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Country - USA actor - Rene Auberjonois &ref(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMzIyMzkzN2ItZjBjOS00Mjg1LThmMGMtOTkxYzA2Mjc1MDFlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTUyOTk5OTg@._V1_SY1000_CR0,0,629,1000_AL_.jpg) director - Michael D. Olmos 107minutes 43 vote. Windows on the World, New York City. Reservations: 212-524-7011. It's called the Nocebo effect (as opposed to the Placebo effect. It's why and how tobacco packaging and general cancer propaganda are actually curses on their users.
Kills me, they did all type of scientific studies to see why Thut-Ankh- Amen's (king tut's) mummy was dark brown and it didn't come from soot from carbon. of otrches inside the tombs. Europeans will say any goddam thing to refute the fact that these were AFRICANS. AF-RA-KAH. of God's soul. aka God's chosen. Mr. Osman I have read your books and they opened me up to further research. You may not have realized it, but much of your information has proven that these are Africans. Windows on the World Watch. April 4. My grandfather's birthday. Pop's from the Bronx. Windows on the World, despite the fact that it takes place in the weeks following the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York, is a film that is urgently for our time. It is a hero's journey of a son trying to find his father in that grief-stricken landscape and the characters stand in for the millions of immigrants, legal and illegal, who contribute in their everyday lives, to the American landscape. The film seeks to counter the narrative that's all-too-prevalent in today's political and media landscape by telling a story set in America's biggest and most diverse city, at its darkest time. The script by playwright and novelist Robert Mailer Anderson (who also produced the film) is wise and completely engaging; he creates indelible characters who are ultimately inspiring and uplifting. Edward James Olmos gives what he considers to be the performance of a lifetime, and the rest of the cast is terrific as well-with a special shout-out to Glynn Turman. The direction, by Olmos's son Michael, is sure-handed, getting terrific performances from his cast, including his father, in this father-son story, and it's beautifully lensed. The music, including jazz and a title track written by Anderson, is pitch-perfect, supporting the story without getting in the way. This film should be seen by everybody-and I'm sure it will be in mainstream distribution soon, as this is a time when, although the major studios may have turned their backs on substance, terrific indie films like this one have many other possible venues. If you can't see it at a film festival, like I did, keep a keen eye out for it. Terrific and inspiring.
Global warming is natural process. The sea beds have hot springs shooting out Carbon monoxide constantly. It rises up into the atmosphere and that then warms the planet. Glacier break away from the poles moving along into warmer temperature waters melting and cooling that area of water. And this will keep happening for years to come and is natural. Thanks YouTube for recommending this. I got dizzy when he zoomed in on the restaurant. Just thinking of how so many of the victims of 9/11 had to have felt the same anxiety when they had to hang out of the windows to breathe, it's gut wrenching and heart breaking. See Iron Mountain - global tyranny on youtube or Report From Iron Mountain pdf online.
