Nathan Silver, 89, Who Chronicled New York City's Vanishing Landmarks

My wife says this is what happens when you get old.

Until today, I don't believe I ever read an obituary where I was familiar with the subject's father! But familiar I am.

In the obit for Mr. Silver, it is mentioned that Nathan's "father, Isaac, taught mechanical drawing at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan and was also an architect. "

I remember Mr. Silver in the Mechanical Drawing Department. I didn't  have him as a teacher, (I had Mr. Russo), but I remember the man who was in his early 60s in the early to mid-1960s, who had thinning silver hair and seemed to wear grey, or silver suits. He was Mr. Silver after all.  

I distinctly remember there were some of my classmates who did have him as a teacher who were not necessarily impressed with him as a teacher, but were greatly impressed that he was a licensed architect who could attach his professional seal to drawings. 

His son Nathan became distinguished as an architect as well, and as a writer about preserving buildings. His seminal book, "Lost New York" carries a photo on the cover of what part of Penn Station looked like before it was demolished in 1964. For those who can remember the place, it is truly a haunting photo. It took two years to get rid of the building.

I remember the "old" Penn Station, but it was already greatly run down in the '60s when I went through the upper level. It was dark and grimy. The architectural features that are so greatly missed were overshadowed by the dinginess of the place. 

The demolition of Penn Station in the '60s still resonates as architectural original sin. In current designs, the powers to be have tried to invoke what would have been the grandeur of the place had it been maintained and preserved for what it was—a cathedral, that as Thomas Wolfe wrote, "held the sound of time."

Nathan at Cambridge in 1970

To me it is interesting to note that Nathan Silver lived in London for the rest of his career after his book "Lost New York" was published in the '60s. He taught architecture at the University of Cambridge.

You don't really know if the demolition of Penn Station made him pack his bags. Amongst his many projects he redesigned a 17th-century pub, The Seven Seas, owned by his wife Roxy Beaujolais. She survives him, as does a brother Robert, who is also an architect, as well as a daughter Liberty Silver and a son Gabriel, along with four grandchildren. 

I still can't over that I knew of the father of a man who has now passed away at 89.

My wife is right. This is what happens when you get old and you can still remember things.

http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com

Where?

When reading an obituary that tells you the deceased was born in Cazenovia you'd expect (at least I did) to read that after the comma you would be told that Cazenovia is in what is now the Czech Republic, or is in Serbia, or Bosnia, or Slovenia, or Herzegovina, not upstate New York.

Well it is in upstate New York, a small village just south of Cazenovia Lake, an incorporated village of 6,740 people as of the 2020 census, in Madison County. New York state consists of 62 counties, some with very unexpected names, like Wyoming, or Chautauqua, or Cattaraugus. 

Cazenovia happens to be where Anne Burrell was born, as the NYT obit headline tells us was a "Chef and Dynamic Food Network Star" who has passed away all too soon at 55.

Ms. Burrell gets a 19 gun salute of 6 columns, top of an obit page, one large photo, taking up about 45 % of the page. In column inches I guess that's about 8". 

Obviously, at 55, Ms. Burrell has gone way too soon. Circumstances of her death might seem a bit less than ordinary or explainable, when it is reported that, "A New York City Police Department spokesman said Wednesday that emergency medical workers responding to a 911 call at her address found a 55-year-old woman, whom the police would not identify, 'unconscious and unresponsive' and pronounced her dead. The chief medical examiner's office will determine the cause of death."

I've never read an obit where a police spokesman weighs in with a statement about the circumstances of death.

Nevertheless, the death of Ms. Burrell sent shock waves through the food and cooking establishment. She is considered to have broken the mold at the Food Network. "She brought style, class, and a little punk, a little funk, a little bit of grace" said Ms. Wilson, the founder of the Harlem restaurant Melba's. 

The lede in the obit by Priya Krishna, tells us Ms. Burrell "was known for her kinetic swoop of blond hair and an energy to match."

It's not likely that she or the U.K.'s former prime minister Boris Johnson shared a comb.

http://www.onoffframp.blogspot.com

Wacky

"You must have a hole in your head."
"I do. I drilled one in there myself."

So might have gone a conversation with the subject of an obituary that describes the subject as "wacky." I have never seen the word "wacky" in any obituary headline. There is always a first.

But the word wacky didn't stay there. It only appeared in an early print edition of the NYT when the passing of Amanda Fielding was introduced by the headline:

"Amanda Fielding, 82, Wacky Countess Who Adored  Psychedelic Drugs, Dies"

The online version of the obituary comes under the more sedate headline:

Amanda Fielding, Eccentric Countess Who Backed Psychedelic Meds, Dies at 82

A note at the end of the online obit tells us the obituary first appeared in the print edition with the "Wacky" headline. 

Amanda didn't have to drill a hole in her head to earn either the "wacky" or the "eccentric" adjectives. She talked openly about her long-term relationship with a pigeon. ("We were twin souls, she once said, "a pair of lovers completely inseparable.") 

The NYT obit writer Michael S. Rosenwald tells us that "in the mid 1960s, Amanda fell in love with Bart Huges, a handsome Dutch scientist who was a proponent of trepanning (the medieval practice of drilling a hole in your head to increase blood flow) and LSD, the powerful hallucinogenic drug made from lysergic acid diethylamide.

Amanda told The London Standard in 2024, "I had the choice of going ahead with the love affair and taking LSD every day in big doses, or not being with him. So I took the LSD."

There is edited YouTube footage of Amanda drilling a hole in her head and the result of the 1½ pints of blood that flowed out from the wound. The drilling certainly did increase blood flow—out of the skull.

