God and Me at Yale

James writes: 

Please join me on October 18 for the "The Future of Conservatism," the third annual conference of the William F. Buckley Jr. Program at Yale. I will be speaking about Buckley's mentorship on a panel alongside Neal B. Freeman and Lawrence Perelman, moderated by Linda Bridges. I am honored to join an afternoon and evening lineup that includes Jonah Goldberg, Michael Barone, Craig Shirley, Professor Robert P. George, Bret Stephens, Roger Kimball, Rich Lowry, Heather Mac Donald, Professor Steven Smith, and Professor E. Donald Elliott. Those interested in attending this free event should contact Lauren Noble (Lauren [at] BuckleyProgram.com).

The William F. Buckley, Jr. Program was founded in 2010 by a group of Yale undergraduates under the guidance of Professor Donald Kagan. The program officially launched in the spring semester of 2011 with a mission is to promote intellectual diversity on Yale's campus. Affiliated with Yale, The Buckley Program is an independent non-profit that relies on the support of individuals in order to operate programs like this every year.

Adelaide Saltman (1918-2010)

Dara and James write:

We remember Dara's wonderful grandmother Adelaide Saltman, who died last week at 91. Here is her obituary.

This is a video we made with her just under two years ago, for her 90th birthday.

At last Friday's memorial service, Dara gave a eulogy that touched on some of the other details that made Adelaide a one-of-a-kind. Here is Dara's speech in its entirety:

Grandma was fun. She was not a grandmother where you’d visit her and sit politely and nibble bon bons and chat about the weather. Grandma would embrace you with her infectious laugh. She’d nourish you with her special recipe for eggs and onions and then probe for your take on Obama’s health care bill.

Grandma was politically astute and enthusiastically curious about the world. I always checked in with her about her beloved bi-weekly Thursday discussion group at Loomis. When she told me that she was proud to be the only Israel supporter of the bunch, I sensed that this was not just because she was proud to be Jewish and to support the Jewish homeland, but also because she liked the controversy spurred by her unpopular opinion. She loved debate, and she was always game.

In this, she was very much a product of her time and place. She was born in the Bronx in 1918 and came of age in a New York City bursting with intellectual activity. Though she wasn’t a “fellow traveler” or political radical, a “spirit of the ramparts” imbued her throughout her life: she demonstrated tremendous tenacity, passion, and intellectual rigor. A brilliant, precocious woman, Grandma matriculated at Hunter College, the sister school of the renowned City College for men, when she was 16, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. She was always very proud of being a Hunter alumna and wanted to attend her 75th reunion last year.

More than most things, Grandma feared losing her intellectual edge. But she had it until the end. As many of you know, Grandma had been very sick several times in the last five years. Last year, we were at her bedside in the ICU. She had been intubated and lethargic for many days. Nurses spoke to her as though she were a baby: “There, there, you’ll feel better now,” they said. When she finally did open her eyes after the tube came out, she blinked, stared at me, and demanded, “How’s your job search?”

Grandma had an endless passion for discovery. Recently, at one of her favorite restaurants, the Student Prince, where she usually ordered gravlax and wiener schnitzel, she exclaimed, “What the hell,” and ordered Clams Casino.

Grandma was hilarious and sharp as a tack, but she was also warm and loving. My husband James always said he feels so fortunate that he was able to know and love her the way I did. Grandma was a beacon for all kinds of people. When we took our daughter Lily to meet her this spring, a priest came to sit with us in the lounge of the nursing home. He had had a stroke, and seemed to want her blessing.

Grandma hung on longer than anyone would have guessed so that we could enjoy her company. She stuck around to challenge us and to keep the conversation alive. Now that she’s gone, it falls to us to keep it alive for her.

Holiday greetings 2007

December 2007

It was been a wonderful first year of marriage. But it did not start out so wonderful. On New Year's Eve, 2006, we received a call from the Block Island Police Department. James's dad, Carl, had been airlifted off of the Island and rushed to Rhode Island Hospital in Providence. The diagnosis: hemorrhagic stroke. James is Carl's health care proxy and power of attorney, so we spent much of the first half of 2007 attending to Carl's rehabilitation (two treatment centers) and eventual relocation (to a retirement community in Mystic, Connecticut).

It was a difficult winter. But about three months after the stroke, Carl started to show dramatic improvement. It wasn't luck: he worked hard at it. His balance returned and he began to walk--with a walker, a cane, and finally on his own. His speech also came back, a word at a time, finally full sentences, and with that came his smile and his sense of humor. Doctors on the scene put Carl's chance of recovery at 20 percent. But Carl beat the odds. His stroke is now a year behind us, and so this holiday season we honor his perseverance and strength. He did it! You can read our journal of Carl's recovery, as well as other family news, at our weblog supremefiction.com.

There's more good news. Dara landed a great new job. She is now an online editor at Commentary magazine, where she edits and writes for the magazine's blogs. Here is one of her recent postings. Commentary has an over 60-year history as an influential intellectual journal of politics and culture. Dara also continues to find time to work on her own writing; most recently a poem appeared in the New York Sun.

This year Dara also gained una sobrina, a niece, Olivia, who lives in Barcelona. Dara's brother Ricky and sister in law Monica have just opened their second Delishop store in Barcelona, where they sell gourmet food from around the world.

Speaking of food, in late May and early June we embarked on a foodie tour of Northern Italy, as a belated honeymoon. Highlights included: chicory and olive oil at Milan bistro Bebel's, canteen for the editors and writers of Italy's most important newspaper, Corriere della sera; local Piemonte specialties at the beautiful restaurant Guido on the site of the Slow Food University in Pollenzo; and a private tour of the Produttori di Barbaresco winery in the Langhe, to the south of Turin. Our trip ended on the Grand Canal in Venice, where Dara got to meet her screen idol, Robert De Niro. You can check out photos of our honeymoon here (and don't miss our other photo albums, including snapshots from our intrepid Labor Day hike near Mount Washington).

What has James been up to through all this? You can check out his latest material for The New Criterion through his TNC article archive, including his article for the December issue in which he takes to task the art criticism of Tom Wolfe. James has also been hitting the keyboard for a number of additional publications over the past several months. At Supremefiction you can read a collection of pieces he has written for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Sun, and Art & Antiques.

Meanwhile, we still live near Gramercy Park, where our routine includes regular trips to the Union Square Greenmarket with our old lady cart, and many evenings at the National Arts Club, where we continue to be members of the Literary Committee. In April, Dara organized a reading of young poets that was very well-received by Club members. Of course, we also still maintain our weblog Supremefiction.com. Market research has determined that the target audience of Supremefiction is our family and friends and a lovely woman named Sharon who we think lives in Texas. But hey, we're critics too, so Supremefiction is the place where we get to sound off on art, television, shopping, books, movies, and New York restaurants. Join us at Supremefiction.com

Finally, our cat Bosco, always one step ahead of us when it comes to what the kids are doing, has joined Facebook.com. Once Bosco was on board, we had to follow suit. So if you have been taken in by this latest fad, look us up! We're always looking for new "friends."

Dara Mandle and James Panero

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