Still hoping for a White Christmas ...

Looking south towards the Manhattan skyline (Citigroup Center in middle) from a barren Central Park. 3:30 PM. Photo: Jeff Hirsch.

Friday, December 20, 2013. Very warm for the third week of December in New York, ten minutes after midnight, the day before the Winter Solstice. The weatherman says this next of the woods is going to get even warmer before the weekend’s out. That’s okay; I’ve even got the terrace door open as I write. However, I’m still hoping for a White Christmas (implying the jolly Ho Ho Ho! returning to our lives for no matter how brief a moment.)

This is a moment when New Yorkers are sharing cocktails dinners with friends and neighbors in each others’ houses and apartments and restaurants. For the NYSD, we’re in the catching up mode.


	Gael Greene's many hats.

For example, last Monday night at Stella 34 Trattoria at Macy’s, overlooking the Empire State Building spire, there was a roast and toast staged by the culinary and philanthropic communities joining the Citymeals-on-Wheels gang along with the just plain foodies to ... celebrate Gael Greene on her 80th birthday.

“I don’t know how this happened so quickly,” said the “Insatiable Critic,” which was her moniker for forty years in New York magazine before they up and fired her, and she moved her critiques to insatiablecritic.com.

“One evening I was forty and disco-dancing and all men were 26, and then the next ... this frightening big number!”

As she was speaking, two towering chocolate birthday cakes, each marked “40,” were being rolled out into the room. No one in the felt frightened, probably even the birthday girl herself.

Gael Greene is one of the most prolific and productive writers of her generation here in New York. She’s written seven books, including two best-selling (erotic ) novels, plus a memoir, not to mention her hundreds and hundreds of “Insatiable…” columns and other articles.

She started her journalism career at the New York Post in 1957 when it was the fiefdom of Dorothy (Dolly) Schiff, a forward thinking progressive woman who let her sentiments be known in the press. Greene’s memoir, “Insatiable: Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess,” documents the 40 year revolution in dining that she was documenting weekly in New York Magazine, the hottest weekly New York magazine of the era. Writing as the anonymous critic she could raise the hackles and flatten the soufflés of even the iciest of restaurateurs with her words.

Gael Greene blowing out her candles.

However, even they were deeply touched when this critic and the beloved American chef James Beard co-founded Citymeals. This is one of the things about New York, as gigantic and multi-cultural as it is: it’s a small town when it comes to getting to the neighbors.

The idea for the project came to Greene in November 1981 when she read a Times article saying that government funds delivering weekday meals to the city’s frail, aging shut-ins did not cover weekends or holidays. Unwilling to accept that reality, she called James Beard who agreed and, with Barbara Kafka, they made a round-robin of calls to food world friends raising $35,000 over the weekend. That following Monday, offering to deliver the money to Janet Sainer, then Commissioner of the NYC Department for the Aging, Greene demanded that not a dime be deducted for a phone call or a stamp. Sainer agreed.

Gael Greene and Santa.

That was more than 30 years ago. Since its inception, Citymeals has delivered more than 47 MILLION nutritious meals to homebound elderly New Yorkers. One little idea one moment’s thought about another, a neighbor, a friend, led this extraordinary achievement.

This is philanthropy spelled out in spades. No ego, no hoopla, no one even thinks of this monument to good works of Gael Greene (and James Beard et al) as anything but functioning, hardworking individuals with a cause. But isn’t it the Zen conclusion to have looked after the needs to hundreds of thousands of neighbors and members of the community? Gael Greene, one woman with an idea, did this.

Drew Nieporent.

Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page.

Robert S. Grimes.

Meanwhile, back at bday party, in lieu of gifts of things she might personally enjoy -- like emerald earrings, or a crocodile clutch, or even recycled cologne -- guests were asked to consider delivering meals to the city’s frail aged shut-ins in Greene’s name. By Monday, several thousand meals had already been donated.

Among those attending the Big Birthday Bash were Kathleen Turner, Hasty and Jacques Torres, Gail Sheehy, Deana and Stephen Hanson, Fran and Barry Weissler, Drew Nieporent, André Soltner, Alain Sailhac, Margo MacNabb Nederlander and Jimmy Nederlander, Ninah and Michael Lynne, Ruth Finley, Zarela Martinez, David Rockwell, Tren’ness Woods-Black, Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg, Michael Tong, Judy and Stanley Zabar, and Tim and Nina Zagat.

Chef Daniel Boulud.

Kathleen Turner.

Marcia Stein.

