer look into a most creative soul whose work is poised to reach a wider audience.

In 2018, Ritell had his first international showing in Berlin, was featured in an autumn show in Woodstock and, in December, not only exhibited again at bau Gallery, the oldest contemporary fine-art gallery in Beacon and one where he is a member, but also curated the show, “Natural Selection.”

This, it must be noted, is all juggled with a daily commute to Manhattan, a full-time job in design and animation, maintaining a home and being father to two girls, ages 13 and 7.

“To get from the house to the studio, just downstairs, is a challenge,” he says.

But he takes that trip on many a night, often working well past midnight, with a goal — “to get the paintings to live, beyond me, to get them out there.”

THE INSPIRATION “I do a lot of different work,” Ritell says. “I do installation work but I’m primarily a painter.”

His current work is focused on sweeping oil paintings that at once convey a sense of history but with a contemporary immediacy.

“I have models. They’re mostly my friends because they’re free,” Ritell says with a laugh. “Or I’ll grab somebody who looks great for the part.”

All the preparation builds to what he needs.

Russ Ritell in Cold Spring, surrounded by his work, including “Raqs Baladi,” an oil painting on linen.

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meaning found in his work. Based on the heroinrelated death of the son of friends, the painting — done with the family’s blessing — was inspired by their candid sharing at the funeral.

“What that said to me was ‘I can be direct.’ I want people to look at this and kind of be upset.”

A man shoots up, with a crow hovering over him, a symbolic take on a serious subject.

“They bury their dead, and they’re a strong community,” he says of crows.

Sometimes, his work is personal in other ways.

“Metamorphosis,” a joyful piece that depicts his older daughter surrounded by butterflies, joins the nearly completed, still-untitled painting of his younger daughter, this one featuring fireflies.

Though he will exhibit the works, he says, “They’re for them. They own them… I really love that — that they’re going to have them.”

For Ritell, his recent works as a whole represent how he has developed, sometimes reflecting his interests in poetry, yoga and hiking.

“My work has kind of evolved from doing this subcultural subject matter to more spiritual works.”

Russ Ritell’s dramatic work pays homage to art’s rich history. Here, “Gorgon,” an oil on canvas.

“I want solid references so that I’ll have a solid painting … whatever it takes to get that end product. I can’t not do it.”

Ritell, from early childhood days in Thornwood, remembers having his own approach.

“I had always, always been influenced by harsh or dramatic lighting,” he says, noting that was the way he would draw and define his characters.

Unwavering encouragement came from his Westlake High School art teacher Marsha Zumbach, whom Ritell says insisted he apply to art school.

“My parents said, ‘Go for it,’” he adds — and that brought him to study at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, which gave him a foundation to work professionally as a designer/animator for nearly 20 years. The “day job,” he shares, has influenced his own art, especially when it comes to integrating technology into the process.

Early influences, he adds, were illustrators, including Frank Frazetta, Dean Cornwell, N.C. Wyeth, Arthur Rackham and Norman Rockwell. He was also drawn to classical painters, from Michelangelo to Velazquez to Caravaggio.

When exhibiting works related to the punkrock scene some six years ago — a break from the previous heavy subject, veterans’ issues — he realized those attending the show were drawn to “Sailin’ On,” a stylized work of him crowd-surfing that echoed a Caravaggio.

“I really took notice of that and I said, ‘That’s the direction I’m going.’”

And since then, he has focused on sharpening his tenebrist, or dramatic illumination, style, reinterpret50

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ing scenes featured in masterworks from artists such as Caravaggio with contemporary themes. “Gorgon,” for example, shows people gathered around someone getting a tattoo of Medusa, a famed Caravaggio image.

And do those viewing his work get the references?

“They get that immediately,” Ritell says with a smile. “It’s awesome.”

His subject matter is broad, with ideas, he continues, coming from “whatever being” inspires him.

“I don’t know where it comes from,” he says.

“When an image comes to me, I don’t deny it.”

He never wants to keep doing the same thing, he adds.

“I’m not going to get pigeonholed into one style,” he says, referencing the diverse works of several contemporary artists, including London-based Mat Collishaw. “That’s what keeps me going. These people are creative. I get inspired by that.”

THE PROCESS Ritell embraces technology and the tools it gives him, taking an idea and first translating it into a photograph from which he begins work on a computer.

“I make it like I want it in Photoshop. I’m really good at Photoshop.”

Then, he takes the work to canvas, drawing by hand while using the image as reference.

“It’s always oil,” he says of his painting. “There’s three layers, an ‘underpainting,’ a base layer and then one or two layers on top of that… It’s called ‘fat over lean’ painting.”

A work that was in progress during our visit was a prime example of another bit of layering — the

SPREADING THE WORD As with most any artist, the final step is finding an audience. “‘Keep doing the work’ is really the mantra,” Ritell says, adding that exhibiting in Europe was quite a milestone.

“The art scene in Berlin is awesome and just being there with your own art is amazing.”

Because of the nature of his creative process — plus his varied obligations — Ritell says he is not prolific, often creating just two or three oversize paintings each year.

Now, though, with a solid body of work, he regularly applies to open calls and competitions.

“I’m looking for a gallery to represent me at this point.”

Ritell definitely has made an impression, including one on a fellow member artist at bau Gallery.

Carla Goldberg, a Nelsonville artist — and subject of a past WAG feature — is a Ritell fan who suggested we spotlight him.

“Russ is genuinely a nice guy and one hell of a painter,” she says. “His works are worthy of a long viewing session. It’s not just his highly rendered classic technique of layers and glazing or his classic poses right out of a Caravaggian setting that deserve attention. That’s just the beginning.”

While Ritell’s work has clear historic references, it’s not stuck in the past, Goldberg adds.

“His contemporary day-in-the-life approach to subject matter makes his art relevant. The vastness of his paintings fills your whole vision. The absolute blackness and stark light pull you in to his subjects’ angst and drama. You cannot help but feel for his subjects as if you know them, love them, pity them... and you are moved to the core.”

Seems Ritell’s mission as an artist has more than been fulfilled.

For more, visit russritell.com.

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Silvio Den WAGMAG.COM

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DECEMBER 2018

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Photographs courtesy Greystone-on-Hudson.

nz

Leading Lalique

BY MARY SHUSTACK

WHEN WAG WAS INVITED TO “DISCOVER THE NEW UNIVERSE OF LALIQUE” DURING THE LEGACY BRAND’S FIRST-EVER LIFESTYLE PRESENTATION IN MANHATTAN, WE LOOKED FORWARD TO THE CHANCE TO CHAT WITH SILVIO DENZ, THE COMPANY’S CHAIRMAN AND CEO. We had met the most personable Denz briefly at Lalique events over the years — most memorably in 2013. That occasion was at the new Lalique Interiors Showroom in Manhattan for the unveiling of Lalique Maison, a collection of Art Deco-inspired furniture and interior design accessories. From that first encounter, we realized Denz was passionate about Lalique, clearly respecting the venerable brand’s rich heritage in jewelry and the decorative arts, while striving to transform it into a luxury lifestyle brand tailored to the contemporary client.

And on this day at The Pool Lounge of the Seagram Building, we saw that certainly remained true.

Amid well-lit crystal, jewelry that dazzled in its own right and an array of intoxicating fragrances, company representatives guided us through the sophisticated space, showcasing Lalique’s six “pillars” that include jewelry, decorative objects, fragrance, interior design, art and hospitality.

We heard about the creation process for some of Lalique’s newest additions, from the latest crystal designs, which seemed to glow as you entered the lounge, to new jewelry collections, including Trois Hirondelles and Eurydice, plus the new Cabochon Epis Rings. We saw sculptures of various motifs, while nearby, videos took us on a virtual trip into Lalique’s hospitality forays. These notably include French properties Villa René Lalique in Wingen-sur-Moder and Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey in

Bommes-Sauternes, which opened this past June.

A HANDS-ON APPROACH Then, we had the chance to talk to Denz, who graciously shared his thoughts.

“There’s a lot of things going on,” he agreed, with a smile.

Denz, the epitome of a hands-on leader who’s always on the go, seemed pleased to be back again in New York on what he told us was one of the two or three extended trips he takes each year. These several-week journeys often start in the Middle East, continue on to the Far East and then take him across America, from West to East Coast, before heading back to Europe.

It gives him the chance to check in on all of Lalique’s concerns, this time in particular the company’s new Japanese office and flagship store in Tokyo.

“It’s important,” he told us. “You can’t manage a company by just sitting in your office.”

Denz said his time is more often split “traveling within Europe,” between the company headquarters in Zurich and France, both Paris and the factory in Alsace, as well as London.

He also owns five vineyards in the Bordeaux region, which he can easily visit.

“With the train from Paris, it’s an hour and a half,” he told us.

Silvio Denz. Photograph © Adriana Tripa.

Courtesy Lalique.

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While Villa René Lalique, onetime home to the master artist/designer himself, was restored to honor its original design and homelike atmosphere, the latest hotel, Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey, has a more thematic approach, Denz said, with its interiors and décor inspired by the “colors of the wine, the colors of the Sauterne vine.”

No matter the site, Lalique boutique or luxury hotel, Denz said being on the ground, assessing the holdings across the globe — and the response each receives — is crucial.

“You can see what works,” he stated simply.

MOVING FORWARD Denz — also the owner and chairman of Art & Fragrance S.A., a Zurich-based group devoted to luxury goods — is no stranger to this world. He grew up surrounded by his family’s cosmetics and fragrance business and inherited his father’s interest in fine wines. Today, Denz is not only a wine collector and vineyard owner but also an avid art collector and is involved in real estate.

This depth of experience only adds to his worldwide perspective and insight into both the Lalique customer — and the market.

“New York, obviously, is very important to us,” he continued, with Lalique North America a key part of the company equation. Since its earliest days, he said, “America was really important —

Sage performs at White Plains JazzFest 2017

e v o l oG ta arts! the

America is important.”

We told Denz we had just seen breathtaking — and historic — Lalique designs in “Jewelry: The Body Transformed,” the expansive exhibition that continues through Feb. 24 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as the incarnation of its classic Crystal Cabochon Ring in The Met Store. Yes, he said, this was yet another collaboration, following a similar effort with the Opéra national de Paris.

Such collaborations, he said, help cultivate a wider clientele, reaching people who come to the brand “not only for our art side but for the culture.”

February 10, 2019 at 3PM Rachael Worby, conducting Savion Glover, special guest Gould: Tap Dance Concerto Vivaldi: Four Seasons Copland: Rodeo

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The 1928 Bracelet from Lalique’s 1927\1928 Collection features clear crystal and marble glass, plated in 18K pink gold and silver. Courtesy Lalique.

Lalique’s collaborations have featured artist Damien Hirst, music icon Elton John, The Macallan Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky and Steinway & Sons Piano.

“You see Lalique all over the place,” Denz said.

There are always opportunities, he added, that provide “the possibility to expand.”

He referenced the teaming with Singapore Airlines, for example, which he called an “amazing platform.”

It’s not only a way to reach the passengers, he said, with the designs for the cabins — but also through incentives such as mileage programs that can introduce travelers to Lalique’s creations and destinations.

All, he concluded, is designed to “bring people into the world of Lalique, the savoir faire, the savoir vivre.”

From its start in 1888 — with the 130th anniversary marked in 2018 — the company continues to combine the timeless with the contemporary.

“I bought Lalique 10 years ago,” Denz said, noting great strides have been made in this first decade. When he purchased the company, Denz told us, nearly all Lalique products were its signature crystal. Today, crystal accounts for a third of the company’s production. “But there are still a lot of things to be done.”

And we can’t wait to see what those will be.

For more, visit lalique.com.

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JANUARY 2019

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Diamond gladiator

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

AS ANY SPORTS FAN — OR MOVIE BUFF WHO HAS SEEN “GLADIATOR” — KNOWS, THE ATHLETE’S STORY ARC OFTEN COMPRISES THREE ACTS. There’s the rise. There’s the fall — well, maybe sometimes more like a stumble or a blip. And there’s the comeback to greater heights usually attained through greater wisdom.

On a very bad Sunday in a sweltering New York — July 18,1999 — David Cone touched the transcendent, raising the city above its tragic pall by pitching a perfect game for the New York Yankees against the Montreal Expos at medium-old Yankee Stadium. As so often happens with the Yanks at home, there was a touch of magic in the air as the Bombers honored Yogi Berra, their legendary backstop and former manager, with Berra’s battery mate in the only perfect World Series game, Don Larsen, also in attendance. So there was a sense that something might happen — or maybe that’s just the way it seems in hindsight.

Something good needed to happen. Two days earlier, the nation had been transfixed by tragedy as a golden boy fell like Icarus out of the sky: John F. Kennedy Jr. was dead in a plane crash on his way to Martha’s Vineyard for the wedding of his cousin, Rory, and with him his wife, the former Carolyn Bessette, and her sister Lauren. A couple of days before that, he was seen at the stadium, laughing and enjoying a game.

Now he was gone and a mournful city gathered around the communal TV once more as we reporters held our breath: Coney was going to do it. He was going to join the baseball immortals.

It seems fitting that Cone’s great day should’ve been tinged with Kipling-esque triumph and disaster as his playing career has seen both the Churchillian success that is never final and the failure that is never fatal. He was part of the brilliant bad-boy New York Mets team of the late 1980s and early ’90s. (Indeed, Cone has the distinction of being the

only 20-game winner for both the Amazins and the Bombers.)

Hard-partying pride, however, goeth before the fall, and the Mets of that era were ultimately broken up, with Cone finding himself exiled from the city only to return to the place of his greatest success, this time with the Yanks and a newfound maturity.

“After his first year with the Yankees — by 1996, that is — Cone had assumed a unique and self-invented role with the dynastic and once disputatious old champions as a team spokesman,” the distinguished New Yorker baseball writer Roger Angell wrote in “A Pitcher’s Story: Innings With David Cone” (Warner Books), “an anchorman explainer of controversial plays, dugout gossip and player psyches, and the daily run of rumors, anxieties, injuries and front-office maneuverings that afflict every clubhouse over the long season, never more than in New York.”

This has served Cone, a former Greenwich resident who now lives in another Greenwich (Village), in good stead in his current role, as color commentator for the Yanks on their Yes Network and WPIX — with Forbes magazine hailing him for his blend of accessibility and analytics — and in his public appearances, such as a recent one at Lord & Taylor in Eastchester on behalf of its Shop Smart Do Good campaign.

He is a once-and-future prince of the city. But it hasn’t been without cost.

THE ASCENT David Brian Cone grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, in the 1960s, the youngest of four children in a strict Irish Catholic blue-collar family. Dad Ed was a hard-drinking, night-shift mechanic in a freezer at the Swift meat-processing plant who stood for the unions and the Democrats and against racism. Mom

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Joan was a secretary who became a travel agent. In an athletic, sports-crazy family, scrappy David was the most talented and competitive — the quarterback on the football team and a point guard on the basketball team at Rockhurst High School, run by the Jesuits. Through it all, his father — a disciplinarian who was never, however, a stage parent — would work with him on his pitching motion, teaching him to hold back a little in the windup. “That,” Cone said, “made me into a pitcher” (along with what Angell called “preternaturally long fingers” and “darting, down-moving stuff” that recalled Sandy Koufax).

Though he enrolled in the University of Missouri, Cone was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in 1981, playing for their minor league teams before making his big-league debut in relief of reigning Cy Young Award winner Bret Saberhagen on June 8, 1986. His world was about to expand: The following year he was traded to the Mets, who had stunned the Boston Red Sox in the 1986 World Series. (Two words — Bill Buckner.) Cone had a solid year with the ’87 Mets but things took off for him and the team in ’88 as he moved to the starting rotation and was a dazzling 20-3 with a 2.22 ERA. This was a team destined for World Series greatness, with a 10-1 regular season record against the rival Los Angeles Dodgers, whom they met in the National League Championship series. The Mets looked good — good and arrogant.

A PITCHER STUMBLES Contributing a column to the New York Daily News, Cone forgot the cardinal rule of sports playing and writing — never underestimate an opponent, particularly in print. The Mets lost to the Dodgers in seven games, with Cone playing the goat and the hero in three appearances. It was the beginning of four years of incandescence marred by the team’s frat-boy high jinks and sexcapades, with Cone — trying to be one of the guys — in the thick of it. There were, to be sure, epic moments: Cone striking out three men on nine pitches in a 3-2 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Aug. 30, 1991 — one of only 25 Major League pitchers to do that — and striking out 19 on Oct. 6 in a 7-0 three-hit shutout against the Philadelphia Phillies.

But with the Mets mired in mediocrity in ’92 and the front office determined to break up the so-called “worst team money could buy,” Cone was traded away to the Toronto Blue Jays.

“We underachieved,” Angell quoted Cone as saying. “But that team was broken up too soon. New York belonged to the Mets then, and we were all proud of that. Part of me will always be a Met” added the man who would end his career with the team.

THE RETURN Sometimes, however, you need to take a detour — to go home — to re-establish your equilibrium. While Cone has said the trade — a form of exile to him — was

the lowest he’s ever been, he actually thrived in Toronto, helping the Blue Jays to Canada’s first World Series title in 1992, and then back in Kansas City under difficult circumstances, winning the Cy Young Award as the American League’s best pitcher in the strike-shortened 1994 season before serving as a Major League Baseball Players Association representative in the subsequent negotiations.

