How Does It Feel To Be One of the Beautiful People?

     It's gratifiying to see that they're paying attention to the Chelsea out there in the Heartland.  Joe Atkins of Mississippi's Clarion-Ledger came to New York for a conference, loved the Chelsea -- though his wife didn't share his enthusiasm--and even managed to convince himself that the rooms here are moderately  priced.
     Joe's reporting uncovered the key factoid that we are in the 7th year of a 10-year restoration project.  Though it's nice to know it will soon be over, I think someone is not counting properly: they replaced the florescent lights and checkerboard linoleum in 96, by my counting, and surely that counts as the beginning (of the end?).
     Stanley gives a great interview, praising residents of this fair establishment as "...the most beautiful, creative, the most sensitive that ever walked the planet." (He forgot to mention: etherial, angelic, divine.) As if our egos aren't big enough already?
     Luckilly, however, we have a powerful agent in the real world to protect us from the run-away real estate market.  As Stanley assures us, "Money is not everything. I'm trying to prove that."  Ah, but as Knute Rockne sasid to the young Giper: "Money isn't everything, it's the only thing." As we fly our astral planes and take our trips about the bay, young grasshoppers, lets try to stay grounded in the fact that this is New York.
     But the funniest part of the article is where Stanley disses the Algonquin, dismissing their vaunted Roundtable as a mere "dining experience." We'll have to talk to our friend Kevin Fitzpatrick, president of the Dorthy Parker Society/Algonquin Fan Club and see if he has a rejoinder!  -- Ed Hamilton