On Oct 17, 2009, at 12:54 AM, Joanna wrote:
> But many of his bon mots were unforgettable.
Lou Proyect posted this to his list long ago:
> Here's Vidal on running into Henry Kissinger at some kind of
> celebration for the American Academy at the Sistine Chapel hosted by
> the Angelli's, the Fiat industrialists.
>
> "The Agnellis had taken over the newly restored Sistine Chapel for
> an evening; then dinner for 150 in the Hall of the Statues, a
> brilliant long room with statues in niches like front-line troops
> poised to defend Olympus from the Titans.
>
> "Among the crude Titans was Henry Kissinger. In the next few days he
> and I attended a half-dozen functions together. I have no idea what
> he was doing memorializing the American Academy; but the people who
> give money for such causes have made something of a pet of him,
> rather as they had made one of Truman Capote in an earlier time. I
> could hear the ceaseless rumbling voice in every corner of the
> chapel. The German accent is more pronounced in Europe than on
> television at home. He has a brother who came to America when he
> did. Recently, the brother was asked why he had no German accent but
> Henry did. "Because," said the brother, "Henry never listens." As I
> left him gazing thoughtfully at at the hell section of "The Last
> Judgement" (as pretty and bright now as Tiepolo), I said to the lady
> with me, "Look he's apartment hunting."