Windows on the World was one of the greatest restaurants New York City has ever seen. Located on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center, it offered guests soaring views of not only Manhattan, but also Brooklyn and New Jersey. Although the food couldn't always match the scenery, at its best, Windows provided guests with a sophisticated, forward-thinking dining experience unlike any other in New York City. Windows on the World vanished 12 years ago. On that horrific day, 79 employees of the restaurant lost their lives. Here, now, is a remembrance of Windows on the World, with an afterword from the restaurant's last chef and greatest champion, Michael Lomonaco: GM Alan Lewis, chef Andrew Renee, restaurateur Joe Baum via Edible Manhattan] Windows on the World was the brainchild of visionary restaurateur Joe Baum. With the Restaurant Associates group, Baum created a string of '60s blockbusters including La Fonda Del Sol, The Forum of the Twelve Caesars, and The Four Seasons. In 1970, after parting ways with Restaurant Associates, Baum was hired by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to help develop the restaurants at the World Trade Center. [A '70s menu for Windows via Typofile; A pamphlet for the world Trade Center Club via eBay] Baum, along with partners Michael Whitman and Dennis Sweeney, created 22 restaurants for the World Trade Center, many of which were casual operations located in the basement concourse. But the most elaborate Baum creation was Windows on the World, which occupied the 106th and 107th floors of the North Tower. The restaurateur hired architect Warren Platner to design a grand, modern space. Windows on the World Ephemera from Milton] Graphic designer Milton Glaser (of the I? NY and Brooklyn Brewery logos) contributed the menu artwork, dishware patterns, and logo. Barbara Kafka picked the plateware and silverware. And James Beard and Jacques Pepin helped develop the menu. The Port Authority then signed a master lease with Inhilco, a subsidiary of Hilton International, to run the World Trade Center restaurants. Baum and his team then moved to Inhilco to put their plans into action. [Kevin Zraly talking to guests in 1976 via The Nestle Library] Windows on the World opened on April 19, 1976, as a private club with 1, 500 members who paid dues based on their relationship with and proximity to the World Trade Center ? WTC tenants paid 360 a year, and those who lived outside the "port district" paid just 50. But anyone could visit Windows on the World in the early days if they paid 10 in dues, plus 3 per guest. [The Hors d'Oeuvrerie via The Nestle Library] In addition to the main dining room, where a table d'hote dinner was 13. 50, Windows on the World had an Hors d'Oeuvrerie that served global small plates. [Cellar in the Sky via Baum + Whiteman] One offshoot, dubbed the Cellar in the Sky, offered an expansive wine list from young gun sommelier Kevin Zraly, plus a five-course menu of American and European fare. In a New York magazine cover story titled "The Most Spectacular Restaurant in the World. Gael Greene describes the experience of entering the dining room: Every view is brand-new? a miracle. In the Statue of Liberty Lounge, the harbor's heroic blue sweep makes you feel like the ruler of some extraordinary universe. All the bridges of Brooklyn and Queens and Staten Island stretch across the restaurant's promenade. Even New Jersey looks good from here. Down below are all of Manhattan and helicopters and clouds. Everything to hate and fear is invisible. Pollution is but a cloud. A fire raging below Washington Square is a dream, silent, almost unreal, though you can see the arc of water licking flame. Default is a silly nightmare. There is no doggy doo. Garbage is an illusion. [Cellar in the Sky via Baum + Whiteman] Windows on the World was an immediate success. New York Times critic Mimi Sheraton describes the dining experience: Unquestionably the best thing about this place, other than the toy-town views of bridges and rivers, skylines and avenues is the menu. It represents an international crossroads of gastronomy, stylish and contemporary, and perfectly suited to this particular setting and this particular city. The restaurant quickly became a favorite hangout of high-powered businessmen, politicians, and celebrities. By the end of its first year, Windows on the World had a waiting list that was fully booked for six months straight. [The view facing west via The David Blahg] In 2001, Joe Baum's creative partner Michael Whiteman told the Times: In a way, it was the symbol of the beginning of the turnaround of New York... were successful because New York wanted us to be successful. It couldn't stand another heartbreaking failure. The original Windows on the World crew via Suzette Howes] Joe Baum was only involved in the management of Windows on the World during its first three years in business, but the restaurant sailed along through the '80s and early '90s. During this period, the restaurant employed a number of chefs that would go on to find success on their own, including Kurt Gutenbrunner, Christian Delouvrier, Eberhard Müller, and Cyril Reynaud. The critics were not always kind to Windows on the World, but year after year, it remained one of the top-grossing restaurants in the country. On February 26, 1993, a group of terrorists detonated a bomb inside a truck that was parked below the North Tower. The bombing killed six people, and injured over a thousand. The explosion damaged storing and receiving areas used by Windows on the World, and the restaurant was forced to shutter. Hilton International gave up its lease after the bombing, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey asked 35 restaurant groups for proposals for the Windows on the World space. [a New York article on the revamp from July 15, 1996] On May 13, 1994, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced that the Joseph Baum & Michael Whiteman Company had won the contract. Almost two decades after opening the restaurant, Joe Baum was back in control of Windows on the