With Nick Valenti and the Patina Restaurant Group as hosts, guests were greeted with cocktails, and passed tastes from Stella’s Italian menu, and a walk-around dinner. Greene loves this kind of set-up. I was at a walk-around dinner that Daniel Boulud gave when he was opening one of his restaurants across from Lincoln Center. I watched her enjoying the partaking, a culinary hedonist (and probably them some) through and through.

At the dinner the other night Boulud, Co-President of the Citymeals-on-Wheels Board of Directors, remarked, “Gael Greene is Citymeals’ foundation and soul. Tonight, we celebrate her insatiable influence on many generations of chefs, foodies and critics. But, most importantly we celebrate the valuable contributions she has made to Citymeals-on-Wheels over the past 30 years.”

That 100% donation principle remains the guiding foundation of Citymeals-on-Wheels. This is New York, and this is Gael Greene, still a kid at eighty – as it ought to be. Long may she live and spread her bountiful thoughts among us.

Scott Black, Tren'ness Woods-Black, and Aliyyah Baylor.

Dennis Riese and Beth Shapiro.

Also, last week, on a Wednesday, the Child Mind Institute hosted their 4th annual Child Advocacy Award Dinner at Cipriani 42nd Street and raised $6.6 Million for the Advancement of Children’s Mental Health and Brain Research.

Meredith Vieira emceed and they honored Ram Sundaram,Pasko Rakic, MD, PhD, and Child Mind Institute Families.

Dr. Pasko Rakic, Director of the Yale University Kavli Institute for Neuroscience accepts his award from Brooke Garber Neidich, Board Chair, Child Mind Institute. Award designed and donated by Michael Aram.

Ram Sundaram, Brooke Garber Neidich, Board Chair, and Dr. Harold Koplewicz, President, Child Mind Institute.

Mr. Sundaram, who is a partner at Goldman Sachs, was the recipient of the 2013 Child Advocacy Award for his foundational philanthropic contributions to children's mental health and the growth of the Child Mind Institute. Dr. Rakic received the 2014 Distinguished Scientist Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to developmental neuroscience. Both the 2013 Child Advocacy Award and the 2014 Distinguished Scientist Award were designed and donated by Michael Aram.

These critical funds allow the Child Mind Institute to continue providing life-changing mental health care for children, pursuing scientific breakthroughs, and expanding public education and outreach efforts.

Ellen Wiesenthal is honored by her grandchildren Annie Cohen, Richard Wiesenthal, and Andrew Cohen.

The evening celebrated the stories of families who have struggled with these disorders, most notably a six-year old girl joined by her parents who spoke movingly about their daughter's journey to overcome selective mutism.

The evening concluded with a hugely successful auction, led by Al Roker. The Child Mind Institute was founded by Dr. Harold Koplewicz and Brooke Garber Neidich. It all started with an idea with a couple of can-do New Yorkers – like Gael Greene’s – about how to help thy neighbors. The commitment for the founders was to find more effective treatments for childhood psychiatric and learning disorders and empowering children and their families with help, hope, and answers.

Dr. Harold Koplewicz and Anne Keating, SVP Public Relations and Corporate Philanthropy, Bloomingdale's.

Dinner chairs included: Elizabeth and Michael Fascitelli, Debra G. Perlman and Gideon Gil, Brooke Garber Neidich and Daniel Neidich, Linnea and George Roberts, and Stephen M. Scherr.

Additional Benefit leadership and guests included: Christine and Richard Mack, Amy and John Phelan, Rula Jebreal-Altschul and Arthur G. Altschul, Jr., Mark Dowley, Julie Minskoff, Valerie Mnuchin, Claude Wasserstein, Jane Rosenthal, Eva Jeanbart-Lorenzotti and Lorenzo Lorenzotti, Joella and John Lykouretzos, Juliet de Baubigny and Javier Macaya, Dawn and Mark Ostroff, Coralie Charriol Paul and Dennis Paul, Danyelle and Josh Resnick, Wendy Svarre, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Kay Unger, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff and David Wolkoff, Roger Waters, Desiree Gruber and Kyle MacLachlan, Frederic Fekkai, Ellen Wiensenthal and Jason Silva.

To learn more about the Child Mind Institute visit childmind.org.

Al Roker, Meredith Vieira, Brooke Garber Neidich, and Dr. Harold Koplewicz.

Meredith Vieira with the Bloomingdale's and Child Mind Institute Holiday Gund Big Little Brown Bear.

Jason Silva and Dr. Harold Koplewicz.

Roger Waters.

Linnea Roberts, Michael Fascitelli, and Ram Sundaram.

Kyle MacLachlan and Desiree Gruber.

And to close, at the source and sources of all great things. H. Mabel Preloran Ph.D, a Research Anthropologist at UCLA Center for Culture and Health Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, put this together and calls it, "DNA test not necessary."