Goldman Sachs Marathon
The Goldman Sachs hearings on Capitol Hill dragged on for almost 11 hours yesterday. It went on so long that Goldman made $2 billion by taking bets on which Senators would fall asleep first.



Senate Schedule
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid now says the Senate will try to pass a cap and trade bill before it takes up immigration reform. That way, we'll have enough illegal immigrants to help us gather firewood after the Democrats ban oil and natural gas.



Free Trip
Lufthansa has offered a free flight to Germany to the Apple employee who allegedly left an iPhone prototype in a German-style beer garden in California. It's not clear if this is a German tourism publicity stunt, or if they just want this worker to be interrogated by the kind of people who really know how to do it right.



Thai Chaos
Thai security forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas into crowds of anti-government protesters today. Now Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are trying to hire the same troops to handle the next Tea Party protest.



New Abortion Law
Oklahoma has passed a law that forces pregnant women to listen to the heartbeat of their fetuses before they decide to get an abortion. To be fair, the fetuses should also be forced to learn they are going to live in Oklahoma before they decide to be born.





April 28th

1253: Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk, propounds "Nam Myoho Renge Kyo" for the very first time and declares it to be the essence of Buddhism... then he gets run over by an out-of-control rickshaw.


1945: Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci are executed by a firing squad for the high crime of considering macaroni and cheese to be authentic Italian food.


2001: Millionaire Dennis Tito becomes the world's first space tourist. He comes back to Earth with a series of overpriced t-shirts and mugs.

Push It To The Limit 2 DVD Trailer

[ViA]

Nancy Lancaster's Mirador

I have been pouring over the photographs and devouring the words of the The Great Lady Decorators by Adam Lewis. Most of their stories have been told before (some many times), but it's nice to have all of them in one pretty place.

I loved reading the chapter on stylemaker Nancy Lancaster - she is legendary in Charlottesville, Virginia, which is where I went to college. Her family's house, Mirador, is just outside of Charlottesville. If you've ever driven by the house, you know it's something special. The house was bought by Nancy's grandfather Chiswell Langhorne after he rebuilt his fortune after the Civil War. It was then owned by various family members and was subsequently bought by Nancy and her husband Ronald Tree. It is still privately owned (the Trees sold it in the fifties, when they lived in England).


image from HMBD.org






above images from dhr.virginia.gov

Besides the beauty of the house itself, the house is special because three fascinating ladies lived here at some point. All of the Langhorne family (Nancy Lancaster's mother's family) - they are: Nancy Astor, Irene Gibson, and of course Nancy Lancaster.


Nancy Astor, painted by John Singer Sargeant
Nancy Langhorne Astor was born in Danville, Virginia and was the daughter of Chiswell Dabney Langhorne and Nancy Keene. She lived at Mirador in her late teens. She married Waldorf Astor, Second Viscount Astor and lived in England. She was the first woman to sit as a Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons.


Irene Langhorne Gibson, wife of Gibson Girl artist Charles Dana Gibson

Irene Langhorne Gibson was Nancy Astor's sister. She married Charles Dana Gibson in 1895 and was one of the primary muses for his Gibson Girls.


Gibson Girls by Charles Dana Gibson



Nancy Lancaster
Nancy Lancaster was the niece of the above two ladies. Her mother was Elizabeth Perkins, eldest daughter of Chiswell and Nancy Langhorne. Nancy grew up in Richmond, Virginia and New York. Her fondest childhood memories were while visiting her family at Mirador. She married three times, and it was during her second marriage to Ronald Tree that she bought Mirador from her aunt Phyllis. She bought the house in 1922 and sold it in 1950 when she was living in England. Nancy lived in England for most of her adult life and was considered to be quite a tastemaker in England in the first half of the twentieth century. She owned the interior decorating firm Colefax Fowler.


Nancy Lancaster's famous yellow room



Nancy Lancaster's Gothic bedroom at Haseley Court - image via Peak of Chic



There is more great information over at Little Augury.