Column: Pumpkin pie-eyed: Autumn birthday fetes ease the sting of getting older. So does champers
In Palm Beach, it's difficult to discern when summer leans toward fall. Maybe when the humidity drops from 98% to 96%.
Again, maybe.
But Scott Snyder's annual October luncheon has become our falling red maple leaf.
Snyder started the event three years ago when he realized he knew lots of folks with October birthdays, including Libra babies Pat Butler, Snyder's longtime assistant and Yours Truly.
Yes, Libra. The Zodiac sign of the scales representing balance and justice. That's us. Stop laughing.
This year's event took place at La Goulue and included kilos of Maribel Alvarez's new Ultima caviar, buckets of bubbly, a French luncheon, tables decorated with seasonal flowers and pumpkins, birthday cake with sparklers, and lots of animated conversation that became downright rowdy as the afternoon went on.
There: Actor George Hamilton, who has returned to the island to reclaim his roots; Levi Blasdel, Audrey and Martin Gruss, Jeffrey Bilhuber, Christopher Bilhuber, Jennie Lowry, Alayna Steinman, Maribel Alvarez, Llwyd Ecclestone, Carolina and Heath Barefoot, Loni Ludlow, Ted Cooney, Mashi and Manucher Azmudeh, Hollis Pica, Julia le Clerc, Linda Olsson, Mary Mahoney, Jane Holzer, Sam Michaels, Susan Taylor, Rob Taylor, Bettina Anderson, Christopher Smith, Amy Herman, Esmeralda Spinola, Emilio Pedroni, and a bunch of Librans who define "balance" as a champagne glass in each hand.
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Friends and more: Pop-up Palm Beacher Mark Gilbertson hosted his traditional autumn cocktail reception — which essentially is the starting gun for the New Yorkers to beat feet south for the winter — at a private club in New York.
He used to host it at his apartment, but the not-so-subtle wheedling for invitations forced him to expand both the guest list and the venue.
There were cocktails and hors d'oeuvres served by waiters in white jackets, music, and lots of chat about plans for winter in Palm Beach, kids off to prep school, and the troubling state of the big city and the world at large.
Seen: Judith Guest, Douglas and Meg Braff; Richard Mishaan, Katherine Bryan, Jamee and Peter Gregory, Whitney Fairchild, Terry Fitzgerald, Jack Geary, Deborah Norville, Jennifer Creel, Carol Mack, Tom Quick, Richard Perry, Stewart Manger, Kim Coleman, Percy Steinhart, Pepe and Emilia Fanjul, Jay Keith, Jeff Pfeifle, Polly Onet, Michael Kovner and Jean Doyen de Montaillou, and a bunch more who know that it's only a "private" club as long as it remains unnamed.
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Gogo on the Go-Go: When Eileen "Gogo" Burns has the birthday blues, it's not a bad thing.
At all.
The Palm Beach Police & Fire Foundation, of which she is a co-founder, hosted a party in her honor at the Midtown fire station, where she was surrounded by men and women in blue.
Public safety workers from both departments, plus Gogo's gal pals, daughters, and Chacha, her absolutely adorable lively King Charles spaniel pup, gathered amid balloons for Surfside Diner's signature lunch boxes and birthday cake.
But no cake for Chacha.
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Homecoming: Ali Tamposi, the hometown kid who followed her dream and now lives in Los Angeles where she racks up Grammy nominations for her songwriting, returned to her roots when it was time to christen her 5-month-old son, Oscar Anthony Campolo.
On Oct. 8, Ali and her husband Roman Campolo brought not-so-little Oscar to St. Edward Catholic Church, where the Rt. Rev. Archimandrite Glen J. Pothier performed the baptismal rite in the presence of godparents Anthony Tamposi and Rachel Tamposi, as well as grandma Candy Tamposi and other family members.
A reception followed at the St. Andrew's Club.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach Insider: No more guessing at season's start. It's here.