Kansas City traded its native son back to Toronto, but he wasn’t there for long. Instead he was headed back to New York, this time with the resurging Yanks.

Every Yankee fan has a favorite memory or two of those World Series championship teams (1996, 19982000). One is the 1996 season when he was cruising along, only to be diagnosed with an aneurysm in his pitching arm whose repair and rehabilitation would keep him out until September. That October the Yankees were back in the World Series for the first time in 15 years but down two games to none to the Atlanta Braves when Cone took the mound at Fulton County Stadium to turn disaster into ultimate triumph.

With the series and the season on the line, Cone loaded the bases with one out in the sixth inning of a 2-0 game. This produced manager Joe Torre from the dugout to find out how his only recently returned ace was feeling.

“I’m all right,” Cone said. “I’m fine. I can get these guys, believe me.”

Plenty of fans still do.

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A DESIGNER OF MAGICAL THINKING

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

Told

Told that WAG has selected him as one of its fascinating men of 2019, artist-designer Michael Aram (pronounced a RAM) says, “I hope I don’t disappoint.”

How could he? Here is someone who has thought deeply about life from the time he was young.

“When I was a child, I would lie awake and think about our place in the world, not just as a way of understanding the cycle of life but the cyclical nature of everything,” says Aram, who grew up in the Edgemont section of Greenburgh.

That life of magical thinking has led to a career that takes an unusual view of organic forms.

Considering the sunflowers that grow at his house in the Hamptons, he takes pleasure not only in the blooms at the height of their beauty but also in their underpinnings and the moments when they are spent and go to seed, what he calls the “tortured sunflowers” of Vincent van Gogh.

So, his collections, which use sterling silver, 18-karat gold and precious and semiprecious stones — feature sunflower pendants in white diamonds but also in black diamonds, while such objets d’art as picture frames and a salad serving set are braced by skeletal branches.

“Everything’s a little off,” he says, and yet it is exquisitely crafted, perfection rendered imperfectly or, more precisely, the imperfect rendered perfectly.

We are talking at Neiman Marcus Westchester in White Plains before Aram’s trunk show begins.

The past truly is another country: Aram spent much of his childhood across Maple Avenue, where Saks Fifth Avenue was once located. He was the son of the store’s general manager and as such enjoyed ice cream in the Dogwood Terrace restaurant and special meets with Santa. Aram’s parents were avid gardeners, which he celebrates in his Dogwood collection for the home. When it came time for higher education, he chose Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, which maintains a

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Michael Aram. Photographs courtesy Michael Aram.

600-acre nature preserve near Campbell Island as well as a coastal center on Atkins Bay. Aram says he knew he would spend most of his life in urban areas, so he wanted an exurban experience.

After studying art and art history at Bates, he returned to New York to work at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan.

“Those were in the days (the mid-1980s) before computers when cut and paste was done by hand,” he recalls.

At The Met, he did layout boards and photo stylings for the museum’s sumptuous books.

Everything was specialized, whereas he saw himself more as a general artist and a storyteller.

His vision of a more integrated approach to work was about to get some reinforcement. In 1988, he saw the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum’s show on Alexander Calder, which replicated a room in his Connecticut home in

which virtually everything was designed by the artist himself. Then Aram went to visit friends in India. Wandering around historic Old Delhi in the heart of modern Delhi, Aram observed craftsmen creating beautiful objects that went beyond mere functionality. India is a country that teems with color, pattern and texture — with life itself. It’s also a country of extreme poverty. But Aram — a gentle, gracious man — says he only sees the world through rose-colored glasses.

“I saw joyfulness rather than the lack of anything. The hospitality, generosity and humanity of the people touched me.”

So much so that he created a workshop there with some 200 craftsmen that is now in Noida, a relatively new satellite city of Delhi. It’s there that Aram spends much of his time when he isn’t in New York or on the road with his works.

Back at Neiman Marcus, he poses for photographs and engraves purchases — an angel

ornament from his spectacularly spectral silver Christmas tree, a pair of botanically inspired earrings and, for us, a scented candle whose silver top replicates two entwined calla lilies. Aram engraves it “With thanks, Michael.”

Among his most stunning creations, however are his sculptures inspired by the Greek myths.

(These have led some people to believe he is of Greek descent, while others assume he is Jewish because of his well-known work in Judaica.

Rather, he is of Armenian descent.)

The only female figure among the classically inspired works that include the winged horse Pegasus and Icarus, the youth who flew too close to the sun, is Daphne, a naiad who begged her rivergod father to turn her into a tree rather than see her succumb to the advances of the sun god Apollo.

Aram captures Daphne like Icarus — with arms spread, yielding to the moment of metamorphosis. In Daphne’s case, her legs have already become the laurel tree’s trunk — “Daphne” means “laurel” — her arms have turned into leaves. It is the perfect synthesis of Aram’s thoughts on the cyclical nature of all things. And yet, he says, it is also his #MeToo moment.

No, as a fascinating man, Aram does not disappoint.

For more, visit michaelaram.com.

A Michael Aram butterfly ginkgo cuff bracelet with diamonds in sterling silver and 18-karat gold, $2,175, pairs beautifully with his butterfly ginkgo triple strand necklace with chalcedony and diamonds in sterling silver and 18-karat gold, $2,250.

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MULTIFACETED DOCTOR

BY LAURA JOSEPH MOGIL PHOTOGRAPH BY BOB ROZYCKI

A

A prominent cardiologist and distinguished scholar, academic and administrator, Alan Kadish, MD, is a medical Renaissance man. Kadish became president and CEO of New York Medical College in Valhalla in 2011, when the college joined with the Touro College and University System, though he has been in leadership roles at Touro since 2009.

One of the largest Jewish-sponsored educational institutions in the United States, Touro educates approximately 19,000 students at 32 locations throughout the world. With the New York Medical College merger, Kadish now oversees one of the largest affiliations of medical and health education and biological studies programs under one institutional banner.

Born in Brooklyn and raised in Queens, Kadish says he first became interested in the medical field in high school. “I had only one uncle and he died from a sudden heart rhythm disturbance in his 40s when I was a teenager,” he says. “That had a dramatic impact on me. At that point I was drawn to study that problem and that’s what I did with my academic career.”

Kadish majored in biochemistry at Columbia University. He received his medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University and his postdoctoral medical training at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, and at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a

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fellow in cardiology. He is board certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease and cardiac electrophysiology.

Before coming to Touro University, Kadish served on the faculty and as an administrator at Northwestern University and the University of Michigan. Multifaceted, Kadish not only did research but also was involved in all parts of the medical field.

“I did procedures, I saw patients, I taught and I did administration,” he says. “That’s not unusual for an academic career in medicine, but what is unusual is I did a little bit of everything. These days people are specializing more.”

When asked about who his role models were, Kadish says the first person to come to mind was his father, Abraham Kadish “He was a lifelong educator and scrupulously dedicated to his students. And he was incredibly honest and straightforward.”

He also singles out Rabbi Daniel Scheinberg, whom Kadish studied with for four years in high school and while in college. “He taught me to love learning, to balance a career and study and to maintain a sense of humor in the face of a lot of challenges.”

“My third role model was Fred Morady, a professor at the University of Michigan, where I had my first academic job. He taught me how to balance research, patient care and to have an extraordinary dedication to one’s craft.”

Talking about his proudest accomplishments since taking over as president of New York Medical College, Kadish says, “On the list would be upgrading the physical plant, including a new clinical skills laboratory for medical students and new laboratory space for an incubator.” He adds, “We’ve also added new educational opportunities for students, including enhancing the medical school curriculum, starting a dental school and continuing to support innovative research.”

Not surprisingly, Kadish says what he enjoys most about his job is the ability to do different things. “I have the chance to teach, plan educational programming, comment on research and

Alan Kadish, MD

work with enormously talented and interesting people. I’ve always liked a variety in what I do, and my academic career before coming to Touro was a mix of procedures, patient care, research and administration. That’s what I get to do now.

Plus, having campuses in eight cities gives me the opportunity to interact with people in a variety of places.”

Typically, he’s at New York Medical College one day a week, goes to his midtown Manhattan Touro office two days a week and travels the other two days. At the different Touro campuses he is busy planning programs and meeting donors.

“But being on the road means everything from spending time with our students in Budapest this past summer to having been a visiting scholar in Philadelphia in November,” he says.

Looking to the future, Kadish says, “Our goals are to continue to prepare our students for the rapidly evolving technology in health care, to grow our cutting-edge research and to maintain humanism in doctor-patient relationships in an increasingly challenging environment.” He points out, “Those are not just goals for New York Medical College, but for the schools in the Touro medical system and for our undergraduates who are interested in health science as well.”

In addition to his work at New York Medical College, Kadish serves as chairman of the Clinical Cardiology Program Committee of the American Heart Association and has been elected to prestigious scientific research and education societies including the American Association of Professors, the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the American Society of Physicians. He has also written extensively in his field, writing more than 300 peer-reviewed papers and contributing to several textbooks.

In his time off, Kadish, who lives in Teaneck, New Jersey, likes to bike and read. He has been involved in Jewish education and communal affairs for many years, serving on the boards of directors of several educational, philanthropic and religious institutions. Kadish also loves spending time with his family.

“I’m married and have four children, three of whom are in the New York area so we get to spend a nice amount of time with them,” he says. “We have one grandchild who lives in Israel, so we don’t get to see him as much as we would like but we were just there last month and got to visit with him and his parents.”

For more, visit nymc.edu and touro.edu.

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LIGHTING AN ENVIRONMENTAL SOLUTION

BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH PHOTOGRAPH BY BOB ROZYCKI

Armonk's

Armonk’s BFranklin hopes to bring the Warby Parker model to LED light bulbs. The new company has a co-founder with a familiar name and professional experience with lights of a different kind.

For 15 years as goalie of the New York Rangers, Mike Richter hovered in the net with a light perched tauntingly on the glass just feet behind him at Madison Square Garden. As a member of the Rangers' 1994 Stanley Cup Championship team, Richter was quite good at keeping opposing teams from firing up that light by sneaking the puck past him. But Richter’s new goal is in some ways the opposite. He’d like to see the LED lightbulbs from his company light up homes throughout the country.

Richter, however, deftly avoids sports metaphors when meeting with WAG in December to discuss the big plans for BFranklin. He and co-founder Richard Hulme keep the focus on a system they believe can help people save money and reduce their carbon footprint.

“I’ve always been interested in sustainability across my life — pre-, during and post-hockey.

This is something I care about,” Richter says.

“Having finished my first career, I wanted to do something I believed in.”

A Greenwich resident, Richter first went back to school after retiring from hockey. He graduated from Yale University with a degree in ethics, politics and economics, with a concentration in environmental politics. BFranklin is one of multiple companies Richter is involved with focused on sustainable energy.

Richter, Hulme and co-founders Konstantin Braun and Rob Krugel launched BFranklin last

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BFranklin co-founders Mike Richter, left, and Richard Hulme at the company's office in Armonk.

spring. Through the company’s website, BFranklin offers to send customers a free kit with 12 different types of LED light bulbs for a 30-day home test period. In that time, people can try out different types of bulbs to find the right fit.

LED lightbulbs, as BFranklin explains in company literature, use about 15 percent of the electricity of the more-common incandescent bulbs. Yet the pesky incandescent bulb still dominates living rooms and porches. Federal data shows that, at the end of 2017, just 27 per-

cent of homes utilized LED light bulbs, while only 1 percent used LED lightbulbs exclusively.

“There’s something that feels wrong about having this superior technology — this is not an experiment, we know what the things can do — yet it is not being used,” Richter says.

The main hurdle, Hulme explains, is customer confusion and a lack of awareness. People are rarely conversant in the language of light bulbs. You’re more likely to just carry a burned-out bulb to the grocery store and hope to find a match. BFranklin’s

“Try Light Kit” wants to put an end to that.

“The kit solves two problems,” Hulme says. “It gets the light bulbs into people’s hands and helps them realize that this technology is something they could accept in their homes. And it enables them to pick the right bulbs for different applications throughout their home without having to know it’s called the VR40, or a G25, B11, or A19.”

“We use simple labeling technology,” Hulme jokes, “The number 1.”

The bulbs are indeed marked 1 through 12,

and the kit comes with a handy grid for you to write how many “1s” “2s” and “3s” you need to outfit your home. You can then order those bulbs from BFranklin’s website and send the kit back in a pre-paid package.

The bulbs will cost slightly more upfront.

Incandescent 60-watt bulbs can be purchased for as little as a buck, while the equivalent on BFranklin, “Lightbulb 1,” starts at $4. But Lightbulb 1 is far more energy efficient, and thus can pay you back quickly, Hulme notes. Just that

single bulb, the company estimates, could save homeowners and renters $6 a year on electricity costs. The total savings from LED bulbs throughout a home could reach $500 per year.

That’s the economic argument. Hulme also argues the different options in the kit will help people find better lighting for each room of their home. The newest generation of LED bulbs — which have an average lifespan of 20 years — produce a warmer, softer light than their more spartan predecessors.

Then there’s the environmental benefit. More efficient lighting means less electricity consumed, cutting down on an individual’s carbon footprint.

The quick payback and easy installation is what made LED bulbs especially appealing to Richter. For people alarmed by reports forecasting the devastating impacts of climate change, LED lights offer a way to take action.

“This is the single best place to start. It’s the ground floor,” Richter says. “It’s got the quickest payback and it is the easiest thing to talk about.

We’re talking about screwing in a light bulb.”

BFranklin is one of several efforts in improving energy efficiency from Richter. In 2007, he co-founded Environmental Capital Partners, a $100 million private equity fund focused on resource efficiency. In 2011, he created Healthy Planet Partners, a fund to finance and manage renewable energy for commercial buildings. He is also president of Brightcore Energy, which is focused on doing LED retrofits of commercial and industrial buildings. Hulme, of Pound Ridge, previously worked as a consultant to top global companies, including PricewaterhouseCoopers and IBM. BFranklin operates at an office in an Armonk corporate park. The name is a nod, in part, to Richter’s Philadelphia roots but also to honor the innovative nature of the Founding Father. Asked about the similarities between hockey and his new venture, Richter says “the efficiency and the health aspect of this relates very much to what I used to do. Performance is eliminating waste in one way or another and that’s what we do.”

The benefits are clear for anyone, he adds.

“We have produced over the last century an awful lot of greenhouse gases and an awful lot of pollution. What can the average person do?”

Richter says. “This is a way of doing something.

It’s not about hugging trees. It is about living better, having a home that performs better and getting paid to do it in the process. There are no other options quite like it.”

For more, visit bfranklinhome.com.

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AN EXTRAORDINARY STONE AND CLAPBOARD HOME DESIGNED BY ARCHITECT RICH GRANOFF AND BUILT BY DOHERTY & DELEO, THIS 15,656-SQUARE-FOOT HOUSE IS EXCEPTIONALLY CONSTRUCTED. Set at the end of Old Round Hill Lane, overlooking 16 pristine acres of the Greenwich Land Trust off Round Hill Road, the estate is a welcome destination after everyone’s favorite meandering drive to and from Greenwich Avenue. The 2.13-acre property is in a gated community offering residents both privacy and security. As the automatic gates open and you enter the courtyard, you are immediately moved by the strong architectural statement of the home framed by manicured lawns, formal gardens and mature trees.

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Onur Tuna Turkish delight

BY PHIL HALL

DECEMBER JANUARY 2019 2018

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EVERY

EVERY NOW AND THEN, HOLLYWOOD REACHES INTO A DISTANT CORNER OF THE GLOBAL CINEMA AND BRINGS OUT A STAR WHO CAN ILLUMINATE THE SILVER SCREEN WITH A CERTAIN DEGREE OF JE NE SAIS QUOI THAT TRANSCENDS BORDERS.

Back in the 1930s, the Czechoslovakian art film “Ecstasy” brought its star Hedy Kiesler to the attention of MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer, who rechristened her Hedy Lamarr. Also in the 1930s, David O. Selznick — perhaps remembering the Swedish sphinx of the Roaring ’20s, Greta Garbo — looked over in Sweden’s sleepy little film industry and spotted Ingrid Bergman, bringing her to Hollywood. Few Americans knew anything about Brazilian movies in the early 1940s, but that didn’t stop 20th Century Fox from importing musical comedy sensation Carmen Miranda. In the 1960s, it was rare to find an Egyptian movie outside of that country, but that didn’t stop Omar Sharif from emerging onto a wider screen. And more recently, Gal Gadot transitioned from appearing in an obscure Israeli low-budget flick to ascending to Hollywood’s Wonder Woman.

So, who is going to be the next actor to emerge from an unlikely corner of the globe and take up a star position in the American film scene? Smart money would go on Onur Tuna, a handsome personality from Turkey who has gained a lot of attention in Europe and the Middle East and has begun to attract a cult following on this side of the Atlantic thanks to the Netflix streaming of his television series “Filinta.”

For those who have not caught “Filinta” yet, this was the biggest production created by the staterun Turkish Radio and Television Corp., airing from 2014 to 2016 in Turkey before being sold to worldwide markets. “Filinta” is a detective series set in the waning days of the Ottoman empire (circa 1299-1922/23), and no expense has been spared to ensure a blockbuster presentation — even to the point of importing Hollywood talent, including Dusan Hyska, the stunt supervisor on “Saving Private Ryan” and “Titanic,” and Bobby Roth, director of such classic TV shows as “Miami Vice” and “Lost.”

