Dear Imaginary Friends Around the World,
Thanks to my friend who was a State Department employee, I was invited to docent at the residence of the Ambassador of Cyprus
today, and was greeted warmly by him and his wife, shown around, and
treated like family. Ambassador and Mrs. Anastasiades were both extremely friendly. My job was to
welcome the visitors, ask them to keep their mitts off the precious
antiquities, and give them some facts. I was standing guard over two
amphoras that dated to 8000 BC. That means that they predate the
Egyptian dynasties and that the paint really should have chipped by now!
IF they broke, I would be ...in big trouble!
The stunning Beaux Arts mansion from 1918, which is
for sale for a mere 5 mil, is on S street, off Massachusetts Ave., in
the Kalorama section of northwest DC.
Fun facts about Cyprus: They have a wine industry. Tourism is very important to their economy. They speak Greek and are closer in location to Syria and Turkey than they are to Greece. Their flag is the only national flag that contains the outline of their country. Their national color is a vibrant apricot: a mix of yellow and orange, with all the warmth of a Mediterranean summer. In ancient mythology, Venus the goddess of beauty and love, was born from a clam-shell of the coast of Cyprus!
For my time, efforts, and body guarding of the amphoras, I was given a ticket to the embassy tour. With the ticket in hand, Carlo darted in to the Woodrow Wilson Home, and I visited a private residence that included original Calder prints and Warhol soup can paintings.
After that, we raced over to the Jewish Community Center, to see the play Imagining Madoff. There were three characters: Bernie Madoff, his dim witted secretary, and his Holocaust surviving older rabbi friend, whom Madoff made penniless. It was a very good play, and the acting very believable.
Check it out!
A full day, and now time to rest,
Patsie
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