World. [Cellar in the Sky, 1996 via Baum + Whiteman] Baum and his partners tapped Hugh Hardy to create a dining room that was more colorful and whimsical than the original. Unlike the old Windows, which served Continental fare with a sharp American influence, the new restaurant offered a globetrotting menu from chef Philippe Feret. [The Greatest Bar on Earth via Skyscrapercity] The Hors d'Oeuvrerie was replaced by The Greatest Bar on Earth, a splashy space that had three bars and a menu of fun international fare. Before the reopening in summer of 1996, Baum told the Times: When Windows first opened it was a great restaurant for New tourists came, they came mostly because New Yorkers were proud to bring them here. We want Windows to be a great restaurant for New Yorkers again. Windows on the World in 1996 via the Container List] Feret left Windows in May of 1997, and he was replaced by Michael Lomonaco, a chef that had earned raves at the '21' Club. A few months after he took control of the kitchen, Ruth Reichl bestowed two stars on Windows on the World. In 1999, Cellar in the Sky was replaced by Wild Blue, a cozy American restaurant, that was also overseen by Lomonaco. In his review, William Grimes wrote: When night falls, Wild Blue feels like a plush space capsule hurtling through the cosmos. 79 Windows of the World employees died on September 11, 2001. Michael Lomonaco was conducting an errand in the concourse of the World Trade Center when the first plane hit. The chef was evacuated from the building immediately, and witnessed the second plane hit the WTC from the street. Lomonaco then headed north and made it up to his home on the Upper East Side, where he immediately started figuring out who was working that day. 2001: Lomonaco and His Team Search for Employees: By the following week, a Windows on the World hotline was set up at the restaurant's sister establishment, Beacon, and Lomonaco and his head of human resources, Elizabeth Ortiz, began working to find the 50 employees that were unaccounted for. Lomonaco soon helped set up an relief fund called Windows of Hope, which raised over 22 million for the families of Windows workers. [A screengrab of the Windows on the World website from 2002] Windows on the World co-owner David Emil opened a Theater District restaurant in 2002 called Noche, which was staffed by several Windows employees, including Lomonaco ? it closed in 2004. Some of the Windows employees opened a Noho restaurant in 2006 called Colors ? it's still open, but only for parties and private events. For the past seven years, Lomonaco has been the co-owner and executive chef of Porter House in the Time Warner Center, and he recently opened Center Bar, a casual spinoff on the same floor as Porter House. The Port Authority has ruled out the possibility of putting a fine dining restaurant like Windows on the World at the top of the new World Trade Center, which is slated to open in 2014. Earlier this week, Eater interviewed Michael Lomonaco about his experiences on the 106th and 107th floors of the North Tower. Here's an extended look back: Michael Lomonaco via Porter House] What did it mean to you to get that job at Windows on the World? Michael Lomonaco: Well I'd never been there before. I'd never worked there. I'm a native New Yorker, and I remember very clearly when Windows on the World opened. I have very clear memories of that, even the review that they did in New York magazine. But one of the key memories I had always had was Cellar in the Sky, because the original Cellar in the Sky was a prix fixe restaurant ? that was pretty new to New York. And it was advertised weekly in the dining section of the Times ? they advertised the menu as changed every week, or every other week. That ad always stuck in my mind, how they promoted Cellar in the Sky. It just sounded so incredible. So fast-forward to the '80s. I
Those poor people still hanging onto hope 5 days after the attack. God bless your dad, and or the other Innocents who perished. Windows on the world watch free youtube. Where on FB can I find you. Windows on the world watch free stream. Windows on the World china. This partial place setting of Windows on the World china survived the collapse of the building because it had been removed to the restaurant owner's home for a private function. Location: World Trade Center Source: Gift of Night Sky Windows LLC Windows on the World restaurant objects Description: Artifacts collected from Windows on the World, a well-known World Trade Center restaurant, include a bottle of champagne, dinner spoon, table lamp, champagne flute, soup bowl, salad plate, dessert plate, and coffee cup. Context: The World Trade Center had a spectacular restaurant, Windows on the World, located on the 107th floor of the north tower with a conference facility on the 106th floor. Offering commanding views of the city, it was a popular destination with building occupants, tourists, and city residents (the restaurant served about 800 dinners nightly. When the first hijacked plane crashed into the north tower at 8:46 am, the restaurant had regular breakfast patrons on the 107th floor and a conference for the Risk Water Group on the 106th floor. About 73 employees and an unidentified number of patrons died in the fire and building collapse. Interior view of restaurant Windows on the World was known for its elegant appointments and sweeping panoramic view of New York City. Soup bowl from the World Trade Center?s Windows on the World restaurant Bird?s-eye view of cup and saucer from the World Trade Center?s Windows on the World restaurant Dessert and appetizer plate from the World Trade Center?s Windows on the World restaurant Salad plate from the World Trade Center?s Windows on the World restaurant Benefit-dinner program Program cover from a benefit dinner held in Italy to help Windows on the World restaurant employees. Transcript: AMERICAN MEMORIAL "How did I get these if everything was destroyed during the collapse. David Shayt September 11 Collecting Curator. Museum Specialist, Division of Cultural History. BROWSE MORE OBJECTS.