But the center of attention for many viewers is Tuna, a 30-year-old model/singer/actor who plays

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Onur Tuna in “Filinta.” Photographs courtesy Es Films.

the lead character, Filinta Mustafa. In an interview with the Turkish entertainment publication Skylife, he acknowledged the good fortune of landing the star-making role.

“When I first read the script, I thought that Mustafa was a never-before-tried character,” he said.

“I was excited and accepted the role right away …

We had a long training period for sword-fighting, technical fighting, gun firing and choreography with Dusan Hyska. I also carried out research on people living in that period — what they wore, what they ate, how they walked… But my main focus was on feelings. Though Mustafa is a very smart and ill-tempered officer, he is in fact human. He’s a just, smart, ambitious and talented young man who likes to be one step ahead of everyone else.”

When asked if he ever brought any “if I were

in his shoes” to his role, Tuna genially replied, “Of course. Most of the time, I interpret Mustafa deriving from my own personality.”

Tuna was born in July 1988 in Çanakkale, a seaport city near the archeological site of ancient Troy. His father was a mathematics teacher and his mother worked in the land registry office. Tuna became involved in theater as a child and excelled in volleyball and basketball during his high school years. Although he earned a college degree in economics, he also took voice training at the Music Arts Department of Ege University Conservatory.

After college, Tuna’s athletic physique and arresting hazel eyes helped him find steady work as a model. But as he told an interviewer for the Turkish newspaper Milliyet, you cannot expect to build a career solely on good looks.

“Even if the beauty is relative, you should have an aura,” he said, noting that his transition into acting required more than being photogenic. “Our job is not to be handsome, but to work hard and be other people. Sometimes beautiful, sometimes ugly, whatever the role requires.”

Tuna’s first big break in acting came with a supporting role in the 2011-12 TV series “Hayat Devam Ediyor” (“Life Goes On”), playing a young man dealing with a troubled marriage and a financially struggling father. He was next seen in a supporting role in the frothy Turkish romantic film “Bi Küçük Eylül Meselesi” (“A Small September Affair”) before his “Filinta” breakthrough.

When interviewed by the Turkish media on his growing fan base following the run of “Filinta,” Tuna downplayed the aspects of stardom. “If you’re

doing your job right, you'll get paid for it,” he said. “I am someone who is not late, does not go to the set without memorization and tries to be as moderate as possible on the set. I’m not in a hurry to go home when I'm working.”

Tuna followed “Filinta” with two additional series — “Cesur Yürek” (“Brave Heart”), an action series that ran during 2016, and “Altan Tepsi” (“Forbidden Apple”), a romantic drama that debuted in 2018 on the Turkish Fox network. Throughout his acting career, Tuna created original songs that he occasionally released online and performed on Turkish TV talk shows. Last June, Tuna presented his first album “Uzay Mizali.”

“I’m usually a pessimist, producing minor, sad harmonies,” he said about his songwriting skills.

“I’m starting to solve what it means to be able to

squeeze the words between the guitar and the harmonies, to add soul to them.”

Tuna’s celebrity has already created some interesting problems for him. There have been fake social media accounts created by pranksters pretending to be him and his romantic relationship with “Altan Tepsi” co-star Sevda Erginci found him trying (and failing) to dodge the Turkish paparazzi.

Whether Hollywood will notice this rising Turkish star remains to be seen, but Tuna is ready in the event he gets that call.

“Rather than planning the day I live,” he told the Turkish media, “I coordinate the day when I wake up, because life is open to change. I can be demoralized when I'm absolutely stuck. That’s why I keep working and developing. I want to take that journey, rather than plan.”

JANUARY 2019

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Building up and out

BY JENA A. BUTTERFIELD

IT MAY BE HIS JOB TO BUILD THEM, BUT WALLS CAN’T QUITE CONTAIN DEVELOPER RANDY SALVATORE. Nor can borders. The much buzzed-about founder and president of RMS Cos., a real estate development firm based in Stamford, is about to make his mark on the burgeoning waterfront in Yonkers.

It’s a typically firebrand move for Salvatore, whose career has been characterized by leaps of faith and a commitment to staying ahead of industry trends. Colleagues tout his efficient managing style and ability to realize a vision quickly. They are traits that inspire confidence around his projects and have facilitated the velocity of his rising star.

Salvatore has been called an interesting case study for the savvy moves he made during the height of the recession. But he says his formula for success is simple — “meeting the trends and continuing to evolve. The next thing I do has to be better than the last.”

As one of the development pioneers in downtown Stamford, Salvatore had the foresight to anticipate the city’s renaissance. He jumped into the hotel business in 2009 with Hotel Zero Degrees, a New York-style boutique hotel with 97 guest rooms that he converted from the YMCA. The move proved he was brave.

The success of Hotel Zero Degrees eventually led to two more of them (in Norwalk and Danbury) and set Salvatore on his journey toward altering landscapes across the Constitution State. RMS,

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which he founded in 1995, grew to have projects in Hartford, New Haven, Bethel and Southport.

Growth has been rapid for the Stamford native turned New Canaan resident and father of four.

RMS has grown in size to about 250 employees with a portfolio of properties ranging beyond boutique hotels to luxury rentals, historic renovations, townhouses and condos.

“I like the diversity of it,” Salvatore says, “creating products and stepping back and seeing how they’re used.”

Depending on the project, RMS can develop, construct, manage and provide hospitality services. That versatility gives Salvatore a competitive advantage when brokering complex deals.

“Our business is based on execution,” he says, “not just a macro event in the marketplace.”

In Yonkers, Salvatore and his team are about to unveil Stratus on Hudson, 74 luxury rental units on Warburton Avenue with soaring, 8-foot-high windows and a rooftop deck overlooking the cliffs of the Palisades. The property will come to market soon. It’s a transit-oriented development lying mere steps from the Greystone stop on Metro-North’s Hudson line. The location makes it an easy commute to Manhattan’s Grand Central Terminal and its amenities are designed to attract a modern, metropolitan clientele.

Ran

ndy Salvatore

Randy Salvatore, founder and president

JANUARY 2019 of RMS Cos.WAGMAG.COM Courtesy RMS Cos. 77

It’s that desire to curate a lifestyle for his properties that sets Salvatore apart. Take The Blake in New Haven, a design-oriented, boutique hotel that was slated to open last month. Salvatore has brought in Michelin star chef, Matt Lambert of Nolita’s Musket Room. The hotel’s restaurant, Hamilton Park, is set to open this month. “It’s going to create a vibe for the whole hotel,” Salvatore says.

Back in Stamford, Salvatore is bucking the recent trend of a rental market and instead driving the pendulum back the other way with a concentration of owner-occupied properties called Ainslie Square, which has been marketed as “a neighborhood within a neighborhood.” It is composed of 37 townhouses and 25 single-family detached houses with two-car garages near downtown but with the type of shared amenities that entice the modern homebuyer. Prices start at $569,000.

Salvatore’s ambition started early. At age 12, he launched his own landscaping business, hustling around school hours to tend to 20 overgrown lawns. “I was always working, trying to make money.”

During high school, he’d often wander through a recently constructed subdivision. The rapid arrival of a seeming little neighborhood where there had previously been nothing caught Salvatore’s young

Stamford. It was a modular home because at the time he didn’t know anything about the construction business. That’s where he began to teach himself how to build. Then came a second and a third property. “It was a very gradual, organic process,” he says.

Fast forward to 2008 when RMS built an $85 million condo complex in Stamford’s Springdale section. It would be a year later that he took the plunge with Hotel Zero Degrees.

So, now that he’s made his foray into Westchester, it begs the question, what’s next?

“To continue expanding outward geographically,” he says. He’s considering New York City, Massachusetts and other locations in Westchester. But in order to ensure that his connection to each property remains personal as he expands, he has drawn a radius around his base in Stamford.

“I try to get to each property every couple of weeks and I have a good group of people,” he says.

“We’re in sync. The culture (at RMS) is such that we think along the same lines. It allows me to think ahead.”

The other thing he thinks about as he moves ahead? Maintaining his integrity. “Because that’s what you have when it’s all said and done,” Salvatore says.

“The products are a reflection of that philosophy.”

For more visit rms-companies.com.

imagination. Creating something from scratch and being able to point at it and say “there it is” was an intoxicating prospect to him. Plus, “I was never the kind of person who wanted to sit behind a desk.”

Instead, he saw that developing property was — no pun intended — was something concrete. “When you’re done, you have something to show for it,” he says. “You can see the product of it.”

So, at 18, before he finished high school, he took the profits from those years mowing lawns and bought a studio co-op as an investment for a $7,000 down payment, then rented it out. “I still own that same condo (in Stamford),” he says. “That’s one I’m not gonna sell.”

When Salvatore graduated college in 1991, the market was in a downturn. For a year, he worked at Coopers and Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers), a multinational accounting practice, while he plotted his next move. He still had dreams of becoming a developer. “But you don’t start without money or relationships,” he says.

So, he changed tack and started in commission-based real estate at brokerage company William Pitt, “where I banged at a lot of doors and had them slammed in my face.”

The first year he struggled. But he brokered a good deal the second year and used the profits to buy and develop “a tiny little piece of property” in

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fascinating men Ever fantasize about the perfect man? Can there be such a thing? We scoured our archives, our memories and our experiences and found more fascinating men than we could fit in this issue. Here’s a sampling of some of them, many of whom we have covered in our pages:

Alexander Dreymon "The Last Kingdom."79 JANUARY 2019 ofWAGMAG.COM

WAG'S FASCINATING MEN

PUBLISHER’S MESSAGE

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Ah, leave it to Turkish heartthrob Onur Tuna to inspire us (me) to honor him as our 2019 “Most Fascinating Man” as well as to do an entire edition on men who fascinate us.

Onur is the tall, dark-haired, hazel-eyed star of “Filinta,” a Turkish TV series shown on Netflix that follows police officer Filinta Mustafa as he battles crime in 19th-century Istanbul — valiantly overcoming challenges, fighting for his country and upholding what was right and just.

It was my absolute infatuation with Onur — and the stars of “Resurrection: Ertugrul,” another Turkish series I’m thoroughly engrossed in — that sparked the idea to name him our “Most Fascinating Man.” That turned into the launch of this, our first “Fascinating Men” issue, which will become a tradition along with an annual issue devoted to “Fascinating Women.” (“Resurrection: Ertugrul” reveals the compassion and devotion that the Nomadic tribes of the 13th century showed one another. They worked and fought hard for peace, family and land. They were besieged by the Mongols and Crusaders, among others, but remained resolute in pursuing justice.)

But back to Onur. Tuna’s Filinta brilliantly encapsulated many of the criteria for our “Most Fascinating Man” — courage, which Aristotle said was the first of all virtues; intelligence; generosity; confidence; dignity; grace; humor; humility; sensitivity; strength; accomplishment; likability; social consciousness; and creativity. Oh, and good looks doesn’t hurt.

LEST WE FORGET THE FEMALE OF THESE SPECIES, USE THESE CRITERIA TO SEND US YOUR SUGGESTIONS FOR THE MOST FASCINATING WOMEN, WHO’LL BE FEATURED IN OUR JULY ISSUE. AND IT’S NEVER TOO EARLY TO START THINKING ABOUT THE 2020 FASCINATING MEN AND THE “MOST FASCINATING MAN” OF THEM ALL.

Salvatore Campofranco Westport

Tom Bergeron Greenwich What has made him the perfect, Emmy Award-winning host of such TV shows as “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and, now, “Dancing With the Stars”? Maybe it’s that he’s just like us, or the us we’d like to be — dryly amusing in the face of pratfalls and faux pas de deux.

Bill Clinton

John J. Connolly

Chappaqua

Waccabuc

Louis Cappelli

Harry Connick Jr.

White Plains

New Canaan

He is Mr. Downtown, having developed more than 10 million square feet of mixed-use space in White Plains, including City Center and Renaissance Square, anchored by The Ritz-Carlton New York, Westchester, through his Cappelli Organization, which has a portfolio exceeding $3 billion.

With 30 years in commercial real estate, he stayed the course during the recession of the early 1990s and the dot.com bust of 2000. Now the founding managing partner of Westport-based Luzern Associates, Campofranco oversees a company that has through affiliated entities invested in millions in real estate assets and raised millions more of equity.

The 42nd president of the United States.

Arkansas governor. Rhodes scholar.

Husband of Hillary. Father of Chelsea.

Charismatic speaker who draws you in and can outtalk and outthink you. ’Nuff said.

New Orleans meets New York in one of the best-selling jazz vocalists of all time and a quadruple threat as an actor, composer and TV host as well. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina (2005), he teamed with saxophonist Branford Marsalis and Habitat for Humanity to found Musicians’ Village to provide affordable homes in the Big Easy.

When you need the 411 on physicians, you may very well turn to this Waccabuc resident. The former president of New York Medical College and co-founder of the American Lyme Disease Foundation, Connelly is also the co-founder, with John K. Castle, of Castle Connolly, which is designed to help consumers find the best doctors for their needs.

Anthony Davidson

Michael Douglas

Queens

Bedford

Ray Dalio

JaMIE Dimon

Greenwich

Manhattan and Bedford

Founder of Bridgewater Associates, one of the largest hedge funds and himself one of Bloomberg’s wealthiest 100, this Greenwich resident and wife Barbara have pledged to give away half of their fortune in their lifetimes as part of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett’s Giving Pledge.

A lifelong soccer player and former dean of the School of Graduate & Professional Studies at Manhattanville College, this Queens resident and former WAG subject (October 2013) is dean of Fordham University’s School of Professional and Continuing Studies, making strides in the school’s online learning programs.

He is the chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the largest of the big four banks, and a perennial on Time’s list of most influential people. He’s also one of the few bankers to become a billionaire.

Ari Fleischer

Tony Goldwyn

Pound Ridge

New Canaan

Andrew Economos

Richard Gere

Formerly Yonkers

Pound Ridge

Is there anything this entrepreneur, wood carver and favorite WAG subject cannot do? Today, he is striving to eradicate the noxious red algae that plague Florida’s Gulf Coast — including his native Sarasota, to which he has returned — with his new Red Tide Institute.

The son of legendary actor-producer Kirk, Douglas himself grew up to be a legendary actor (“The China Syndrome,” “Fatal Attraction”) and producer (“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”). He’s also a prominent peace activist.

When you’re making a comeback, who ya gonna call? Maybe this Pound Ridge native, who served as President George W. Bush’s press secretary. The head of Ari Fleischer Communications, he is media consultant to the NFL and a contributor to Fox News on which he often champions President Donald J. Trump.

The It Guy of 1980s Hollywood, this self-possessed movie star — who began singing and dancing in musicals, talents he used to great effect in the ingenious, electric, Oscar-winning “Chicago” — has spent much of his life championing Buddhism, Tibet and AIDS research. For a time, the multifaceted actor added innkeeper to his résumé as co-owner of The Bedford Post.

The scion of Hollywood’s Goldwyn family, this nice-guy everyman (WAG December 2018) is known for his star turn as a brilliant but damaged U.S. president on the ABC hit “Scandal” and for his work as ambassador for Americares and Stand Up to Cancer.

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WAG'S FASCINATING MEN

Chris Halliburton

Leighton Jordan

Rye Brook

Greenwich

Timothy L. Hall

Edward C. Halperin, MD

Dobbs Ferry

Greenwich

Since he became the 12th president of Mercy College (November 2014 WAG), the school has been recognized by the White House as a “Bright Spot in Hispanic Education.” But Hall, who has been both a trial lawyer and law professor, is also a scholar with several books on religion and the law on his résumé. Despite all this, he makes time to meet with students each week.

Looking to “take Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island, too,” as the song says?

Halliburton has a ton of experience, from launching a sales office in Harlem in 2004 to selling the land upon which 200 West End Ave. was built. The broker as educator, he also prides himself on listening to what his clients want.

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A true Renaissance Man, this chancellor of New York Medical College and radiation oncologist has a wide range of interests that embraces everything from pediatric cancers to Jewish history. But as we wrote in July 2016 WAG, he has done for the college what Jacqueline B. Kennedy did for the White House – restored hidden treasures to life as a way of feeding the students’ souls.

Ralph Lauren

Henrik Lundqvist

Bedford

Manhattan

Robert Klein

Stew Leonard Jr.

Pelham

Westport

The comedian’s comedian — one who has inspired the likes of Jerry Seinfeld and Jon Stewart — Klein was the subject of a 2017 documentary by Westchester-based film critic and historian Marshall Fine (as well as a March 2017 WAG profile).

His is a most gracious presence summer Sundays at Greenwich Polo Club, which he has overseen along with club founder Peter M. Brant and players Mariano Aguerre and Nick Manifold. As we noted in August 2017 WAG, Jordan has been playing since his freshman days at Skidmore College. The pluck he showed on the field led him to contact Brant and the rest is polo history.

The Bronx-born Ralph Lifshitz reinvented himself and then reinvented America with a clothing and cologne empire that celebrates the rugged elegance of masculinity on the go as exemplified by the cowboy and the polo player. An avid auto collector, Lauren is also well-known for his support of breast cancer research and the preservation of Americana.

