READ THIS: Natural Blonde by Liz Smith
We first met Liz Smith when we covered Literacy Partners in May of 2009:
and again this past May:
Of course, with a name like Whom You Know, we are in love with Literacy Partners and everyone that values the English language and uses it properly. Now that we've read Natural Blonde we know HOW Liz became involved with Literacy Partners. Sweet idea, Carol Jenkins. It really makes a lot of sense for someone that preferred reading to going out to play as a child to be involved in this...we know someone else like this too.
And you know Swifty's is Peachy Deegan's absolute favorite restaurant, and when we talked to Mayor Bloomberg at Fete de Swifty this past September he could not say ENOUGH about Liz Smith: http://www.whomyouknow.com/
and incidentally, this past May after we were at cocktail hour for Literacy Partners, we went to Swifty's and had dinner with Robert.
Then we saw her again last Wednesday at the Plaza for Landmarks (click the below link to see her with Peachy!)
On Friday, Peachy chatted with Liz (We are so pleased to announce she will be an Upcoming Mover and Shaker!) and Liz asked Peachy if she had read her book. Peachy had not as she has quite the pile from publishers of books coming out now, but we put that pile to a HALT.
Whom You Know HIGHLY RECOMMENDS Natural Blonde. We are even writing in blonde we loved it so much. Every free moment we have had since Friday we have spent with this book. If you think we write about entertaining and exciting people and events here on Whom You Know, we would think it would be an honor to say we are the severely diluted version of Natural Blonde, disregarding the time period.
We love that she starts off in the Prologue quoting Oscar Wilde; you know we did a whole section on him in Quotable Peachy. We love that she sees gossip as telling a story...we'd be retired at a young age if we had a dollar for every time Peachy's said that. Well, now we're going to tell you a story about how great Liz is which is of course why you should read this autobiography.
This is a true story of humanity, from Liz singing "Night and Day" to "The Dipsy Doodle" as a kid to how she was bored senseless in church, entertained only by crackers that she and her brother Bobby found tasted like face powder...[and that's why Bobby thinks vodka tastes so good now.] (Liz we have a vodka we would love to share with you, guess which one!)
We must say page 71 was among our favorites as it says when she campaigned for associate editor in college, her campaign sign read:
"FOR A GOOD TIME, CALL LIZ SMITH! LIZ! SHE'S A PEACHY DANCER!"
It didn't get her elected, but what do they know at The Texas Ranger...Liz we hope you like the Cha Cha Peachy column.
Even if you are too young to know who the people are that she mentions (and then you just google them, and you garner some great cocktail party conversation too) you will value tremendously her sense of storytelling and even better sense of humor. We particularly got a kick out of Maureen Stapleton's comment to her agent and much much more. We want you to read the book...
This is someone that President Nixon publicly complimented in church as a funeral was about to get underway.
This is someone that Leonard Lauder said genuinely listened to him.
This is someone that Frank Sinatra said could call him Francis! (and it sounds like MES really earned that...even if she says she stopped being a real journalist when it came to him.) And he sent her orchids. And he left his own table at "21" to go to hers.
There is no one like Liz Smith, and you'll see that in the first few pages if you don't know it yet. Liz is the Chief of the Indians. (see page 341)
Why do we love Liz so much? Aside from the fact that she is a great writer, she's a fabulously nice person, she loves books, she likes Swifty's, she loves New York City, and her birthday is so close to Peachy's, she kind of reminds us of our grandmother who incidentally was named Elizabeth Mary, and Liz is Mary Elizabeth. This is a huge compliment as there is no one Peachy loved more than her grandmother. Peachy's grandmother is pictured to the right and we think she and Liz would have had a great time together back in the day now that we've read about it. Peachy herself think it would be a riot to throw wads of petals like they were bombs sometime with Liz...that is what she did as a flower girl and we love that description. Why be dainty when you can be fun?
Told in Eight Parts, Natural Blonde was written in the year 2000, so we would love to see a sequel because we are convinced Liz only gets better with age like a fine wine. The only thing we do not like is that Peachy and Liz are not the same age so Peachy read about all the fun she missed before she was born and is mourning it, like the "Overheard" game. But she's making up for it now....and by the way Liz, Peachy is a natural blonde too, in the summer anyway. We truly admire you and must admit we are a little bit jealous, and most so on page 416 when we see you sat with Chris O'Donnell and truth be told, that name made Peachy Deegan want to go to Boston College an awful lot and consequently, Whom You Know is maroon and gold. And funny enough, Peachy was born just days before the Liz Smith column started so when you see Peachy that is the age of the column if it were a person.
We also cannot say enough about Liz Smith and you absolutely need to read Natural Blonde!!! You ALL should hit "Like" for Liz Smith below on Facebook too! MES is the BES(T)!