August 31, 2019, 11:40am, Updated August 31, 2019, 1:25pm Enlarge Image Windows on the World, which sat atop the World Trade Center's north tower, is celebrated in a new book, The Most Spectacular Restaurant in the World. by Tom Roston. Ezra Stoller/Esto On an icebound night in February 1993, I trekked with a few hundred other New York Post employees ? copy kids, writers and top editors ? to a party none would soon forget. Our host was Steven Hoffenberg, a tax fraudster who briefly controlled the newspaper before he was sentenced to a long prison term. The venue was Windows on the World ? technically the 106th floor, the banquet level that was one story below the main dining room. The black night pressed hard against the windows. I felt the room wobble, as the towers did in high winds. We drank ourselves silly. No one could stomach Hoffenberg, the cash-strapped Posts short-lived “savior. ” But he laid on unlimited food and booze, and we all had a ball. You wont find that notorious party in Tom Rostons splendid new Abrams Press book, “ The Most Spectacular Restaurant in the World: The Twin Towers, Windows on the World, and the Rebirth of New York. ” But no single account could scratch the surface of all the life and drama that Windows on the World bore during its mere 25 years. The citys premier celebration venue, deeply woven into its social, culinary and business fabrics, deserved a proper history. Roston delivers it with power, detail, humor and heartbreak to spare. Hoffenberg had good reason to choose Windows to try and persuade Post employees that he was really a good guy. No competitor could match its capacity to awe and thrill. Not even the older Rainbow Room and certainly not tourist-trap Tavern on the Green. Although not a regular, I experienced Windows at its best and worst. For every marvelous meal, there was a mediocre or disastrous one. Two weeks after Hoffenbergs bacchanal, we were invited by a publicist to a more normal dinner. We never got there: The date was Feb. 26, 1993 ? when terrorists first struck the Twin Towers with a bomb planted in the basement that killed six people and traumatized thousands more. Like most New Yorkers, I wouldnt get to see Windows again until it reopened three years later with an all-new look. Many famous local restaurants ? The Four Seasons, Balthazar ? have been subjects of whole books. But strangely, theres previously been none entirely devoted to Windows on the World, a noble but tragic enterprise so huge that it comprised five distinct venues on two floors. The top of the North Tower (on the left with antenna) housed the Windows on the World restaurant. The LIFE Images Collection via G Roston brings it to life with a novelists skill ? as on the eerie night when patrons and staff watched alarmed as the blackout of July 1977 plunged one chunk of the city after another into darkness. His telling of the hours before the planes struck on 9/11 gave me chills even though Id read about them so many times before. Port Authority honcho Guy Tozzoli, who drove development of the original World Trade Center, fought with Twin Towers architect Minoru Yamasaki over the fact that Windows vertical windows were painfully narrow. Tozzoli got Yamasaki to widen them by a half-foot each on the 107th floor before the place opened. But the architect insisted on symmetry, so the PA also had to widen the corresponding windows on the south tower where there was no restaurant, only offices. The kitchen was the scene of innumerable crazy moments. One chef, Marc Murphy, cut a hole in a wall so he could have “cold Heinekens delivered to him expeditiously and surreptitiously. ” On stressful nights, cooks threw curried kumquats at each other “at high speed” to break the tension. Windows somehow survived a turbulent procession of internal power struggles as well as changes in ownership, management, critical reputation and culinary direction to emerge in 2000 as the worlds highest-grossing restaurant (38. 