This second-generation member of the grocery store chain owners has expanded the family business through his marketing savvy and ebullient personality while taking time to teach underserved youngsters to swim through the Stew Leonard III Children’s Charities.

This star goalie for the New York Rangers is known to fans as “The King,” in part for his style on and off the ice. The Swedishborn Olympic gold medalist (December 2012 WAG) devotes much of his free time to philanthropy and teaching hockey to New York-area youth.

Jack Mitchell

Richard Ottinger

Westport

Mamaroneck

Sean Patrick Maloney

Brendan Naughton

Cold Spring

White Plains

The Canadian-born congressman (February 2015 WAG) represents New York’s 18th congressional district.

Friendly, accessible and devoted to public service, the Cold Spring resident is the first openly gay person elected to Congress from this state.

Part of the second generation of luxe retail store owners, the dapper Mitchell (September 2012 WAG) is known for his devotion to customer service and employee well-being as illustrated in two books, “Hug Your Customers” and “Hug Your People.”

General agent at Charter Oak Insurance and Financial Services Co., Naughton focuses on recruiting and developing talent and is co-founder of the Charter Oak Fund, which supports small grassroots organizations benefiting children.

An eight-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives and dean emeritus of the Elizabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, Ottinger has been most passionate in recent years about the environment. At Pace, he founded an environmental law program.

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Bradley Porche

Mariano Rivera

White Plains

Harrison

Chazz Palminteri

Will Reeve

Bedford

Bedford

One of WAG’s first covers (May 2011), Palminteri has enjoyed great success as an actor, writer and producer, particularly with his “A Bronx Tale,” which has made the journey from movie to Broadway musical.

Hearing impaired, Porche has devoted much of his career to improving education of others who are similarly challenged. He serves as superintendent of the New York School for the Deaf.

The son of the late Dana and Christopher Reeve, this young man continues their legacy of service and grace in adversity through their eponymous foundation for spinal cord injury recovery while building his own career in sports broadcasting.

The closer on the New York Yankees during the team’s glorious run in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Rivera (January 2016 WAG) is now pitching for the education of Hispanic youth with his eponymous foundation. A Pentacostalist, he also renovated the Refugio de Esperanza church in New Rochelle where wife Clara is pastor.

WAG'S FASCINATING MEN

Leonard Schleifer

Robert Scinto

Tarrytown

Fairfield

Anthony Scarpino

Fred Schwam

Bedford

Mount Vernon

A former special agent for the FBI and a Westchester County-area judge, this Bedford resident now works to promote justice as the county’s district attorney.

A neurologist by training, Schleifer is the founding president and CEO of Regeneron in Tarrytown. Together with George D. Yancopoulos, MD, the chief science officer, he has turned the company into a pharmaceuticals giant.

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He was the second-generation owner of American Christmas — the company that lights up Rockefeller Center and Saks Fifth Avenue as well as many local venues, including our own — from 1988 to 2017, when he sold it and its Mount Vernon headquarters to MK Illumination.

He is now its chief business development officer and CEO emeritus.

Hari Sreenivasan

Paul Tudor Jones

New York City

Greenwich

Joseph Simone

Martin St. Louis

Purchase

Greenwich

President of Simone Development Companies, he has known success in the automotive salvage and commercial real estate industries, working with daughters Patricia and Joanna and family patriarch Pat.

Over several decades Bridgeport native Robert “Bob” Scinto (January 2016 WAG) has built a multimillion-dollar commercial real estate empire that spans millions of feet of office space in eastern Fairfield County. He’s also known for his philanthropy and love of the arts, which grace his buildings.

PBS’ go-to tech guy, Sreenivasan (October 2017 WAG) is anchor of “PBS NewsHour Weekend” and host of its “SciTech Now.” Recently, he joined Christiane Amanpour’s “Amanpour & Company” as a correspondent based out of Thirteen-WNET in Manhattan.

This former right-winger for the New York Rangers was recently inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Now, he runs hockey camps and clinics for local youths.

The founder of the Greenwich-based Tudor Group of hedge fund holding companies, Jones is also the creator of the Robin Hood Foundation, designed to address the problems caused by poverty in New York City.

Dinyar Wadia

Stuart Weitzman

New Canaan

Greenwich

Jean-Georges Vongerichten

Robert P. Weisz

Waccabuc

New York City

The former WAG cover guy (October 2011) and Waccabuc resident is the Michelin-starred chef and restaurateur behind a dozen eponymous restaurants.

These include The Inn at Pound Ridge, which hosts yearly literary luncheons, where the chef is always a gracious host.

Bruce Willis Bedford One of the biggest action stars since the 1980s, Willis has led a quiet life in Westchester County, patronizing local museums and continuing his support for America’s servicemen and women at home and abroad.

For more than 40 years, Wadia and his team at Wadia Associates have built luxury homes, gardens and interiors in Fairfield County in a style that is known as the New Classicism. As he says on his website, “It is traditional architecture for the modern world.”

The president and CEO of RPW Group Inc., Weisz is a visionary developer who has transformed the Westchester County commercial landscape while also participating in many of its charities. His is the classic immigrant’s tale as well, as he came from Uruguay to start his career here in the furniture business some 40 years ago.

The shoe designer and creator of the eponymous multimillion-dollar company now owned by Coach, Weitzman transformed the way women thought about footwear and themselves everywhere from the Oscar red carpet to the pavements of New York. An avid tennis player and stamp collector, he’s also designed shoes for such charitable endeavors as Pencils of Promise.

“The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress and grows brave by reflection.”

— Thomas Paine

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WHAT'S COLLECTIBLE?

ANIMAL MAGNETISM

Enameled gold, diamond and ruby frog bracelet, sold for $37,500 (estimate $18,000-24,000). Courtesy Rago Arts and Auction.

BY JENNIFER PITMAN

david

David Webb’s jewelry is synonymous with strikingly bold colors and large scale — and remains astonishingly popular today, nearly 50 years after the designer’s early death in 1975. The tens of thousands of sketches that David Webb left behind not only document his evolving style — but provide his eponymous firm with a treasure trove of designs that has kept it in business to this day. Webb was one of America’s premier postwar jewelers and his designs were largely tailored to a young and stylish clientele with a growing taste for a more casual style in women’s fashion. Webb’s subject matter varied widely — the bounty of the garden, African art, royal orders, astrology, Chinese works of art and pre-Columbian artifacts, as did his choice of stones. Among his favorites were

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coral, turquoise, jade and rock crystal. But his look was always fresh and visually strong, and this has ensured that Webb’s jewelry remains highly prized in both primary and auction markets today.

Asheville, North Carolina-born Webb (19251975) was nothing if not precocious — settling on a career as a jeweler before he hit double digits.

He moved to New York City at 17, opened his first shop at age 23 and had his first Vogue cover by 25. By age 30, Webb’s work graced four Vogue covers in one year alone, and he jettisoned his wholesale business to commit wholeheartedly to a retail operation.

While natural talent and the unwavering admiration of fashion critics and publicists helped to garner jewelry placements (Revlon, Elizabeth Arden and movies such as “Pillow Talk” to name just a few), he was also aided by the patronage of style setters like Jacqueline Kennedy and the Duchess of Windsor. One of his biggest breaks was Jacqueline Kennedy’s 1962 commission to design

the Gifts of State for the Kennedy administration.

Webb is most widely celebrated for his animal bracelets, which began steady production in 1963 and remain the best-selling pieces of the company. Webb was certainly not the first to embrace the idea of the animal bracelet. The chimera bracelet had been designed by Cartier in the 1920s, and was, in turn, inspired by Indian arm bracelets. But Webb took the idea and ran with it. There is endless variation in the Webb animals. Among the most popular are the African big cats, double frogs and the zebra, which also served as Webb’s company logo.

Another of Webb’s iconic designs was the Maltese cross. Verdura created the Maltese cross cuff for Coco Chanel in 1930, but Webb embraced the motif for bracelets, brooches and necklaces, which show the myriad choices of brightly colored enamels and colored stones, both hallmarks of Webb’s style.

Color was of paramount importance to Webb — evident in his use of colored enamels and colored stones. Webb favored colored precious and semiprecious stones over diamonds, elevating their importance and incorporating them into jewelry suited to both casual and evening dress.

Traditionally, diamonds and platinum had been reserved for important jewelry. But in 1963 Webb said: “No longer does a woman think that her important pieces of jewelry need be diamonds. …

The look today is color, flattered by diamonds in platinum or gold or mixed with other stones.”

Webb also incorporated out-of-fashion materials, like jade and rock crystal, into his designs. An inveterate museumgoer and antiques hunter, Webb scoured New York antiques shops for jade to set into his jewelry. Rock crystal, the favorite of the Art Deco period, was resurrected

by Webb, who said it “is the one white alternative for diamonds.” Its lesser cost made it particularly appealing during the recessionary 1970s, while the noncolor of rock crystal was a distinctive advantage in casual dressing.

Yellow gold was always Webb’s preferred choice, often patinated to look old, or roughly textured to give a more casual look. The look was heavy and bold and drew inspiration from ancient civilizations. The precious metal was put to great effect in Webb’s line of zodiac-inspired jewelry. His brooches, bracelets and belt buckles capitalized on the interest in astrology in the 1970s and are highly sought after today.

You are left to wonder what else would have inspired Webb had his life not been cut so short at age 50 of pancreatic cancer. For while he would sketch infinite variations on a theme, he never tired of seeking out new inspiration.

For more, read Ruth Peltason’s “David Webb: The Quintessential American Jeweler.” Contact Jenny at jenny@ragoarts.com or 917-745-2730.

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WARES

WHERE EVERY MAN IS KING

BY CAMI WEINSTEIN

There

There is nothing more indulgent than the man cave, which can be luxurious and up to date with all the toys and high-tech electronics men can fit into them.

I have been doing an informal poll of what men want in their man caves and all of them said as their first choice they would want the biggest TV possible, followed by a great sound system and a bar of some type. A few want a place to be left alone to hang out with their friends uninterrupted by a “honey do” list.

Most men like to make their man caves a cross between a home office and recreation room.

Think, too, about the location of the man cave.

Should it be in a quieter part of the house, a room above the garage or maybe in a separate structure on your property?

To make the most of your man cave, start with a masculine palette. I like to incorporate dark lacquered or wallpapered walls. I also like walls sheathed in leather, grass cloth or flannel.

Color is important, too, so design the room to reflect your man’s favorite color or colors.

Add in comfortable seating that he can sink into after a long week of work. A great sofa and chairs enhance the space. Although recliners make designers shudder, there is a crop of hip, sleek ones that are so totally disguised that we’d gladly put one into a client’s home or man cave. Put in a desk with a comfortable chair — an Aeron chair is always a classic choice — and various types of lighting. Overhead lighting is needed, along with task lighting to read by.

Lamps will create warmth, as will the finishing touch of a rug.

But nothing adds warmth like a fireplace. If you are building your home or renovating and space permits, including one will be an asset. I personally like a gas fireplace, because you get the heat and glow of a real fire without all the

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A man cave can be designed to suit any man, with accents from a pool table to a flat screen TV.

hassle of dragging wood through the house and starting the fire. Just a quick click of the remote and instant atmosphere. Plus, you now have one more remote control to argue over.

As for the bar mentioned above, you can add a great-looking bar cart stocked with topshelf spirits, glasses and bar accessories, if you don’t have room for an actual bar. If there is room for a bar, then include a built-in beverage center and wine cooler. If room permits, a built-in wine wall can be an attractive industrial or high-tech focal point. Add in some great glasses that match the drinks you are going to pour and keep nuts, crackers, olives and chocolates on hand for snacks.

Some of the guys I spoke with would like to have built-in shelves for their books. A library of shelves full of personal collections of books that have the client’s interests or hobbies in mind rather than a row of old encyclopedias (remember them?) is a terrific touch. However, the two retro items that have become insanely popular again

are a stereo and an impressive vinyl collection.

Game tables for cards, chess or backgammon are also popular. Some guys want pool tables, which have really come a long way. Although a classic pool table with a green felt top can still be purchased, pool tables now come in a wide range of styles from traditional to modern and in colors to suit the décor of your room.

Man caves can be either ultra modern in style or warm and cozy but, most important, they are personal spaces and should reflect the interests and style of their occupants. I love to bring artwork into the man cave. Paintings, sculpture, vintage rock ’n’ roll posters and sports memorabilia are always a hit. Blackand-white photographs that reflect a hobby or interest that the occupant may have can also work well. Family photo walls and maps are also good decorative choices.

Just as long as you remember that it’s all about him.

For more visit camidesigns.com.

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

HOW NOLE GOT HIS MOJO BACK

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

IF

If success is its own kind of failure, then failure can hold the seeds of new success.

When he won the French Open in 2016 — the last box to be checked off on his résumé — Novak Djokovic became only the third man in tennis history — behind Don Budge and Rod Laver — to hold all four Grand Slam titles. He wouldn’t win another Grand Slam for two years. In that time, he lost his number-one ranking, tumbling as far as number 18, the first time he was out of the top 15 since 2006, as he lost early in tournaments to men he used to beat with imposing ease. Djokovic even left the tour for seven months, beginning in August of 2017. Some wondered not when, but if he would be back.

In the second half of 2018, he answered them in spectacular fashion — outgunning Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (11), 3-6, 10-8 in an electric, 5-hour, 15-minute match that further cemented their rivalry as perhaps the best in the game, and then outlasting the searing heat and Juan Del Potro at the US Open, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3. In between, he won the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, defeating perennial champion Roger Federer and becoming the first man in tennis history to capture the Golden Masters — at least one win in all nine Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) 1000 events.

He was, a New York Times headline said, the “unmatched star of summer.”

And even though he would lose to Alexander Zverev, who leads the surging new kids on the tennis block, in the ATP Finals, the end-of-year tournament in London, Djokovic had regained the number one ranking and the eye of the tiger.

There was no question about it: The man fans affectionately call Nole is back.

So, what happened? How did Djokovic, WAG’s August 2013 cover guy, lose and regain his mojo? There was an elbow injury that had him playing in pain for two years and that finally required surgery, along with whispers of personal problems. But mostly, it seemed to be a crisis of confidence. Everyone goes through moments of self-doubt, he was quoted as saying in The Guardian after he won his fourth Wimbledon this

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Novak Djokovic.

Courtesy USTA.

past summer. It’s human nature.

“Speaking from this position right now, it makes it even better for me, makes it even more special, because I managed to overcome challenges and obstacles.”

Djokovic also did what many people do in recalibrating success — he made some changes even as he recommitted to the essentials. He and clothing company Uniqlo parted ways (the Japanese-based firm signed Federer for $300 million after he parted with Nike) and he became, as WAG reported, the “new Crocodile” for Lacoste.

But Djokovic — who has been coached by Boris Becker and Andre Agassi — also returned to the coach with whom he first achieved greatness, Marián Vajda. And his diet, long gluten-free because of his celiac disease, has become mainly plant based. A decorated member of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Djokovic has turned increasingly to meditation and has been known to practice it at the Buddhapadipa Temple in Wimbledon.

Some things have never changed, however, including his devotion to educating disadvantaged children in his native Serbia and around the world through the Novak Djokovic

Foundation and as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador. After winning the US Open this past summer, Djokovic auctioned off a racket he used to win the Cincinnati Masters this year and his personal limited-edition Seiko Astron GPS Solar World Time watch at Christie’s in New York to benefit his foundation.

A baseliner who nonetheless knows how to serve and volley socially, he played along with the “Today” show’s Al Roker after that US Open win, handing out Dunkin’ Donuts to astonished straphangers in a Manhattan subway and then appearing at the American Museum of Natural History where he was joined by son Stefan, a big dinosaur fan. (Djokovic and wife Jelena are also the parents of a daughter, Tara.)

It was Stefan who provided an emotional highlight of the tennis season when he spotted his father on the court after his Wimbledon triumph and cried out from the stands, “Daddy, Daddy.”

“I was visualizing, imagining this moment of him coming to the stands, cherishing this moment with my wife and me and everyone,” Djokovic later told The Guardian. “It’s hard to describe. It is a moment that I will carry inside of my heart forever.”

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

STAGING MORE SUCCESS

BY MARY SHUSTACK

WAG

WAG first met Geoffrey Walsky in late 2016.

Our January 2017 story focused on his design work through both the Fairfield Co. Antique & Design Center in Norwalk and Iconic Modern Home, his own on-site selection of vintage wares that extended to a presence in a Greenwich art gallery.

Since we spoke, the founder and creative director of Iconic Modern Home has fine-tuned the business — now fully based in Norwalk — on a path of continual growth, particularly in the field of luxury home staging.

Impressed by Walsky’s national appearance on NBC’s “Today,” headlining a segment on “Secrets to Staging Your Home” and receiving a steady flow of email updates featuring Iconic Modern Home’s sophisticated staging projects, we knew it was time to check back in.

We sat down on a recent morning with Walsky, settling in for a chat in Iconic Modern Home’s own well-appointed showroom within the center — and were quickly taken into a fast-paced world filled with sourcing distinctive furniture and accessories, staging million-dollar homes throughout the tristate region — with the Hamptons an area of particular growth — and, yes, a happy home life that continues in Weston with his wife and now 5-year-old twins.

Iconic Modern Home has carved a niche that it continues to define.

With so many new homes being built or longtime properties now coming to market, they are often staged in a familiar, cookie-cutter way.