The full procedure was filmed in 1970 and billed as a short documentary "Heartbeat in the Brain." It was shown at the Suydam Gallery in New York and even reviewed by Anthony Haden-Guest for New York magazine, who presumably watched the whole film, while others in the audience fainted. I guess you had to be there.

But Amanda survived the procedure. Several of her lovers also had the procedure performed on themselves. (It seems there is nothing one won't do for love.) Two of her less than flattering nicknames were: Lady Mindbender and Countess Crackpot.

While Amanda later in life might have been well off, her life didn't start out with many comforts. Her father was an artist who adored beauty, but didn't make much of a living at it. Her mother's name is mentioned, but there is no description of the life she lead. Heating and electricity were considered luxuries.

In 1995 Amanda married James Charteris, Earl of Wemyss and March, which granted her the title of Countess of Wemyss and March.

For all her eccentricities and use of hallucinogenic drugs, Amanda was considered ahead of her time in the belief that these potent drugs could help people with depression and other mental ailments.

Mr. Rosenwald tells us Amanda eventually created a "pharmaceutical company that is developing fast-acting psychedelic medicines for commercial use. The company was sold this month to Atai Life Sciences—a company backed by the billionaire Peter Thiel—in a deal valued at $390 million."

For all of Amanda's outward nuttiness, she lived to be 82, and passed away from liver cancer, and not a "bad trip."

At the end, she seems quite ordinary, survived by her husband the Earl of Wemyss and March, James Charteris, two sons from a prior relationship with Joseph Mellen, the writer, two stepchildren, four grandchildren and one step-granddaughter. 

Holiday dinners at moated Beckley Park had to be a hoot.

http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com

Sovereignty

I'm having a great deal of trouble spelling Sovereignty. Maybe if I was made to write his name on a blackboard (whiteboard?) 25 times it would sink in. But right now my crutch is some repetition and reliance on spell checker to kick in when I still think there is an "h" in the spelling.

Even a sports fan who doesn't pay attention to thoroughbred racing on a daily basis, probably knows that a horse named Sovereignty (I'm getting better.) won Saturday's Belmont Stakes race held at Saratoga at the 1¼ mile distance. The classic Belmont Stakes distance is truncated from it's even more challenging 1½ distance due to the complete rebuilding of Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. Belmont is scheduled to reopen in October 2026, with its first Belmont scheduled for June 2027. 

At Saratoga, a 1½ mile distance cannot be started fairly for all horses since it would have to start on the far turn on the mile and an eighth track, and there is not enough room to tangentially place the starting gate to ensure an equal distance start for all starters. 

But a Triple Crown was not at stake, no matter the venue or the distance of the Belmont Stakes. Sovereignty won the Kentucky Derby, skipped the Preakness to ensure a rested horse for the Belmont, then won the Belmont.

Journalism, who finished second to Sovereignty in Derby, won the Preakness and was convincingly beaten by Sovereignty in the Belmont, finishing second after a stirring stretch duel. The two best horses in the race finished 1-2, producing an almost sure-thing boxed exacta, but with an anemic payoff of $13.20 for $2. Sovereignty paid $7 to win as the second choice to Journalism. The mile and a quarter race was run in a snappy 2:00 3/5 over a drying out track labeled GOOD.

Sovereignty gave Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott his second Belmont win, and jockey Junior Alvarado his second Triple Crown win. His first of course came with Sovereignty in the Kentucky Derby.

NYRA charged an astounding $75 for General Admission on Saturday, which of course did not include a seat, unless you count a toilet seat. But over 40,000 fans ponied up for the price, but were at least rewarded with eventual good weather and a very exciting race. But still, $75! 

I watched the race for free on TV at my granddaughter's high school graduation party in Pleasantville, New York. My daughter and son-in-law have a huge HD TV in the family room that makes it seem as if the clods of dirt from the track are going to hit you.

For myself, I netted a meager $2 profit since I did have $4 to win on Sovereignty, but also $4 to win on Hill Road, and a $2 boxed exacted with those two. I liked Hill Road after seeing him win the Peter Pan at Aqueduct three weeks prior to the Belmont. The Peter Pan has often proved to be a reliable prep race for the Belmont Stakes, and there's nothing wrong with the trainer Chad Brown..

How does a race get to be named Peter Pan, after a boy who doesn't want to grow up? Turns out the race is named after the horse Peter Pan who won the 1907 Belmont Stakes, who in turn was named after the character in J.M. Barrie's popular play. The horse Peter Pan was a very durable thoroughbred who won 10 of his 17 starts; 6 races in a row as a 3-year-old.

As you might expect, the winner's circle became very crowded after the race for the trophy presentation. It looked like a crowded platform after the subway riders were asked to leave a disabled train.

Amongst the multitudes were New York's Governor Kathy Hochul, who as a small woman, if she were in racing silks and a riding helmet, could have easily been mistaken for a jockey.

Governors sometimes show up for the Belmont presentation. It was more than appropriate that Governor Hochul was there since she was instrumental getting a bill through the legislature that secured a $500+ million loan to NYRA to build a completely new Belmont Park, slated to open October 2026. Thus, the Belmont Stakes will be held for one more year at Saratoga at 1¼ miles. This year was the second year at Saratoga.

After first going to the races at Belmont on Belmont Day in 1968, to the then re-opened track, I'm hoping I make it to the next re-opening in 2026. Never mind thinking about getting in for the Belmont  Stakes in 2027 at what will be another re-opened Belmont. If NYRA charged $75 to get in in 2025, there's no telling what they're going to charge for 2027.

I know where there's a great TV to watch it from.

http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com