8 million. It was a stirring revival following years when, as wine director Kevin Zraly put it, “The place sucked. ” The names of Joe Baum, the restaurant genius who created Windows, and star chef Michael Lomonaco ? who rescued its flagging kitchen in the late 90s and escaped death on 9/11 thanks to an errand ? are familiar to millions. Fewer knew of Alan Lewis, Baums explosive floor boss who “walked the 107th floor like an agitated shark, ” terrified the staff and once threw a spoonful of soup at chef André René when he didnt like the way it tasted. But theres more than colorful anecdotes. Roston frames Windows history in the context of urban decline and renewal. He relates its up-and-down fortunes to those of the city ? the decay of the mid-1970s, the Wall Street boom and bust of the 1980s, the murder and AIDS plagues of the early 1990s and the Giuliani-era revival. In this telling, Windows comes to symbolize New York Citys singular capacity to regenerate itself with every turn of the cycle. What a pity that the new World Trade Center has nothing to compare with it ? only a small, top-floor dining room with bad food and precious little view. But for those who missed it, Rostons book is a wide-open window on the glory of what was.
The jumpers were on the edge on suffocating. All they just did is to choose to live 10 seconds more. Life is so precious. Windows on the world watch free series. Didn't vote for Corbyn first time but he will be removed without an election over my bloody corpse and that of hundreds of thousands who support him. This is Grand Theft Auto IV with a mod that adds the WTC. Good interesting show - thanks lads. It ought to remind people what we've lost in suppressing free speech. It isn't about whether you agree with anyone or not, it's about listening (or being tolerant enough to listen) to people who think differently and who have opposing views. Let's have more of it. The Windows On The World restaurant located in the North Tower of the WTC demonstrated how life and death can sometimes be decided on a razor thin wire of chance. In rare cases, one small change to a persons circumstances can significantly change the course or outcome of an event. The details of this decision-incident can often remain completely hidden to all the individuals involved until the event is completely over. Only then does the clear picture begin to unfold. WTC North Tower ? September 11th ? Slim Chance Between Life and Death. In this terrible tragedy, the North Tower, also known as 1 World Trade Center had it the worst. Not only was it the first building to be hit by one of the planes, but it was also the last building to fall. It was the only building that had all its fire stairs knocked out, that meant no-one above air strike on the 92nd floor ever got out and there would be no escape for its trapped occupants, where they would forced to witness the increasing carnage around them with their own slow realization of their ultimate demise. The Hijacked Planes Strike On September 11th 2001 at 8:46:26 a. m. American Airlines Flight 11 Boeing 767 impacted the north side of the North Tower of 1 World Trade Center. The plane entered the North Tower between the 94th and 98th floors. Flight 11 was flying at a speed of 490 miles per hour at the time of impact. North Tower occupants had no clue what was about to happen and they had no chance of survival from above the impact site, because, unlike the South Tower that was hit a few minutes later, all the fire escapes were destroyed by the impact of the plane. Documented accounts of human losses that morning at the North Tower at The World Trade Center included employees from such companies as Aon Corp, Cantor Fitzgerald and Marsh & McLennan. One particular company, Risk Waters Group Ltd, A British company, was at The Windows On The World conference facility that morning, they would not normally have been there. Windows On The World ? Background On This Most Famous Restaurant Windows On The World was a world famous 40, 000 square foot restaurant near the top of the North tower on the 107th Floor at 1 World Trade Center.?It boasted a popular “New American” style menu and had a first class wine list that included Chateau Lafite-Rothschild 1928 for 3000. 