His company, Walsky notes, offers something unique — “We’re going custom.”

Antiques are real. Art is thoughtful. All comes together to create a one-of-a-kind setting that allows the potential buyer to see the space in a most livable light.

And, he adds, builders and real estate agents — his main contacts — continue to appreciate Iconic Modern Home’s breadth, from a network that allows it to source distinctive furnishings to providing interior-design work such as upholstery or art placement to the clincher — in most cases,

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A staging project of Iconic Modern Home. Photograph courtesy Iconic Modern Home.

Geoffrey Walsky

work is done with a one-day installation.

The result, he continues, is also something that really “resonates with the buyer,” who can then see himself in such memorable surroundings.

The hectic pace to reach that point is a challenge, though a welcome one.

“The more we’re busy, the stronger our resources,” Walsky says, as it allows him to continue to build relationships with everyone from antiques sources to fine craftsmen.

Having a buying power “so broad,” he adds, “has always been our strength.”

Often, Walsky notes, homebuyers even go on to purchase the furnishings they have seen. The connection has been made.

“I have a very modern aesthetic and, while the furnishings are very modern, it’s very warm,” he says.

Iconic Modern Home is definitely getting its name out there, recently securing its largest project to date, a $15 million waterfront home in Water Mill coming to market for the first time in some 15 years. There was also the chance to work with the Hamptons International Film Festival.

Teresa Kratzman, who officially joined Iconic Modern Home as COO and head of business development soon after we last spoke, adds of that high-profile, celebrity-filled project, “We had the perfect opportunity to stage their spaces.”

While day-to-day elements keep Iconic Modern Home busy — with Walsky next planning to break into the hospitality sector — he continues to oversee the 5-year-old antiques center, a 20,000-square-foot former warehouse filled with vintage and antique furnishings, jewelry, art and more.

“The center’s been great,” Walsky says of the multidealer destination. “People love it… It’s been a great complementary business.”

After all, poking around from booth to booth reminds Walsky of his early days, antiquing with his French-born mother, but now there’s a new sensibility.

Gone, he says, are “the years when I was a kid, when you used to tiptoe around and couldn’t touch anything… Here, you can have fun.”

It also offers a singular experience, one we’d say also seems to reflect the heart of Iconic Modern Home.

As Kratzman says, “Who doesn’t love to be around beautiful things?”

Iconic Modern Home and the Fairfield Co. Antique & Design Center are at 19 Willard Road in Norwalk.

For more, visit iconicmodern.com and fairfieldantiqueanddesign.com.

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Kurt Kanneme 96

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eyer

Attaining another summit

BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

BETWEEN REACHING THE PEAK OF MOUNT KILIMANJARO, HELPING CHILDREN AT ST. CHRISTOPHER’S IN DOBBS FERRY AND TAKING LEADERSHIP OF A ROCKLAND COUNTY NONPROFIT, KURT KANNEMEYER HAS MADE HIS ALMA MATER SIT UP AND TAKE NOTICE. LATE IN 2018, HE WAS NAMED A NELSON MANDELA UNIVERSITY ALUMNI ACHIEVER. In November, the university flew him to its Port Elizabeth, South Africa, campus to accept the prestigious award. Kannemeyer, a Westchester resident who was born and raised in South Africa, was one of eight people honored by the university for the year and one of just three recipients of its “achiever” award. The award recognizes, “alumni who have gone the distance and beyond in their various fields, to the benefit of society at the local, provincial, national and international level. He accepted the award at a ceremony Nov. 23.

“It was a huge honor,” Kannemeyer says. “I never went into the nonprofit sector, or dedicated my life to helping people, by saying I want to get recognition or anything like that. You do it to change the lives of people. Empower and help them contribute to the well-being of their society.”

The ceremony capped a whirlwind fall for Kannemeyer, who also got married at the end of September.

WAG first profiled Kannemeyer in 2013, when he was preparing a trip to Africa to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. The climb aimed to raise funds and awareness of the struggles and needs of St. Christopher’s, a residential treatment center for special education students in Dobbs Ferry. Kannemeyer

was director of development for the nonprofit at the time. Altitude sickness scuttled his first attempt just short of the summit, but Kannemeyer would return in 2015 to raise a St. Christopher’s banner at the mountain’s peak, 19,341 feet above sea level.

In 2016, Kannemeyer took over as executive director of the Haitian American Cultural and Social Organization in Spring Valley, which provides a range of support services to Haitian immigrants and minority communities. The nonprofit also provided aid to Haiti following Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

It was earlier this year that Kannemeyer received a call from an administrator at Nelson Mandela University. The school had been tracking his accomplishments through LinkedIn and other social media, he says, and believed he was a fit for the achievement award. College officials had already reached out to his colleagues to discuss his credentials, Kannemeyer later found out.

“They looked at the person as a whole, the career path you took after you left the university to where you are now,” Kannemeyer adds.

At the time Kannemeyer studied there, the college was named University of Port Elizabeth. He graduated with a law degree in 1999. The college

Kurt Kannemeyer.

Photographs courtesy Kurt Kannemeyer.

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combined with two other universities in 2005 to form Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and then changed the name to Nelson Mandela University last year.

Receiving an award from a university that carries the name of Mandela — the late South African president and anti-apartheid revolutionary who believed in the value of education for empowerment — made the award even more of a “privilege and an honor,” Kannemeyer says.

Also, to be recognized within the thousands of students who have passed through the university, he adds, “I just thought, Wow. It didn’t really sink in until I got on the flight and traveled to South Africa.”

He took pride in sitting next to his 91-year-old grandmother, who lives in South Africa, during the ceremony. But he was also thinking of his parents and one of his sisters, each of whom had passed away within months of each other three years earlier.

“It’s both happy and sad to be standing there accepting something that my parents would have been proud to see,” he says. “Through their dedication and hard work, I received this education and was able to use that for helping others.”

He adds that “nothing I’ve ever accomplished I could have done on my own, it’s a collective effort.

Knowing it takes a village, a community. That whole spirit of Ubuntu. We co-exist with one another.”

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A pensive moment on Kilimanjaro.

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WHAT'S NEW AGAIN?

John La Farge inset. His “Apple Branch” oil on canvas, will be auctioned at Skinner Inc. Jan. 25.

A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS

BY KATIE BANSER-WHITTLE

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"john

“John La Farge … our sole ‘Old Master,’ our sole type of genius that went out with the Italian Renaissance.” Royal Cortissoz, art historian and art critic for the New York Herald Tribune, wrote those words in 1911. Today’s art lovers are reaffirming this admiration for a multifaceted man whose reputation went into eclipse for much of the 20th century.

La Farge is best known for his achievements in stained glass, a traditional medium that he helped transform and revive in the later 19th century. But La Farge was a man of encyclopedic knowledge and many talents — a highly accomplished painter, art historian and

lecturer (among other venues, he lectured at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, where several of his works enrich the permanent collection), interior designer, muralist and author. His circle of friends included such eminent figures as architects H. H. Richardson and Stanford White, painter Winslow Homer, novelist Henry James, his psychologist-brother, William James, and historian Henry Adams.

Born in New York in 1835 into a cultured and successful French émigré family, La Farge was bilingual (as children, he and his brothers produced a handmade magazine they titled Le chinois) and began learning to paint in watercolor when he was in grammar school.

Throughout his life, La Farge remained a serious student with wide-ranging interests.

His respect for and knowledge of diverse artistic and cultural traditions was combined with a taste for fearless and fruitful technical experimentation.

In 1856, having completed his law studies, he was rewarded with a trip to Europe. He soon began to study painting seriously and his life took a new direction. When he returned to the United States in 1857, he married, moving to Newport, Rhode Island, and studying with the artist William Morris Hunt.

In the 1860s and ’70s, La Farge painted primarily landscapes and still lifes. He also did illustrations and engravings for books and magazines and began his intensive study of Japanese woodblocks. His rise to prominence began in 1876, with his murals and stained-glass designs for H. H. Richardson’s Trinity Church in Boston. This successful collaboration led to many other important schemes for public buildings, including St. Thomas’ Church and the Church of the Ascension in Manhattan, as well as private commissions for prominent patrons such as Cornelius Vanderbilt.

La Farge’s energies were largely directed toward his innovative stained-glass windows.

Both in terms of artistic design and technical achievement, his work was remarkable. He is credited with the development of opalescent sheet glass by blending and layering different colors. La Farge was awarded patents for his new methods. Conflicts with his contemporary and rival, Louis Comfort Tiffany, resulted in threatened lawsuits that were eventually dropped.

His fascination with stained glass and the unique effects of color and light that could be achieved in that medium encouraged his work in watercolor, long considered subordinate in importance to oil painting but beginning to be widely popular and greatly respected at the end of the 19th century. La Farge frequently used watercolor to make studies for illustrations and decorative projects, to record his travels and to paint sparkling floral pieces for exhibition and sale.

The brilliance of both watercolor and colored glass depends on translucency, and La Farge found watercolor the ideal medium to develop sketches for stained-glass compositions.

The importance of watercolor in his artistic development is shown by the fact he produced at least 1,200 watercolors during his career, almost twice as many as his oil paintings,

stained-glass projects and murals combined.

In the 1880s, La Farge began the travels abroad that continued until his death. His trips to Japan in 1886 and to the South Seas in 1890-91, both in the company of Henry Adams, were the source of some of his best-known watercolors. These plein air paintings captured subjects that were then little known and exotic.

Japan had been open to the West for fewer than 35 years. South Pacific islands such as Fiji, Tahiti and Samoa had been seen only by adventurous mariners, merchants or scientists.

La Farge’s watercolors are characterized by lively brushwork, jewel-like colors and a respectful curiosity about the cultures being depicted. They, along with his drawings, are probably the most accessible and characteristic of his works, and examples are much soughtafter by collectors.

Like many of the great masters with whom he was compared, La Farge’s creative genius belied a lack of business acumen. When he died in 1910, his bank balance was $13. His artistic legacy, however, is priceless.

For more, contact Katie at kwhittle@ skinnerinc.com or 212-787-1114.

JANUARY 2019

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WANDERS

SILVER AND GOLD AND SNOW

BY BARBARA BARTON SLOANE “I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in nature which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright.”

— Henry David Thoreau

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artsy

Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh past the Stein Eriksen Lodge in Park City, Utah. Photograph courtesy the Stein Eriksen Lodge.

Artsy, eclectic and a downright fun little ski town — that, my friends, is Park City. Framed by the craggy Wasatch Mountain range and bordered by the Deer Valley and Park City Mountain Resorts, Park City is a mere 35-minute drive from the Salt Lake City Airport as well as a step back in time.

A bandana on a stick marked the discovery of silver in Park City by prospecting soldiers in 1868, fueling a boomtown economy that thrived for nearly a century. From those rowdy beginnings, mining gave way to burgeoning ski resorts in the 1960s. In the 1970s, the arts became the town’s other defining feature, led by the Park City Museum. Bodacious boutiques sprang up as well as seriously good restaurants and a string of spirited watering holes. In today’s Park City, the riches lie above ground and the prospects are looking good.

A GENTLEMAN OF DISTINCTION One of our many ventures recalled Stein Eriksen, an Alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist from Norway. He won the gold medal in the giant slalom at the 1952 Winter Olympics held in Oslo and also won three golds at the 1954 World Championships in Åre, Sweden. Among his many accomplishments, Eriksen served as a ski instructor at many different ski schools. At Sugarbush Resort in Vermont, he would combine his gymnast background and skiing to demonstrate a flip on skis. It’s said that Eriksen was skiing’s “first superstar,” since he was handsome, stylish and charismatic. Despite his fame, he maintained a down-to-earth personality and is quoted as saying “Be tough, be confident. But you will never be a whole and happy person if you aren’t humble.”

Two faces of Park City — a bustling downtown surrounded by powdery slopes. Photographs courtesy Visit Park City.

At Park City’s Stein Eriksen Lodge wine cellar, it was fun to cruise through a maze of underground rooms containing more than 10,000 bottles with a value of $1 million-plus and experience an elegant wine tasting. Then, on to dinner at the Lodge’s Glitretind Restaurant — an enchanting end to a fine wine and dine day.

Continuing to imbibe the next evening (oh dear), we took part in the Gin Experience at Alpine Distillery. This micro-distilling facility is downstairs in the historic Mercantile Building on Main Street.

Essentially, the experience involved choosing specific botanicals for a personal gin creation.

Having a hand in crafting firewater — that’s a rather distinctive privilege. I, whose drink of choice was never gin, found that what I had concocted that

night was imminently enjoyable.

My Park City stay was enhanced by the Westgate Park City Resort & Spa. The property has been awarded the “Best of State” honor in seven categories including “Best Ski Resort.”

The Edge Steakhouse, with its hearty fare, was a happy experience; happier still, my memorable massage at the hotel’s Serenity Spa This mountain retreat day spa has 14 treatment rooms and a waterfall. Immersing oneself under falling water will wash cares away — promise.

HELP: HOUDINI I’M NOT Not even close. Another adventure centered on Escape Room Park City. For those unfamiliar with the Escape Rooms concept now so popular across

the country, here it is in a nutshell: A group is put into a room (the theme of this one was “Mine Trap,” fitting for Park City’s silver mining past). The door is locked and you have 60 minutes to figure out how to escape from a mine tunnel collapse. You are challenged to think outside the box (or outside the room, if you will), work through puzzles and solve clues. Teamwork and communication with one another are essential. Discussing this later with the event manager, he confided that this “mining room” was rated as the most difficult of the many themes offered. Thanks. It was not, repeat not, a piece of cake, and we had to be given an extra 10 minutes to finally find the way to freedom. A different kind of fun and, yay, we met the challenge.

For more, visit parkcity.com.

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WANDERS

Celebrity chef Scott Conant has been a judge on “Chopped” for the past 10 years and owns five restaurants around the country.

THE DAPPER CHEF

BY DEBBI KICKHAM

Chef

Chef Scott Conant brings a deft touch and unwavering passion to creating soulful food in a convivial atmosphere. With a career spanning more than 30 years, including multiple restaurants, an enthusiastic following of fans and an ever-expanding brand, he has established himself as one of the country’s top chefs and restaurateurs. A graduate of The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, Conant broke out onto the restaurant scene in his 20s, running the kitchens at Il Toscanaccio, Chianti and City Eatery, which had earned glowing reviews under his leadership. Conant officially put his name on the map when he opened L’Impero in 2002, which garnered a three-star review from The New York Times, the title of “Best New Restaurant” from the James Beard Foundation and praise from top publications such as Gourmet and Food & Wine,

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the latter naming Conant one of America’s Best New Chefs in 2004. Today, Conant owns four restaurants, including one at Resorts World Catskills casino in Monticello.

If you've ever watched the hit Food Network show “Chopped,” you’ve undoubtedly seen him.

Conant is the dapper chef, who typically wears a gorgeous Ermenegildo Zegna suit and flashes a Cheshire-cat smile. I interviewed Conant as he sat on the beach at a top resort in Mexico, where he was cooking for a private party of 25 people. He was a delight to speak with, sharing his thoughts on all things culinary, his favorite snacks and what he thinks about JetBlue.

You grew up in Waterbury. Did you ever have any idea you would become so successful?

“I knew at age 15 that I wanted to be a chef. When I started cooking, I had no idea what was in store. I attended Kaynor Technical (High) School in Waterbury and tried to get into the plumbing program. It didn't work out and I then entered the culinary arts program. I love baseball and also wanted to be a baseball

player, but it wasn’t in the cards for me. I didn’t dream big enough.”

So you’re saying that you became a chef because you couldn’t be a plumber?

“Yes. And I sometimes still wear my pants like that.” (Laughs.)

You're the best-dressed chef on “Chopped.”

Where do you get your suits and shoes?

“Ermenegildo Zegna. I’ve been wearing Zegna for 14 years. When I dress casual, I wear John Varvatos.”

Why is it that Italians have such a great sense of style?

“They’re proud and they want to look good. It’s the country of Zegna, Brioni and Maserati.”

Why do you hate onions?

“I get a lot of grief for saying that. But the one thing we ask on ‘Chopped’ is for the chefs to excel and I’m not convinced that a chopped onion is haute cuisine.”

Have you ever cooked with a jar of storebought tomato sauce?

“No. Except for my own brand. I just started jarring my own. It's called Sprezza. You can buy it on scottconant.com. That’s my shameless plug.”

(Smiles.)

What do you want to eat for your last meal?

“A big, giant bucket of good fried chicken.”

(Smiles again.)

What's the best thing you've ever eaten?

“It’s impossible to say. Mom’s chicken cutlets.

And I just ate a dish of tapioca and caviar at JeanGeorges in New York. It was tremendously sexy and unctuous. When I go to lunch in New York, I always go to Jean-Georges for lunch, handsdown.”

What’s your favorite snack?

“I’m a popcorn guy. Sometimes I will skip meals to have popcorn with extra-virgin olive oil and sea salt. It’s very simple.”

What food can’t you live without?

“Extra-chunk Skippy peanut butter is one of my favorite things in life.”

Favorite airline?

“I would fly JetBlue Mint any day of the week.

It’s spectacular. The service is unbelievable, and first class has lie-down seats. They’ve mastered the art of hospitality. ...I travel nine months of the year and they’re pretty hectic.”

To what one thing do you attribute your success?

