Meeting Olga, Ben and Mark at a Pelham Party

At a party on Saturday night in Pelham Manor, NY, I met several interesting people. They had gathered to celebrate our friend Tom’s 50th. First was Mark, a 53-year-old Englishman who looked no older than 35, who said he was a retired musician. I later found out that he had been a regular player with the Ramones. This tony suburb 40 minutes from Manhattan attracts many intelligent and connected people, I learned. Across the street from Mark’s house lived a producer for Saturday Night Live.

The party was a Hawaiian luau theme, and everyone had on leis and flowery shirts. I met Ben, who writes about Science for the New York Times. I asked him about what it had been like for him to move here from La-la land, and he said that at his former paper, the LA Times, things weren’t going well. “The NY Times is great,” he said, adding that there are 1000 reporters writing there. He does a couple of stories a week, and he likes writing about psychology and trends and the more human side of science. His wife is an editor for Bon Appetit, now she travels back to LA once a month.

Olga was a pretty blond who spoke Russian, German and English, and writes for Elle magazine in German. She said she met Tom on the train platform, as did Ben. The party was crowded but the music was catchy, we danced in the living room and the rain kept coming down outside.