A Fabulous Afternoon in Red Hook!

Photo: Allen Murabayashi

Wedding Day! (with apologies to Christian Venier)

I'm getting married today!

and my father made these spectacular letterpressed wine labels, with which I have covered up the actual label of a spectacular wine, from Christian Venier in the Loire valley. So, Christian, I'm sorry, but it is all for a very, very good cause!

All the attractions, in one convenient location!

I was at an address today. I can't tell it to you. I'm keeping it a secret.

This was on a private, wedding related mission. I'm getting married, in case you haven't been paying attention.

The person I was going to see had said "call me when you get downstairs, the buzzer isn't working." Nonetheless, out of habit, I looked for their name on the directory outside. Without success. The whole building is full of secrets.

For Luke and Melanie, a gift, on the splendid occasion of their marriage!

Dearest Luke and Melanie:

First of all, I want to congratulate each one of you. Both of you have made a most excellent choice of life partner. You make an exciting team, and I know you are going to get up to all sorts of fascinating adventures together. I hope I'll be able to tag along sometimes, whether you are off following the trail of obscure superstitions in South India or paddling from village to village in the remote Brazilian Amazon.

I also hope you will invite me to your home, and cook me delicious vegetarian meals. Once you have a place to live, that is. Some would think it is daring enough that you would go ahead and get married while homeless, without all that gallivanting about to distant continents. I'm not worried, though. I know you will be settled soon. But under the circumstances, I thought it best for the moment to give you your wedding gift virtually. It's rather weighty, so instead of giving you a big heavy box full of cookware, which you would then have to schlep somehow or another to the greater St. Petersburg area, I thought I would just tell you about it.

Newlyweds, you've chosen door number one! What have we got for the young couple? Why, it's a wonderful set of cookware, from that fabulous country, Denmark, and that fabulous decade, the 1960s! Way before you were even born, you cuties!

That's right! This stunning thirteen piece set of enamel cookware, in almost new condition, features fire-engine red enamel on the outside, and beautiful blue-gray enamel on the inside. We'd like to tell you that you can take this straight from the oven or stovetop to your table and then pop it right into the fridge, but Le Creuset has that motto patented. Nevertheless, rest assured that you can do that! This stuff is every bit as good as that more famous French brand, except, dare we say it, it's even more elegant! This is Quality, people! If you want to get snooty about it you can even let slip to your dinner guests that it's decidedly Danish Modern! Timeless, and stylish. We just know you are going to enjoy using this for your legume and bean-based vegetable stews and curries.

If you act now, this set will include everything you see here: all four trivets; the rectangular casserole with matching lid; the low chafing dish (which I don't even have, in my own extensive collection of turquoise pieces by the very same designer!); the tab-handled skillet and lid; and two sizes of deep saucepans, each with their very own matching tops!.

Just drop me a line as soon as you have an address and this stunning collection will be winging its way to you!

Offer of free shipping valid only in the 48 continental states and the territory of Puerto Rico. Not valid where prohibited by law. Five dollar bill appears only to show scale of items and is not included with this offer at this time. No warranties implied or expressed. Acceptance of offer assumes extension of future dinner invitation to donor by recipients. Batteries not included.

I toast you with a lovely glass of fresh milk!

James and Jessica

My main man James, the cameraman I've had the great pleasure of repeatedly working with in Rwanda over the last few years, is getting married. Congratulations, James! Now, I myself am not married, and although most of my friends and associates seem to be dropping like flies, remaining unmarried in your forties in Brooklyn is scarcely unique. It is more so, perhaps, in Rwanda, where James, in his late thirties, lately had been feeling the heavy burden of bachelorhood. In Kigali many and most marry rather younger. Anne Aghion and I joked about it with him on every trip, lamenting James' status each time we revisited Rwanda, and debating whether it would be Fleming or Gakwerere who would first walk down the aisle. It was a race that James seemed both likely and eager to win, and I told him if he came to New York I would have him married off in no time. A few trips ago Anne even tried to fan the kindling of romance herself, introducing James to the lovely and eligible Chantal, a divorcée schoolteacher from a hillside adjacent to where we spent much time filming. James gave good flirt, but he judged her fickle, and a little too country, I sensed. She ended up marrying some hick from a few hills over, and we put her out of our thoughts.

Then, just before I left Rwanda at the end of my last visit there, James confided that he had a new lady-love. Is it serious? I asked. Umhmmmmmmmmmn, said James. James grew up herding cattle as boy in exile in Uganda, and he tends to avoid the word "yes," in favor of a sort of throaty, affirmative bovine hum. Is she beautiful? I asked. Mmmmmmhmmmmmm, he said, and then burst out laughing.

The formal presentation

James in all his finery, gazing at his bride-to-be

Ceremonial milk-drinking. According to tradition, James comes from a tribe of cattle-herders, for whom the herd is almost sacred. Although an urban gentleman and Rwanda television's foremost cameraman, James' savings are invested not in stocks and bonds, but in his own personal herd, guarded by a young cousin on family land in the north. Given the tumultuous world financial markets, living animals, since they produce milk, butter, cheese and meat, are looking like a much better place to have one's money than the abstraction of most of the other financial instruments on offer. Maintaining the cow theme, the ring tone on James' cell is a long and plaintive moo, and on our drives into the countryside to film, James often nostalgically described for us the qualities and benefits of the various sorts of cows we passed in the fields beside the road.