“I don't consider myself successful. I’ve had a lot of downs. Google me. You’ll find all the struggles there. (Laughs). I’m here sitting next to a pool, but I’m writing recipes. And those 4 a.m. wake-up calls … are hard. My weight fluctuates all the time. I won’t be in a bodybuilding contest anytime soon.”

To book a party with Scott Conant as chef, email info@scottconant.com.

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WANDERS

TURKISH CHARM

BY JEREMY WAYNE

EVEN

Even if you don’t manage to bag dinner with this month’s WAG cover-man, “Filinta” star and international heartthrob Onur Tuna, there are plenty of other reasons to visit Istanbul.

Sitting at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, where the Black Sea meets the Mediterranean, this vast and cacophonous city was the fifth most-popular tourist destination in the world last year. Empires have come and gone from here, but Istanbul endures. Egyptian obelisks lie scattered with almost profligate abandon around the city, and the 6th century Byzantine dome of the great Hagia Sophia still dominates its skyline. Older than Athens, as clamorous as Cairo, more sprawling than Los Angeles, Istanbul is a feast for the senses, a Technicolor cavalcade, a riot of scents and sounds.

Huge it may be, but Istanbul is also encouragingly approachable. In the central Sultanahmet district, itself relatively compact, the monumental Hagia Sophia, or Church of the Holy Wisdom (which is now a museum), gives way to the whimsical Topkapi palace, with its strollable pavilions, follies and gardens. The domes and minarets of the fabled Blue Mosque nearby quickly become reassuring landmarks. And even though Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar — 60 streets of shops and stalls attracting nearly 100 million visitors a year — could hardly be called intimate, it is almost impossible to get lost. By some curious natural phenomenon, you find yourself miraculously at your starting point just when you had given up hope of ever seeing a familiar face or place again.

Even Istanbul’s nightlife, which incidentally runs the gamut from anachronistically glamorous (think Melina Mercouri-types swathed in diamonds and furs) to downright tawdry, is mainly confined to the districts of Galata and waterfront Karaköy, both a short and inexpensive

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Uber ride away from your hotel.

Ah, hotels. Not so very long ago, there was only one hotel in Istanbul where you might reasonably have wanted to hang your hat. The Istanbul Hilton was as swish and cosmopolitan as it was quirky and charming. With a very sweet smile and always a “yess-pliss,” the young lady at the front desk would invite the next guest to step forward. It was adorable. The elevator operator, meanwhile, liked to hum an old Turkish lullaby to himself as he pressed the floor buttons, oblivious to any guests.

But nobody minded because the Hilton had all the creature comforts and a view of the Bosphorus proverbially to die for — and besides, we lived in an age where eccentricity was valued.

These days, though, you’re spoiled for choice.

From the glitzy Ciragan Palace, complete with infinity pool and helipad, to Vault Karaköy, an independent hotel situated in a former bank, as seductive and comfortable as it is well-located, to hipster Soho House with its barbershop, hammams and oh-so-chic branch of Cecconi’s restaurant, there is something for everyone in this mighty metropolis.

My choice, down Constantinople way, however, is the Four Seasons, of which there are not one, but two in the city. The original, Four Seasons Sultanahmet, with historic sites and delicious shopping on the doorstep, is in a former prison, construction of which began exactly 100 years ago. It’s a gorgeous property (not an obvious cell or a penal treadmill in sight), whose public rooms as well as its guestrooms are gems of brightly upholstered perfection, with the atmosphere more of a well-run private townhouse than a busy city hostelry.

Situated in the former Atik Pasha Palace, right on the Bosphorus and 10 years old this year, the newer Four Seasons is a horse of a different color, where some years ago I was invited to take part in “Four Seasons University.”

Along with some other lucky travel journalists and key sales professionals from all over the world, I arrived in Istanbul for a voyage of discovery, to learn how this exceptional group goes about its business — the business of luxury hotel-keeping.

For two whole days we studied front and back of house, seeing how housekeeping typically makes a bed Four Seasons-style (don’t forget those hospital corners, boys and girls), or learning the correct way to prepare a cocktail, or fillet a fish, or conduct a celebrity check-out (hint: the same way as any other check-out. At Four Seasons, all guests are celebrities.)

Aya Lounge at the Four Seasons Istanbul at Sultanahmet.

Photograph by Peter Thuysbaert.

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At a Four Seasons property, be it in Chiang Mai, Boston or Florence, not only does every glass sparkle or piece of fruit shine front of house, so too does every engineer’s wrench gleam behind the scenes. It’s all part of the culture, a phrase we heard repeated in a variety of contexts over the period.

Excellence prevails in all things, in all departments, because nothing less than excellence will do.

Another tenet of Four Seasons is treating others as you would wish to be treated yourself. At Four Seasons Bosphorus, management and staff eat together in a canteen that serves food that other five-star hotels would be proud to serve their guests. Treat your staffers right and they in turn will treat your guests right, runs the philosophy. They will also stay loyal to you, which is why the sense of family at Four Seasons is palpable.

I’m not in Four Seasons’ pay nor, I hope, in its debt, but I have stayed at a few and have no hesitation in calling them the world’s best hotel group. I can also tell you, at the risk of sounding breathy and overexcited, that the Margherita pizza at Four Seasons Bosphorus is, in my humble opinion, beyond equal, anywhere, and I would further add that if the personable and fair-of-face Mr. Onur Tuna has not already done so, he should order one the next time he’s in town, along with an ice cold Turkish beer.

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Terrace of the Four Seasons Istanbul at the Bosphorus, above, and the property's outdoor pool, below.

Photographs by Peter Vitale.

He might also want to check in just to drop some laundry off, while he’s about it. On my last day of a recent visit, I called housekeeping at noon and asked if by any chance they could pick up a bag of shirts and have them laundered the same day.

“Mr. Wayne, what time do you need your shirts by?” asked the lady on the other end of the line.

I commented that I was leaving for the airport at 8 that evening, so wondered if we could say around 7 to be safe.

“Then let us aim for 5 p.m. That way, you will not have a moment’s anxiety,” came the sweet reply.

Confidence, charm and, of course, manifest efficiency are all Four Seasons hallmarks. I was working in my room when the shirts were returned at 4:59 p.m., precisely, better pressed and folded than when they had been new.

In the Four Seasons University of how things are done, I declare myself a willing and perpetual student.

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WHEELS

ZOOM, ZOOM

BY BOB ROZYCKI

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For

For those of us of a certain age, classes in elementary school were often passed by drawing cars — on notebooks, on desks, on books and sometimes even on sheets of paper.

Sketching traditional hot rods, racecars with elaborate M.C. Escher-like exhaust systems and cars of the future were the passion of prepubescent boys. (Girls were not yet on our radar.) The futuristic cars featured the supersleek look of fighter jets, but with wheels, often oversize ones in the back and smaller ones up front to make them aerodynamic.

Our paper dreams needed to compete on the Bonneville Salt Flats where Donald Campbell pushed his Bluebird past 300 mph along with John Cobb in his Railton Mobil Special and George Eyston in his Thunderbolt.

The one thing our drawings and the real speed cars all had in common was that the steering wheel was in the center and it was a one-man ride.

Photograph courtesy McLaren.

Well, if you want to take a ride in one of your drawings come to life and have 1.75 million pounds (2.1 million U.S. dollars as of this writing) to pony up, then put your dibs in for a McLaren Speedtail. And you better hurry. Only 106 will be made.

But you might want to live near the salt flats to enjoy your Speedtail. It goes from zero to 186 mph in 12.8 seconds and is capable of hitting 250 mph. And how does that get to go that fast? An all carbon-fiber body, carbon fiber front-wheel static aero covers that reduce air turbulence around the wheel wells, no exterior mirrors and — get ready for this: “the Velocity Active chassis Control can lower the Speedtail by 1.4 inches, leaving the highest point of the vehicle just 3.7 feet from the road surface.”

Enough with the words. Feast your eyes on this photo of a dream.

E R OA R I N

G

2

0’

N

TH

S

SI

CE

MUSCOOT

Voted!

TAVERN

One of New York States Top 15

Best Hole In The Wall “ Restaurants That Will Blow Your Taste Buds Away ” Lea Monroe-onlyinyourstate.com

STEAK

|

CHOPS

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PIZZAS

| SEAFOOD & RAW BAR

Stop in and experience the charm of this historic eatery, a neighborhood favorite since the Roaring ‘20s! Enjoy our cozy tavern where it’s always lively and cheerful or relax on our patio overlooking our horseshoe and bocce ball courts.

Live music on Saturdays and some Fridays On Sundays, enjoy outdoor live music from 4 to 8:30 Happy Hour Daily from 4-6 and again from 9-11 on Thurs, Fri and Saturday nights.

105 Somerstown Turnpike, Katonah, NY (Corner of Rt. 100 and Rt. 35) www.muscoottavern.com 914 • 232 • 2800

WONDERFUL DINING

Stuffed leg of chicken with mashed potatoes and a sweet wine reduction.

BROTHERS KNOW NEST AT THE HILL BISTRO STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS

BY ALEESIA FORNI

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Walking

Walking briskly, bundled in scarves and hoods on a blustery December evening, we nearly walk past The Hill Bistro. Despite its name in lights above the entrance, the small, darkened interior is somewhat easy to miss if you’re not paying attention — or if you’re too cold to focus.

But once inside, we’re met not only by the warmth of the restaurant itself, but also the warmth of owners Ramzi and Iggy Khoury, both genial and welcoming.

The sibling duo opened The Hill Bistro in their

Riverdale hometown last year, marking another in a string of restaurants and establishments the two have launched in partnership.

“We’re from the neighborhood, and we wanted to give something like a Manhattan-type of feel to Riverdale,” Ramzi says.

Opening the restaurant, however, was far from a simple task. The brothers had to completely gut the previous structure prior to The Hill Bistro’s opening.

Completing that renovation put another of the duo’s skills to work. Along with the restaurant,

Pan-seared veal is dotted with sun-dried tomatoes and mushrooms.

Ramzi Khoury

the serial entrepreneurs own MACC General Construction Corp., which has completed a range of projects across Westchester County and New York City. That construction business is mostly run

by Ramzi, while Iggy helms the Bronx eatery.

“I’m up at 5 in the morning, and he goes to sleep at 3 in the morning,” Ramzi says with a laugh. “He’s got the nightlife. I do the daytime.”

The months-long renovation of the Riverdale restaurant has resulted in a modern, cozy eatery with industrial accents and fixtures. Hoping to

steer away from a sports bar feel with largescreen TVs and ESPN, Iggy opted instead for a projector aimed at an empty brick wall that shows a rotation of classic Hollywood films.

“Nobody comes here and ever says they feel like they’re sitting in Riverdale,” Ramzi says.

The brothers, who trace their roots to Lebanon, say the restaurant’s menu was inspired by a range of cuisines. Some offerings, like hummus and pita, were influenced by their own Mediterranean lineage, while other dishes possess a New

American or Portuguese flair.

“There’s a lot of twists in the menu,” Ramzi says, before Iggy adds, “I kind of kept a small menu to try to perfect everything and make everything great.”

Before we sample the menu, we’re offered a basket filled with slivers of perfectly seasoned bread, a start that leaves us highly optimistic for the rest of our meal.

We move on to a delectable cream of tomato soup served with a slice of bruschetta covered

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in melted mozzarella. Creamy and packed with flavor, the dish proves the perfect remedy for a chilly evening.

We can’t pass up a range of meatballs and settle on a trio of offerings, including savory chicken meatballs served on a bed of caramelized onions and salmon zucchini meatballs with cream of dill. Taking a hint from Ramzi, we sample a beet and kale option served over creamed spinach, a light, fresh dish that exceeds even his glowing recommendation.

A white truffle spinach dip is another standout of the evening, mouthwateringly fragrant and perfect for piling atop slices of pita bread.

For entrées, we’re treated to a heaping pan-seared veal chop, topped with sun-dried tomatoes and a mushroom sauce. A stuffed leg of chicken is served in a sweet wine reduction and paired with some of the most comforting mashed potatoes I’ve ever tasted.

Though we’re sure we can’t enjoy another bite, we can’t help but end our evening with a slice of cheesecake, rich, thick and perfectly sweet, served atop a caramel sauce drizzle.

As we say goodbye to the Khourys, we’re, already spouting off the dishes we plan to try on our next visit. I think it’s safe to say this is one restaurant we’ll return to again and again.

For more, visit thehillbistro.com.

Cheesecake sits atop a caramel sauce.

The Schoolhouse Theater & Arts Center

Houston Person Sunday, Jan. 13th - 7pm

Peter Calo and Laurel Masse Saturday, Jan. 26th - 8pm

Tix: SchoolhouseTheater.org

SchoolhouseTheater@gmail.com | (914) 277-8477 | 3 Owens Rd. Croton Falls, NY

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Proprietor, Bobby Epstein of the legendary Muscoot Tavern in Katonah, invites you to experience his newest restaurant—

Kisco River Eatery Come in and savor the fresh raw bar and our impressive variety of steak, pasta, chicken and seafood selections in our warm and cozy atmosphere.

Gather • Eat • Drink.

Lunch & Dinner 7 days a week Sunday Brunch 11-3 Happy Hour Daily from 3-6 222 East Main Street • Mount Kisco, NY 10549 914 • 218 • 3877 info@Kiscoriver.com www.kiscoriver.com

Free Parking Around Back

WINE & DINE

THE REVOLUTION IN WINE MAKING STORY AND PHOTOGRAPH

BY DOUG PAULDING

I

I love revolutions, that is revolutionary new approaches in the wine world designed to improve the quality of the wines and the tasting experience for the consumer radically. I have traveled to the Vinho Verde region in northern Portugal a couple of times and many of the wines being made there are almost unrecognizable from just one previous generation. Reducing vine yields by allowing fewer grapes per vine, proper vine trellising, finding better-growing plots and employing better wine- making techniques all contribute to a higher-quality wine. The same holds true in many countries from the former Soviet Union where that government oversaw bulk and uninteresting wine production — quantity over quality.

I recently returned from an insightful trip to northern Italy where I witnessed firsthand two revolutions in the making.

The Piedmont region west of Milan is tucked in between the foothills and the historic cities of Asti and Alba and is surrounded by the massive whitecapped Alp mountain range that extends into eight European countries. Two wines are in the process of a makeover, both actual and in their reputation.

The vineyards in the Asti area are hilly and planted with the Moscato Bianco vines, the only grape used for Moscato d’Asti. One winemaker I met told me, “This region is hills, hills, steep hills and very steep hills. I sometimes think I would be better off with a significant leg length imbalance.” Of the 21,000 acres planted to Moscato Bianco, 3,000 acres have a gradient pitch of greater than 40 percent. That is steeper than the steepest New England ski trail. As a result, all of the vineyard work is done by hand, which preserves the fruit allowing for a truer and fruitier expression of the grape in the glass.

The other grape of the region undergoing a revolution is the Barbera grape, the underperforming stepchild of red grape production in northern Italy. Nebbiolo has always been considered a superior grape in the region for its ability to age and improve for decades. As a result, Nebbiolo was always planted on the finer plots of land and given proper respect and attention, and

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Edoardo Vallarino Gancia, patriarch of Castelli Gancia Canelli in Piedmont, Italy, makes a lovely Moscato d'Asti.

Barbera was reduced to lesser plots to produce voluminous easy-drinking wines to drink shortly post-harvest. But by employing similar measures to bring a finer wine to market, Barbera could very well be one of the best cost-to-value red wines available today. I sat in on a few master classes and tasted many Barbera wines with the winemakers or vineyard owners and, as a group, these Barberas of today overdeliver.

Since 2014, the Moscato d’Asti region has been a UNESCO site, recognized for its natural beauty and history of grape growing and wine making and the interaction of man with the natural habitat. Moscato d’Asti wines are known for youthful and fruity expressions of the grape, with a wonderful balance of citrus, aromatic flavors, light sweetness and effervescence. The grapes are gently crushed, the juice is fermented and, at some point during the active fermentation — as the sugars are being transformed into alcohol — the process is halted by chilling.

When the winemaker feels all the components of acidity, aroma and alcohol have merged properly, it is time to bottle the wine. Many of the residual sugars from the grape remain in the wine, showing a sweetness with light bubbles and low alcohol levels starting at around five percent alcohol by volume.

It makes for a food-friendly wine to be served as an aperitif, with salad or dessert. And it makes for a perfect lunch or afternoon wine, where the residual sugars may well energize your company and there will be no need for a nap.

Walter Speller, Italian wine specialist for Jancis Robinson, discussed Moscato d’Asti at a master class. He told us, “Other regions are planting

Moscato and I see it as a complement to the grape and this region, but it doesn’t measure up the the Moscatos of Piedmont. The soils, the nearby mountainous and oceanic influences make the wines here light and dance off the palate.” The aromas and flavors you are likely to find are orange and lemon citrus, wisteria, honey, lavender, apple, pear and/or banana. It’ simply a wonderful fruit cocktail in a glass.

