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Society News Blog Archives
Society News Blog posts insightful comments on the latest international news that render us taken-aback in the domain of the society facet of life. Society News Blog: High-Society News 1 The High Society of Automobiles: Wednesday, July 25, 2007
NEWPORT If you love beautiful vintage cars and classic old racecars and want to meet some of the greatest names in auto racing, Newport is the place to be this weekend. The Preservation Society of Newport County is hosting the William K. Vanderbilt, Jr. Concours d’Elegance with events scheduled at three of its historic mansions, The Breakers, Chateau-sur-Mer and Marble House. This is the first Concours the society has organized. “I’ve loved cars my entire life and feel that this is something that Newport really needs,” said Cynthia Gibson, chairwoman and founder. “We want to come out of the box being stellar.” About 140 vintage cars from the Brass (pre-WWI) Era to 1970 that are competing in the Concours d’Elegance will be on display on the grounds at Chateau-sur-Mer. Society News Blog: High Society News 2 Confessions add to the Westminster ‘high society': July 20 2007 It may have been the biggest outbreak of "me too" since Spartacus, but yesterday's ministerial hands-up to pot smoking is not without precedent. Even the Home Office's admission on behalf of Vernon Coaker, Minister for Drugs Policy, was about as recycled as a government initiative. He himself said last year: "When I was a student, I took one or two puffs of marijuana but that was it. I think it was once or twice." Former US president Bill Clinton set the trend when he admitted to having smoked cannabis at Oxford University, but claimed he "never inhaled". His successor, George W Bush, also sowed clouds of confusion during private discussions - recorded without his knowledge - with a Mr Wead. The then aspiring president, who has spoken frequently about a drink problem in his youth, suggested he may have smoked marijuana but refused to admit it for fear of setting a bad example. He suggested, touchingly, that some kid might discover that President Bush had smoked marijuana and say: "Hey, I'll try that." Society News Blog: High Society News 2 (Continued) Among the first British politicians to bare their souls on the subject was Mo Mowlam, the late Northern Ireland Secretary, who said: "I tried marijuana, didn't like it particularly and, unlike President Clinton, I did inhale. But it wasn't part of my life." The Tories have also been much more liberal in their confessions than their current, emphatically reticent, leader. David Cameron, pressed on revelations that he was disciplined for smoking cannabis at Eton: maintained: "I'm not issuing a denial. What I am saying is that I think it's an important principle that politicians are entitled to a private past." Society News Blog: High Society News 2 (Continued) However, Francis Maude, former party chairman, admitted: "It was hard to go through Cambridge in the 70s without doing it a few times." Oliver Letwin, chairman of policy review, admitted: "Some friends put dope in my pipe. It had no effect on me but I was extremely angry." Tim Yeo, MP for South Suffolk, declared: "I was offered it on occasion and enjoyed it." Lord Lamont, the former chancellor, said: "I have not smoked cannabis. But I did eat a tiny bit of cannabis cake and all I can say is I enjoyed the cake but that is all." Society News Blog: High Society News 2 (Continued) Others, including David Willetts, Archie Norman, Bernard Jenkin, Peter Ainsworth and Lord Strathclyde, all admitted having smoked it. Among former New Labour ministers, Patricia Hewitt, then health secretary, said in April: "I tried cannabis once when I was a student. It didn't do anything for me." Caroline Flint, then Home Office minister for drugs policy, said in 2003 that she took cannabis 20 years ago when she was a student, and didn't like it. Charles Clarke, then a new back bencher, admitted in 1997 to having taken it a couple of times in his late teens. Society News Blog: High Society News 3 Philip Baloun, 61; high society party planner's clientele included Prince Charles: July 9, 2007 Philip Baloun, 61, one of America's preeminent party planners, died June 28 of pancreatic cancer at his home in Manhattan, the New York Times reported. Trained as a florist, Baloun's work required him to also employ "in equal measure the skills of a theater designer, engineer and sorcerer," the newspaper reported. For the 70th birthday of financier George Soros, he built a town square that would summon up visions of Soros' home country of Hungary. For Britain's Prince Charles, he created a forest in a tent on the plaza at Lincoln Center. Society News Blog: High Society News 3 (Continued) His rates started around $30,000 for a simple affair of flowers and decor, but a high-end affair could easily run into seven figures, and his work often involved the use of dozens of subcontractors, including caterers, carpenters, disc jockeys, lighting technicians and parking valets, the newspaper said. A native of Chicago, Baloun attended the American Floral Arts School there. He earned a bachelor's degree in literature and music from St. Norbert College in Wisconsin. He moved to Manhattan with the hopes of becoming a theater director but ended up working for a leading society florist and party designer, the newspaper reported. Baloun opened his own business in 1979. Society News Blog Comment: There has something terribly gone wrong somewhere with the way we designed our basic units of society. They are stopping us from making it a humane society. Shall we do something about it? I am not talking of any utopian society. In fact, a utopian society orders its virtual bricks for its hypothetical construction to the moral values in society, but unluckily this company is only there on papers yet and not been incorporated so far even in the past thousands of years after its inception. Society values are only a utopian makeup worn on the ugly face of our modern society that is anything else but a humane society in its essence. The problem is that the problems in today's society are growing by leaps and bounds and there is no respite from it. And it is as much there in the high society as it is there with the common masses all around. I invite you to subscribe to my E-zine titled Life Coach, free of charge. This E-zine publishes insightful comments on the latest international news that render us taken-aback in the domains of various facets of life. A not-to-be-missed opportunity! Subscribe to it here: I also invite you to subscribe to my Life Blog - no need to provide your e-mail address here. This RSS feed keeps you informed about new developments taking place on this site. It also harbors 25 journal bloglets posting insightful comments on the latest international news that render us taken-aback in the domains of various facets of life. In order to subscribe to the blog, right-click on the orange RSS button (see buttons up to the left) and then paste the URL into your RSS reader. Or click on add to My Yahoo! button or My MSN or Add To Google button if you keep a personalized home page there. If you are not sure what RSS or blogging is all about, click on What's an RSS Feed? here:
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