Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Longevity Notes

I was telling Mrs. B at breakfast about Hugues-Adhémar Cuénod, the tenor who debuted at the Met at 85 and died this week at 108--and specifically, how he entered into a civil union at the age of 104 with his 64-year-old companion.

The instant response: "Property rights. Inheritance. He took care of the old man all these years. He deserved it."

Could very well be right.

..and speaking of longevity, just last night in a different context we were talking about Roy Neuberger, broker and art collector, still going strong (the last I knew) at 107. Herb Caen once said: it used to be that if a man was famous for having lived to 100, he had never been famous for anything else. As I recall he was speaking of songwriter Irving Berlin at Berlin's death in 1989, aged 101. Not any more.

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