Barbera is the most planted grape in Piedmont and has made incredible strides in quality in the past 10 to 15 years. It is native to the region, is high in acidity and naturally low in tannins and grows vigorously. The region is actively moving toward sustainable and organic methods. Oak aging is now a regular addition to the wines, which add complexity and structure, making Barberas an age-worthy wine. I tasted many Barbera d’Astis over a few days and every one of them showed red or black cherry flavors, a spiciness akin to pepper, cedar or licorice, good acidity, ample mouthfeel and a seductive smoothness. In buying Moscato d’Astis and Barbera d’Astis, pay a couple of more dollars and look for the DOCG labled wines. DOCG is the label earned by reaching a better level of wine production and is affixed to the neck of every DOCG wine in Italy. The DOCG label has a unique number and a QR code and, with just a little research, even in the store, you can learn everything you need to know about the wine and the vintage. Both Moscato d’Asti and Barbera d’Asti have become a bit trendy now but your store or restaurant should have a few bottles from which to choose. This revolution is bearing fruit.

Write me at doug@dougpaulding.com.

Discover The new IL FORNO Italian Kitchen & Bar Where Good Vibes meet Italian Inspired Cuisine!

Enjoy a Classic & Crafty Cocktail.

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LUNCH AND DINNER Tuesday - Sunday 343 Route 202, Somers, NY 10589 (914) 277-7575 www.ilfornosomers.com

Private Events and Catering

WELL

PREVENTING INJURIES ON THE SLOPES

BY KEVIN PLANCHER, MD

WHILE

While the ski and snowboarding season is in full swing, it’s never too late to condition yourself for strength building and injury prevention.

That’s because snow sports involve use of several key muscle groups, including the quadriceps; hamstrings and glutes; inner and outer thighs; the calves and the arms. There are just too many muscle groups essential for skiing to get out on the slopes without a thought to preconditioning.

Skiing and snowboarding are high-intensity sports that require at least some preparation to perform successfully and injury free.

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, more than 114,000 skiingrelated injuries were treated nationwide in 2014, along with another 79,000 injuries involved with snowboarding. Here are some of the common injuries: • Fractures: Hard falls or collisions with another person or tree or other structure can lead to fractures of the wrists, arms or legs. Try to learn how to be aware of your surroundings.

• Injury to the shoulder: It is typical for skiers to break their fall by extending their arms. As a result, shoulder injuries such as sprains and dislocations can occur. Tuck your hands and arms inward to avoid the shoulder dislocation.

• Injury to the knee: Twists, turns and bends on the slopes are hard on the knees, particularly the ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) and MCL (medial collateral ligament). Slow your speed and keep your weight forward.

• Skier’s thumb: This condition occurs when a skier falls on an outstretched hand while grasping a ski pole. The pole grabs into the snow and jams into the inside of the thumb, causing the thumb to overextend. Fall, if you can, with a closed fist.

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Even a daredevil like Bode Miller — Olympic gold medalist turned commentator, seen here competing in the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup men's giant slalom on Feb. 18, 2012 in Bansko, Bulgaria — had to be conditioned to make these hairpin turns.

• Snowboarder’s ankle: A high-energy ankle sprain or fracture, this condition triggers high, constant ankle pain. Keep weight forward and check that your boots are well fitted. Buy new boots every few years.

• Head or spine injuries: Injury to the head or spine can be particularly serious and life threatening. Concussions and other head trauma can occur from falls or collisions, as can vertebral fractures in the spine. Luckily, head and spinal injuries from skiing or snowboarding are far less common compared with other injuries, but they can be more devastating, so safety is critical.

Slow your speed, watch your surroundings and ski within your limits. Quit early in the day.

Conditioning to avoid these injuries should ideally be performed several times per week all year. Training should be aimed at overall body conditioning and also focus on important muscles groups involved in skiing and snowboarding. Here is the regimen I recommend for ski and boarding conditioning: • Cardio for general fitness: Cardio is important in mountain sports, so jog, climb stairs or cycle regularly to maximize fitness and keep muscles limber.

• Lunges: Three sets of 12 to 15 reps while holding light dumbbells per workout, never doing a deep lunge.

• Squats: Three sets of 12 to 15 reps three times per workout done safely, never doing a deep squat.

• Kettlebell sumo squats: Four sets of 10 to 16 reps per workout done appropriately, never doing a deep squat.

• Leg press: Three sets of 12 to 15 reps per workout, alternating between seated and standing leg presses on different days, never locking in or out.

• Box jumps: Three sets of 12 to 15 reps per workout, with the box slightly taller than the top of your kneecaps. Jump up using both feet and land on two feet. Be cautious to avoid meniscal injuries. And avoid this exercise if you’re over 30 years old unless on a day of competition.

Another key to ski-and snowboarding-injuryprevention is making sure that your equipment fits you correctly and is in line with your abilities.

This includes properly fitted helmets and wrist guards. Additionally, stay on the ski runs that best fit your abilities. Don’t go off piste without a guide or instructor. Lastly, lessons are important not only for beginners but for more advanced skiers or snowboarders. Ski instructors regularly teach students how to fall correctly and safely, reducing injury risks and improving skills.

Kevin Plancher is a Greenwich- and Manhattan-based surgeon, sports medicine specialist and USSA Ski Team doctor. For more visit plancherortho.com.

Easing your winter move to Assisted Living.

At Waveny, we understand there’s no more hectic time than the holiday season – especially when your care needs can’t wait.

We’re here to help.

Ask us about our special holiday pricing for all residents joining us at The Village through the end of January.

Learn more about our therapeutic approach to memory and dementia care by calling 203.594.5302, dropping by our New Canaan campus, or just visiting waveny.org.

A nonprofit continuum of care that’s planning ahead for you.

WELL

TENNIS AS A MEANS TO WELLNESS

BY GIOVANNI ROSELLI

rishan

Rishan Kuruppu is the director of tennis at Roton Point Club in Rowayton as well as senior head professional of ProForm Tennis Academy in Rye Brook. I met him several years ago during one of my signature group fitness classes and we have had a great relationship ever since.

He has been nationally and internationally recognized for his contributions within the tennis industry. I was excited to sit down with him and ask him some questions about the game of tennis and its benefits.

What are some physical requirements for tennis?

“Tennis is a sport that requires … mobility, flexibility, strength and balance. At all levels of the game a player’s ability to stay proactive versus reactive is paramount and stressed repeatedly, which elevates the need to stay focused on the physical requirements. As the (player’s) tennis game evolves so does the need to physically sharpen the physical requirements in order to maximize potential improvement and minimize the risk of injury.”

Can tennis improve your health?

“That’s a great question, Giovanni. Without a doubt tennis can play a role in one’s overall health.

The areas of significance arise in cardiovascular health, respiratory circulation and growth and increased potential for BDNF, which stands for brain derived neurotropic factor.

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Rishan Kuruppu on the court. Photograph courtesy Rishan Kuruppu.

As more and more tennis players are emerging even at later stages in their lives, I am noticing an improvement in their attitudes and beliefs toward overall limitations that once seemed too insurmountable even to attempt.

I am a firm believer that the game is never out of reach for anyone. The presentation of skills can be modified or expanded as needed while the improvement of health through tennis can incrementally be in your favor.”

What are some principles that tennis and life share?

“I love this question. For me, it’s as simple as three letters in the alphabet CDE — which stand for consistency, discipline and energy and hold true in life and tennis. In whatever you wish to achieve, one must apply those three key foundational roots that act as connectors and deliver the right amount of productivity and purpose to move the needle forward.

“I have a saying, ‘Little things repeated lead to big things completed,’ which has truly been of value and positivity in my life.”

Can mindfulness be instilled in tennis?

“Very often the mere thought of concentration causes people to get anxious or even impatient. The need for mindfulness in tennis has never been more present. In my experiences working with several hundred players dealing with emotions, finding a calm state and competing internally are key drivers in performance potential. When mindfulness is trained, a player develops breathing awareness, slowing down of the game and acute problem-solving skills that minimize overreacting to the wrong triggers. In short every player should work with coaches who have a mindfulness philosophy, because it brings you a lot closer to clearer thinking.”

For more, email Gio@GiovanniRoselli.com.

Your finances in balance, your life in harmony.

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Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc., Member FINRA and SIPC. © 2017 Ameriprise Financial, Inc. All rights reserved.

PET OF THE MONTH

THE HEART OF DIXIE PHOTOGRAPH BY BOB ROZYCKI Dixie, a new arrival, was luckily rescued right before giving birth to her babies outside all alone as she’d been abandoned. She was a wonderful mom and took great care of her pups, which have all found new homes, so now it’s Dixie’s turn. This medium-size, 3-year-old black Labrador Retriever is a sweet, gentle girl who just wants to be by your side, getting petted. Dixie is trusting and craves affection, so she will make a wonderful companion for someone who is looking for a dog to stick right by his side or for a family with a lot of love to give.

To meet Dixie, visit the SPCA of Westchester at 590 N. State Road in Briarcliff Manor.

Founded in 1883, the SPCA is a no-kill shelter and is not affiliated with the ASPCA. The SPCA is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 1 to 4 p.m. Sundays. To learn more, call 914- 941-2896 or visit spca914.org.

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InSiDe, He’S A WoLf

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PET PORTRAITS

“But the poor man has nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children.

It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him.”

2 Samuel 12:3.

HELPING PET PARENTS IN NEED

BY ROBIN COSTELLO

The

The Hudson Valley Pet Food Pantry has been helping the underserved of the four- and twolegged varieties since its founding by Susan Katz in 2010. Now the nonprofit needs help as the winter months can be particularly challenging in assisting pet parents who have lost their jobs — or sustained other hardships — in feeding their pets.

Considered the largest pet pantry in the United States, the all-volunteer organization serves more than 187 families per month, including senior citizens, veterans and the disabled.

“We are saving families one pet at a time,” says President Margaret Chadwick. “The need is extreme. Our clients find themselves living in austere conditions on fixed and limited

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incomes. This program allows them to keep their cherished pets and insures the animal will have proper nutrition. Sadly, some had to surrender their pets to a shelter because they didn't have enough food for the animal.

Other clients reported having skipped meals themselves the last few days of a month in order to afford to feed their beloved pet.”

The program distributes more than 1,800 cans of Frisky cat food and 1,700 cans of Pedigree dog food each month as well as rabbit, guinea pig and bird food, too. The average cost to feed a pet on the program is $1 per day (approximately $30 per month). There are more than 20 families on the waiting list. The clients are strictly vetted on an emergency/ highest-priority basis, but each month those who require help outnumber the resources available.

Here’s what you can do to help:

• Volunteer — The pet pantry always needs willing friends to help staff the distribution points and deliver food to the homebound elderly and disabled.

• Donate cans of food — The organization has a detailed list to choose from.

• Sponsor a pet food drive — With a minimum amount of effort, you or your organization can make a huge difference.

• Make a donation or sponsor a family — For $30 a month, you can directly help a pet stay in its home.

• Visit the pantry — It will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Jan. 26 for donation drop-offs and an open house. See for yourself the good it does.

The pantry is at 12 Ridgeview Ave. in White Plains. For more, visit hvpetfoodpantry.org or call Margaret Chadwick at 914-907-3487.

experience something real #PAC1819

January 19 Gina Chavez 26 CMS of Lincoln Center Esteemed Ensemble Wu Han, Daniel Hope, Paul Neubauer, David Finckel February 2 DIAVOLO: Architecture in Motion® 10 Westchester Philharmonic Friends and Family 16 Robin Spielberg Piano Parlour Soiree

March 2 CMS of Lincoln Center Hungarian Fire 9 Lea DeLaria Live in Concert 10 Trusty Sidekick Theatre Company Shadow Play 16 Aspen Santa Fe Ballet 23 Portland Cello Project Homage to Radiohead 30 Jazz at The Center Spectacular with Cyrille Aimée April 7 Tiempo Libre 7 Westchester Philharmonic All-Beethoven Season Finale 20 The Triplets of Belleville 25 BODYTRAFFIC

914.251.6200 www.artscenter.org

Pictured: Gina Chavez © Gregg Cestar

May 4 CMS of Lincoln Center Deeply Inspired 5 Daniel Kelly’s Rakonto: Student Voices

LUCILLE WERLINICH, Chair of Purchase College Foundation

WHEN & WHERE

THROUGH JAN. 13 The White Plains Performing Arts Center presents Walt Disney’s classic “Beauty and the Beast.” Times vary, 11 City Place; 914-328-1600. wppac.com

THROUGH JAN. 25 The Gordon Parks Foundation presents the work of the foundation's fellows, Deana Lawson and Derrick Adams, in its “American Family” exhibit. The artists — who both draw inspiration from Parks — explore the daily lives of African-Americans through their own distinctive artistic approaches. Times vary, 48 Wheeler Ave., Pleasantville; 914-238-2619. gordonparksfoundation.org

JAN. 3 The Music Conservatory of Westchester rings in the New Year with a concert by the Golden Williams Duo in the music school’s Recital Hall. Cellist Diana Golden, a conservatory faculty member, and Gregory K. Williams, assistant principal violist of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, will perform a program of duos for cello and viola. 7:30 p.m., 216 Central Ave., White Plains; 914-761-3900. musicconservatory.org

JAN. 5 THROUGH 28 New Rochelle Public Library celebrates its 125th anniversary year with an exhibit of photographs highlighting the services and programs the library has provided from its earliest years to present day. Times vary, 1 Library Plaza; 914-632-7878. nrpl.org

JAN. 7 Father and son Tony and Matt Pavia discuss their book, “An American Town and the Vietnam War,” which tells the story of the memories and experiences of the young men and women of Stamford who went to war, as well as those of the families who carried on at home, awaiting their return. 6:30 p.m., New Canaan Library, 151 Main St.; 203-594-5012. newcanaanlibrary.org

The Tamburitzans perform Jan. 26 in Valhalla.

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JAN. 13

David E. Sanger, national security correspondent and a New York Times senior writer, talks about his newest book, “The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage and Fear in the Cyber Age,” which examines how cyber conflict is changing the nature of global power. World Affairs Forum’s Ambassadors’ Roundtable Breakfast. 7 a.m., Stamford Yacht Club, 97 Ocean Drive West; 203-356-0340. worldaffairsforum.org

“Thomas John — The Seatbelt Psychic” features the medium and his messages from “the other side.” 7:30 p.m., Ridgefield Playhouse, 80 East Ridge Road; 203438-5795. ridgefieldplayhouse.org

JAN. 10 ArtsWestchester presents its next Gallery Nite Out, a “Craft Beer and Brushstrokes”-themed event. Audiences will enjoy craft beer and sample Diner Brew Co.’s hard cider while crafting a masterpiece on canvas with the help of an ArtsWestchester teaching artist. 6 p.m., 31 Mamaroneck Ave., White Plains; 914-428-4220. artsw.org

JAN. 12 Vento Trio performs original and Latin-American chamber music inspired by wind, water and motion. 3 p.m., Philipse Manor Hall, 29 Warburton Ave., Yonkers; 914965-4027. ventotrio.com

JAN. 8 AND 9

JAN. 13

Play with Your Food begins its new season with three provocative (and often humorous) play readings performed by professional actors, many of whom are wellknown on Broadway, film and TV. The readings follow a noon lunch catered by a local restaurant. The afternoon concludes with a discussion with the cast and director.

Toquet Hall, 58 Post Road East, Westport; 203-293-8729. jibproductions.org

Enchantment Theatre Company presents “The Phantom Tollbooth,” an original stage adaptation of the beloved classic by Norton Juster, with illustrations by Jules Feiffer. Milo drives his toy car through a mysterious tollbooth that appears in his bedroom and finds himself on an eventful and dangerous quest. 1 and 4 p.m., Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court; 203-227-4177, westportplayhouse.org.

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JAN. 14 THROUGH FEB. 9 New Castle Public Library presents an exhibit of photographs of weathered structures from the now vanished Borscht Belt in the Catskill Mountains. This area reflects the remains of a vibrant Eastern European Jewish culture that once thrived there. Times vary, 19 Whippoorwill Road East, Armonk; 914-844-2950. northcastlelibrary.org.

JAN. 18 “The Book of Moron,” Robert Dubac’s Off-Broadway solo hit, takes on cultural hypocrisy in what has been described as one of the most “hilarious, intelligent and scorching satirical attacks on idiocracy since Mark Twain.”

