Town & Country November 2016

1964 BOLD STROKE With her professed penchant for water aerobics, Hillary Clinton would have found a happy pool partner in former president Lyndon Johnson, who, Town & Country reported, liked to “swim 10 or more lengths of the White House pool” after a little exercise in the gym. (Hillary is also a yoga fan—a fact that may or may not be confirmed by her deleted e-mails.) In a Trump White House, however, the pool would more likely be used for entertaining; the Donald, no stranger to Big Macs, credits his good health to “shouting and screaming and having fun with everybody and making America great again.”…

President Richard M. Nixon has his own byline in our December 1971 issue: “The concern for one another, the love of liberty and justice, the knowledge that we are a great nation because we are a great and diverse people. This,” he wrote, “is the spirit of the American family—knowing that there is much to be done, striving together to do it, and knowing that at heart this is a lovely country.” Using “lovely” as the lone descriptor of America seems a little off-key even for 1971, and all the more so now. Yet “family” is a term that resonates more than ever. Our 2016 list of the T&C 50 Families of the Year coincides with the denouement of one of the unloveliest campaigns on record, but one in which…

JANINE DI GIOVANNI The author of The Morning They Came for Us: Dispatches from Syria spoke to American Pastoral director and star Ewan McGregor for “PASTORAL’S PRESENT” (page 146). “Talking about this heartbreaking story was unlike the work I do in Iraq or Syria,” Di Giovanni says. “But it was awesome.” CAROL VOGEL A veteran arts reporter, Vogel couldn’t believe that the grandsons of Pablo Picasso and Alexander Calder had never collaborated. In “MASTERS OF ART” (page 153) she writes about an upcoming exhibition curated by the descendants. “I’m eager to see how the two artists subconsciously influenced each other,” Vogel says. “I’m surprised an exhibition like this has never taken place.” PETE WELLS The New York Times restaurant critic offers pointers to T&C readers in “CRITICAL ERRORS” (page 132)—even…

KEEP OUT Class warfare at Burning Man. A few years ago I went to Burning Man on behalf of T&C. The “camp” where I stayed had RVs equipped with showers and daily meals catered by the chefs of a prominent New York City restaurant. One night the organizers threw a birthday party for one of their team and served 60 bottles of Krug champagne. The playa powers that be were not happy, arguing that the affair was a prime example of “commodifying” Burning Man, which is a violation of one of the 30-year-old festival’s 10 principles. Burning Man, however, continues to attract an A-list crowd that probably isn’t thrilled by the prospect of portable toilets and granola bars. Among this year’s 70,000 attendees were Wendi Murdoch, Paris Hilton, and Eugenie…

Often during this campaign, right-(and left-) minded people have simply been at a loss for words. As insults followed injuries, and gaffes piled onto grotesqueries, heated debate became hateful diatribe. In 1996, William F. Buckley Jr. published The Lexicon, a compilation of the byzantine vocabulary he used in his political prose. Now, following in his nimble footsteps, we present an abecedary of real words (we promise) that describe this exhausting electoral marathon. ABIETENE (n) “A volatile, odoriferous liquid hydrocarbon mixture.” Tames unruly orange hair. BALLOONOMANIA (n) “Enthusiasm or obsessive passion for balloons.” Commonly exhibited by disinhibited husbands. CALUMNIATE (v) “To accuse or charge falsely and maliciously.” Say, by claiming your opponent’s father assassinated JFK. DIABATERIA (n) “A sacrifice performed before crossing a border.” Praying as you encounter a wall across the Mexican frontier. EMPYROSIS…

Elliott Taylor, Carlo Mondavi, and Jacob Busch are a tight-knit threesome— which is not so surprising, given their similarly illustrious forebears. Mondavi, 36, is the grandson of world famous vintner Robert Mondavi; Taylor, 26, is the son of Ronald Lee Taylor, whose well-known restaurant building company did Spago Beverly Hills; and Busch, 27, is part of the brewing dynasty that invented Budweiser. Needless to say, the entrepreneurial bar was set high, and the trio’s decision to start their own operation, in Napa—aptly named Barrels & Sons Brewery—was met with a bit of hesitation in the industry, as well as in their families. “There are such big shoes to fill in saying we’re going to get into the beer business,” Taylor says. “But we aren’t asking our parents for help on…