The Rittenhouse Review

A Philadelphia Journal of Politics, Finance, Ethics, and Culture


Sunday, May 29, 2005  

MARTHA STEWART’S RIGIDITY
Is There More to it Than I Thought?

Count me as a fan -- and a defender -- of Martha Stewart, founder of Martha Stewart Living magazine and much else, but a confused fan and defender nonetheless, especially when I read such items as this excerpt from “From My Home To Yours,” about growing flowers for cutting, by Ms. Stewart herself, in the book’s June 2005 issue (pp. 23-26):

I am really not as fussy about the color or variety of plant as I am about its growing habit, strength of bloom, and usefulness in arrangements. I used to be a bit more inflexible -- at Turkey Hill, I banned red flowers and preferred that nothing yellow except daffodils be grown. [Ed.: Emphasis added.]

Oh my. Whatever was that misguided tantrum about?

I can only assume Ms. Stewart eventually longed for the beauty of such gorgeous specimens, produced in red, accidentally or by design, of the rose, zinnia, gerbera, tulip, geranium, peony, anthurium, amaryllis, carnation, calendiva, kalanchoe, cyclamen . . . Could I go on?

Or did a kind friend -- no doubt not Mariana Pasternak, because we hate her -- just say, with some conviction, “Martha, snap out of it!”?

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