8 p.m., Palace Theatre, 61 Atlantic St., Stamford; 203-3254466. palacestamford.org

JAN. 19 Latin folk singer Gina Chavez takes audiences on a journey across the Americas at the Performing Arts Center at Purchase College. 8 p.m., 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase; 914-251-6200. artscenter.org Ted Sperling conducts the Stamford Symphony in “Oscar Goes to the Symphony,” with music from the movies “Fantasia,” “The Godfather,” “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” “Star Wars”” and “Schindler's List.” 8 p.m., Palace Theatre, 61 Atlantic St., Stamford; 203-325-4466. palacestamford.org

The award-winning, New York-based Rebel — one of North America's top-tier ensembles specializing in 17th- and 18th-century repertoire performed on period instruments — demonstrates its skill in a performance titled “Barocco.” 8 p.m., Westport Arts Center, 51 Riverside Ave.; 203-222-7070, westportartscenter.org

JAN. 20 Ukranian photographer Elena Lyakir is one of three artists in “Forces of Nature,” an exhibit exploring how experiences with the natural world can evoke memories, enhance the meaning of imagery and inspire the creative process. She’ll discuss her work at 2 p.m. at the Flinn Gallery. Greenwich Library, 101 West Putnam Ave.; 203-622-7947. flinngallery.com

FOR YOUR NEXT MITZVAH, BIRTHDAY OR PRIVATE PARTY

JAN. 22 Acclaimed filmmaker Xavier Beauvois’ “The Guardians” tells the story of women working on a French farm during World War I. There’s a post-film discussion with Connecticut Post’s Joe Meyers. 7:30 p.m., Avon Theatre Film Center, 272 Bedford St., Stamford; 203-967-3660. avontheatre.org

JAN 25 Westchester Photographic Society presents “Photography Competition 4A,” with members vying in digital competitions. 8 p.m., Westchester Community College, Technology Building, Room 107, Parking lot 11, Valhalla. wpsphoto.org

Custom ed graphics aniz d vi capabilities deo

JAN. 25 THROUGH FEB.3 46th Annual Art Show: Bedford, an annual community event that unites the arts with charitable giving. The art show features a blend of contemporary and traditional artwork in all media and is a fundraiser for many local nonprofits. Preview Party Jan. 25 at 6:30 p.m. Exhibition and Sale 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Jan. 26 and 27, and Feb. 1 through 3. Fellowship Hall, St. Matthew’s Church, 382 Cantitoe St.; artshowbedford.org

JAN. 26 THROUGH APR. 20 “Masterpieces from the Museum of Cartoon Art” showcases more than 100 original works celebrating the history of this unique American art form. It’s curated by Brian Walker — former director of the museum, once located in Rye Brook. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesdays through Sundays, Bruce Museum, 1 Museum Drive, Greenwich; 203-869-0376. brucemuseum.org

JAN. 26 Smart Arts at Westchester Community College presents multicultural dance company The Tamburitzans in the group's 82nd season show. The two-hour performance features international music, song and dance from Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Spain and other countries.

8 p.m., Academic Arts Building Theatre, 75 Grasslands Road, Valhalla; 914-606-6262. sunywcc.edu/smartarts In Lola Arias’ “Minefield,” six Falklands/Malvinas war veterans face each other across a stage, traveling back to 1984 to share memories, films, songs and photographs and taking the audience from the horrors of war to today’s uncertainties. 8 p.m., Fairfield University, Quick Center for the Arts, 1073 N. Benson Road; 203-254-4010. quickcenter.fairfield.edu

A Whimsical and Unique Venue for Your Next Party!

• Talented Events and Audio/Visual Team • Indoor or outdoor open floor plans lets guests enjoy a variety of environments • Multimedia Gallery with 35 x 12 foot projection screen and customizable interactive floor • State-of-the-art sound and theatrical lighting system For a personal tour, call 203 899 0606, ext. 208 steppingstonesmuseum.org/rentals

JAN. 31 The Westchester Chordsmen brings its diverse musical repertoire to the Emelin Theatre.

This event is part of the theater’s new performance series “Made In Westchester,” which celebrates the artistry of the many talented performers in the county. 7:30 p.m., 153 Library Lane, Mamaroneck; 914-698-0098. emelin.org Presented by ArtsWestchester (artswestchester.org) and the Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County (fcbuzz.com).

Norwalk, CT

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A NEW ‘WAVE’

The Lerner Children’s Pavilion at Hospital for Special Surgery recently hosted the “Waves of Fun Festival,” raising more than $1.2 million to support pediatric care and research. Guests and their children enjoyed an afternoon of entertainment, activities and special tours of “National Geographic Encounter: Ocean Odyssey” in Manhattan’s Times Square. Photographs by Don Pollard.

1. Roger Widmann, MD and Miriam Widmann 2. New York Giants legend David Tyree with his family 3. Barbara and Todd Albert, MD and Ann Jackson and Kendrick R. Wilson III 4. Monica Keany 5. Louis A. Shapiro 6. Kate Doerge and Robert Yaffa 7. Brenda and Daniel Green, MD 8. Peter Fabricant, MD 9. David Scher, MD 10. Fun with sharks 11. New York Red Bulls Street Team

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‘DOWNTON’ DOWNTOWN It was a party fit for an earl and a countess, the eighth Earl and Countess of Carnarvon, specifically.

The occasion was the sneak preview of their smooth Highclere Castle Gin, which will actually launch in March and was named for their estate, the setting for “Downton Abbey.” Guests enjoyed the gin on the rocks and hors d’oeuvres amid the clubby atmosphere of the SoHo Grand Hotel, with its red and green library-like lounge punctuated by black-and-white photos of such male movie greats as Peter O’Toole and Sean Connery and the pianistic stylings of Héloïse Pieaud, including the “Downton” theme. Afterward, everyone went upstairs for more food and bevies while some enjoyed Highclere Castle Cigars on the terrace with its magnificent view of midtown. Photographs by John Rizzo.

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Helen Lebrecht and Richard Coburn, MD Skylar and Martha Handler Avril Graham and Albert Ayal Highclere Castle Gin Christy and Brad Whitman, Travis and Emily Hardman and Christine Yang Georgette Gouveia Highclere Castle Cigars Regina von Gootkin, Robert Wright and Lord Carnarvon Keytt Lundqvist and Alex Lundqvist

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PUTTIN’ ON THE RITZ

Touro College of Dental Medicine hosted its third annual gala at The Ritz-Carlton New York, Westchester in White Plains. More than 300 members of the Touro dental community gathered to raise funds that will support both student scholarships and patient care at Touro Dental Health, the school’s 32,000-square-foot dental clinical teaching facility.

This year’s gala also honored members of the dentistry community for the work they do to lead, innovate and support oral health. Distinguished awards included Innovation in Dentistry, Distinguished Corporate Leadership, Creative Dental Technology, and Community Partnership.

1. Edward F. Farkas, DDS and Scott Parrish 2. Ronnie Myers, DDS, Alejandro Camino and Evan Chafitz, DMD 3. Alan Jurim, DDS, Bianca Jurim and Barbara Jurim, DDS 4. Minerva Patel, DDS, and Gary Scharoff, DDS 5. Duraid Sahawneh, DDS and Lara Sahawneh 6. Mark Liechtung, DMD and Louisa Liechtung and Steve Sloan 7. Kevin Byrne and Eric Wachs, DMD 8. Isaac V. Perle, DMD and Jacob Katz

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CELEBRATING NY-PRESBY NewYork-Presbyterian Hudson Valley Hospital’s 58th annual fall gala raised more than $300,000 to benefit the hospital’s Digestive Health Center. More than 350 supporters attended the Oct. 12 event at the Tarrytown House Estate on the Hudson to celebrate the center, including the physicians, nurses and staff who comprise the hospital. Together they provide exceptional and compassionate medical care for the Hudson Valley region.

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9. Michael Delfino, Stacey Petrower and George E. Pataki

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A BEAUTIFUL NIGHT

The St. Elizabeth Seton Children’s Foundation hosted its annual fall fundraiser, “Bella Notte.” With more than 200 guests braving the weather of Winter Storm Avery to celebrate the pediatric center’s 30th anniversary. WABC-TV’s Sade Baderinwa was the mistress of ceremonies for the event, which honored the work of board member Frank Oswald and his wife, Dina, Raffaele Ronca and Sandra Lee. The evening raised more than $435,000.

1. Sade Baderinwa, Dina and Frank Oswald and Raffaele Ronca

THE F FACTOR

On Oct. 31, Saks Fifth Avenue in Greenwich hosted a morning of wellness and well-being with special guest, Tanya Zuckerbrot founder and CEO of F-Factor, and moderator, Kira Stokes founder of the Stoked Method, to benefit the Pediatric Cancer Foundation.

In addition to an informative conversation, guests were invited to enjoy F-Factor approved foods, as well as a book signing with Zuckerbrot.

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Kira Stokes Jennifer Schwartz Jordana Holovach and Jennifer Levkoff Tanya Zuckerbrot Lauren Sklover and Susan Cohen Jessica Rossman

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WALK IN HER SHOES

Alexis Glick and Elizabeth Bracken-Thompson, two women who have used their careers in finance and the media respectively to help other women, were the featured guests Dec. 4 when the United Way Women’s Leadership Council held its sixth annual Celebration of Women in Philanthropy. “Take a Walk in Her Shoes” Breakfast was held to benefit the United Way of Westchester and Putnam. The event, which more than 150 supporters attended at Abigail Kirsch at Tappan Hill in Tarrytown, recognized the work of women helping to lift up other women and children living on the financial edge in Westchester and Putnam counties.

8. Alana Sweeny, Ruth Mahoney and Elizabeth Bracken-Thompson

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TO LIFE!

Community members came together to celebrate life and the holiday season when Hospice of Westchester hosted its 17th annual “Tree of Life” reception at the Hilton Westchester in Rye Brook. Attendees were invited to make a donation to the organization through the purchase of a gold star in memory or in honor of a loved one. The evening’s festivities featured holiday entertainment provided by Manhattanville College’s pop vocal group, The Quintessentials, and Lisa Sandagata from The Music Conservatory of Westchester’s Music Therapy Institute. All proceeds from the event went to benefit HOW’s mission of striving to provide extraordinary and dignified comfort, care and compassion to individuals and families facing a serious or life-limiting illness.

1. Michele Fraser Geller 2. James O’Connor, Max Gaujean and William F. Flooks Jr. 3. The Quintessentials 4. Charles Trainor, David Brian Catalon, Mary K. Spengler, Stacey Cohen, Brian Finneran, Michael Vitale and Joe Ippolito

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SUPPORTING ST. JOE’S

More than 500 people were on hand for Saint Joseph’s Medical Center’s annual ball, held Nov. 3 at the Hilton Westchester in Rye Brook. The ball, which this year had a safari theme, raised more than $300,000 for the medical center as three individuals were presented Distinguished Service Awards for their contributions to the medical center and the community. The honorees were Gary Heitzler, DDS, chief of dentistry at Saint Joseph’s; Ronald Sylvestri, vice chair of the St. Joseph’s Health Fund; and Peter X. Kelly, chef and owner of Xaviars X2O on the Hudson in Yonkers.

5. James Landy, Peter X. Kelly, Ronald Sylvestri, Gary Heitzler and Michael Spicer

NEW HORIZONS FOR BCA

Greenwich-based Breast Cancer Alliance, in partnership with Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and event sponsor Hologic, presented a medical symposium at the University of Washington Research Campus. The panelists represented diverse disciplines within breast cancer, engaging the audience with advancements in oncology, pathology, surgery, immunotherapy and precision medicine.

Events like this enable Breast Cancer Alliance to demonstrate the effect of, and need for, critical donor support for innovative, life-saving research.

6. Olena Nyzhnykevych, Susan Bevan and Yonni Wattenmaker 7. VK Gadi, MD, Sasha Stanton, MD, Mark Kilgore, MD, Meghan R. Flanagan, MD, and Shaveta Vinayak, MD.

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PARTY AT THE PLAYHOUSE

The new Bedford Playhouse officially opened the doors to its state-of-the-art film and cultural center with a three-day celebration that included celebrities, red carpets events, live entertainment and family fun throughout the last weekend of September. The events kicked off a new chapter for the landmark after a more than $6-million renovation and grassroots effort to save the playhouse that began back in 2015. The new facility boasts three theaters, event spaces, a VIP Wine Tasting & Green Room and a café.

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Becky and Ari Fleisher Doug and Kim Speegle and Judi Edgar Janie and Chevy Chase Nicole Gardner and Paul Shaffer Robert Klein and “Marilyn Monroe” David Worby and Clive Davis Ricky and Sharon Dhall Sarah Long and “John Travolta” Rocco Vozza and Kirstin Cole Stephanie Small, Casey Carter and Chris Brescia

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AT THE CARLYLE (IN BEDFORD) The Bedford Playhouse recently hosted a “Bemelmans in Bedford” cocktail party and screening of the film “Always at the Carlyle,” which was followed by a Q&A with the film’s director Matthew Miele that was moderated by Nancy Steiner. The iconic Carlyle Hotel and its legendary Bemelmans Bar have been an international destination for the jet set as well as a favorite haunt of New Yorkers. The in-depth documentary explores the landmark, its history, its notorious guests — and their secrets. The Playhouse recreated the bar scene from the movie to the delight of the guests in attendance.

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11. Allyson Rubin, Lauren Locke and Chrissy Banner 12. Jennifer Stahlkrantz, Pamela Salvatore and Karen McInerney 13. Karen O'Callahan, Katie Carlson and Katie Durfee 14. Earl Rose, Nancy Steiner and Matthew Miele 15. Joanna Fisher and John Farr 16. Bob Torre and Kim Speegle

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Greenwich Winter Sale and Giving Days – 71 greenwichwintersaledays.com

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Manhattanville – Women’s Leadership Institute - 59 mville.edu/business/wli

The Rosenberg Bagtas Group at Morgan Stanley - 22 fa.morganstanley.com/rosenbergbagtas/

Neil S. Berman - 61 bermanbuyscollectables.com Blossom Flower – 135 blossomflower.com Blue Buffalo- 123 home4theholidays.org Briggs House Antiques - 26 briggshouse.com City Perch Kitchen & Bar - 43 cityperch.com Compass – 35 compass.com Connecticut Dermatology Group – Back Cover ctdermgroup.com Eager Beaver Tree Service - 109 eagerbeavertreeservice.com Emelin Theater - 91 emelin.org Euphoria Kitchen & Bath - 58 euphoriakitchens.com The Flower Bar – 46 the-flower-bar.com Georgette Gouveia – 86 thegamesmenplay.com

Muscoot Tavern - 111 muscoottavern.com Neuberger Museum - 98 neuberger.org NY City Slab - 78 nycityslab.com O’Connor Davies – 31 pkfod.com ONS – 27 onsmd.com Pell Wealth Partners - 121 pellwealthpartners.com

Skinner Inc - 3 skinnerinc.com Sothebys International Realty – 66, 67 sothebyshomes.com/greenwich

Rothman Institute Orthopaedics – Inside Front Cover rothmanortho.com Royal Closet - 18 royalcloset.com

Stepping Stones Museum for Children – 127 steppingstonesmuseum.org/rentals Stratus on Hudson – 7 stratusonhudson.com University of Bridgeport – Inside Back Cover bridgeport.edu Val’s Putnam Wines and Liquors - 105 valsputnamwines.com Waveny LifeCare Network - 119 Waveny.org The Westchester Group at Morgan Stanley - 99 morganstanleyfa.com/thewestchestergroup

Royal Regency Hotel - 23 royalregencyhotelny.com Sacred Heart University – 11 sacredheart.edu The Schoolhouse Theater and Arts Center - 114 schoolhousetheater.org.

Penny Pincher - 101 pennypincherboutique.com

Westchester Philharmonic - 54 westchesterphil.org Westmoreland Sanctuary - 95 westmorelandsanctuary.org World Class Parking – 42 wcparking.com

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JANUARY 2019

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WIT

WE WONDER:

WHAT’ S YOU R IDE A OF A “ HOT GUY? ” (ASKED ONLY OF MEN)

Mark Coleman investment banker Pelham resident

doctor Scarsdale resident

Gary Hunt

personal trainer White Plains resident

Marcus Johnson

Daniel Lopez

“Oh geez. I mean, I can’t say I spend my time thinking about this, but… I guess, a guy who’s in shape would be considered hot, right?”

“A nice smile is attractive to everyone, right? So, I think a guy with a nice smile would be objectively attractive.”

“As a gay guy, I definitely know what I find attractive.

I’ll probably have one of the easiest times answering this question. A hot guy, to me, is someone who carries himself with confidence, someone who is secure in their own skin. That never gets old.”

“I definitely wasn’t expecting that question. I guess the first think I think of is charisma. A dude who can own a room will always be hot.”

“I’m straight, but I feel like I’m secure enough to answer this. It’s probably pretty universal. I think facial symmetry, kindness and some kind of magical X-factor are all factors that can make someone hot.”

Ron Miller

Bill Murphy

Ken Nakamura designer Greenwich resident

business development Chappaqua resident

Jayson Smith

Dave Tobin

teacher Bronxville resident

“A hot guy? Man, you caught me off guard! OK, in some ways I feel like a hot guy is maybe even more simple to identify than a hot woman.

I feel like a hot guy is just totally chiseled and defined, with a face that you could find in a magazine. We see examples of hot guys in TV and movies every day whether we’re seeking it or not!”

“A hot guy is all about how much he likes himself. A man can be beautiful, but if it looks like he’s still got some work to do in the self-esteem department, then I think it can throw off the entire vibe.

If a man is at ease and likes and respects himself, then I think that’s the ultimate way to attract someone.”

“Oh, boy. I don’t think I’d know about something like that, but I can give it a shot. I bet being famous is what makes a guy hot. Think about it: There are all of these guys out there who aren’t exactly studs, but they’re out there meeting women, or men — whatever your thing is — just because of something they represent.

They give off a vibe that other people want to be part of.”

“It’s 2019, I think I can answer this question without an issue.

I guess from what I’ve heard from women, a hot guy is all about being generally put together, charismatic and wealth probably has something to do with it, too, if I’m being honest, though, of course, I can’t say for sure. Hot seems to be a whole attitude you carry yourself with. At least that seems to be what it looks like from the outside looking in.”

personal assistant New York City resident

“I feel like hot is almost purely a shallow, aesthetic thing — a good-looking face, a good body.

I bet those are some of the most important qualities people are talking about when they describe someone as hot.”

Greg Daly

writer White Plains resident

talent scout New York City resident

*Asked throughout central and northern Westchester County at various businesses.

musician Riverdale resident