00.?The 107th floor was also occupied by “The Greatest Bar on Earth”, aka GBOE. This 13, 000 square foot happy hour bar was popular with tourists and Wall Street types alike. It was a traditional for New Yorkers to often complain about its “poor quality” and “expensive” drinks, but its location spoke volumes with amazing panoramic views of Manhattan and the tri-state area that was pretty hard to beat.?The 107th floor was also occupied by Wild Blue, a romantic and quieter restaurant and bar in the space formerly occupied by Cellar in the Sky.?A popular misconception is that Windows on the World was at the very top of the North tower, when in fact the top enclosed floor was the 110th floor, where CNN and some other television companies sited equipment and staff. The South tower, across the square, was home to the public glass-enclosed observatory located on the 107th floor and the worlds highest open-air deck on the 110th floor, that the tourists could visit.?On the fateful day of 9/11 2001 the Windows on The World Conference Facility on the 106th floor was playing host to the Risk Waters Financial seminar.?One floor above, on the 107th floor, the main restaurant and the bar were closed. Wild Blue, however was the only thing open ?on that floor and was serving breakfast to a number of WTC tenants and occupants. The Risk Waters Financial Conference The Risk Waters Group would not have normally been at the World Trade Center that day. They had organized a financial technology conference that was due to run both days of Tuesday 11th and Wednesday 12th of September 2001. They had invited a number of delegates from various financial companies and vendors in New York and the United States.?What distinguishes those delegates from the other victims in the WTC is that they wouldnt normally be there and chance had a way of putting them there that morning. This, of course, is of no solace to the families left behind, but nevertheless remains a gruesome fact.?The delegates presence at the WTC is somewhat akin to the people who died at the (alleged) job interviews at Cantor Fitzgerald on the 95th floor. People who wouldnt have normally been there, but happenstance put them there. The Risk Waters conference was due to start at 8:00 AM with Breakfast, with the first speaker due to begin at 9:00 the precise time of the impact were 16 staff from Risk Waters and 53 delegates from various invited companies and vendors in attendance.?An additional 137 delegates had been invited but had not arrived at the time of the impact or did not plan in coming after all.?Following the plane impact there were reports that delegates from this conference were being moved to the 107th floor. Conflicting reports indicate that smoke was heavy at the 107th floor and all the “Windows” staff was moved to the 106th floor to join the delegates. No Survivors From Above The 92nd Floor Christine Olender, the restaurants assistant general manager, said via her mobile phone to 911 services “Were getting no direction up here. Were having a smoke condition. We have most people on the 106th floor; the 107th floor is way too smoky, ” Other people above the impact site in the North Tower included staff from Windows on the World located on the 106th and 107th floors and from other companies on various floors above and below. It is understood that the roof deck was not accessible by the staff and delegates, but this is perhaps irrelevant as they may have sought adequate refuge on the 106th floor and rooftop rescue by helicopter was not a viable option, due to the updraft caused by the burning aviation fuel It is estimated over 200 people jumped to their death, with the majority of that number being made up from the North tower, where the fire and smoke were limited to fewer floors ? which made it more intense. The estimate was because “Jumper” injuries were very similar to injuries sustained by enclosed occupants and could not be clearly established following the event. The figure was arrived at by analyzing photographs of descending bodies that were taken at the scene. In the North Tower there were 1360 fatalities above the 92nd floor, which was 100% of its occupants at the contrast, the South tower had one fire escape that was passable after their impact, so in fact 350 people escaped even though they were above the point of above the 92nd floor in the North tower on that fateful day meant certain death for its occupants. No one survived. While many WTC corporations knew the risk of an attack following the 1993 bomb was high, they had accepted the risk of this occurrence and went on with their daily lives. In retrospect all the regular daily inhabitants of the WTC were a walking probability. The Risk Waters group and delegates exemplify the randomness of the event. It seems sadly ironic that the Risk Waters Group range of products and services are dedicated to risk management. Individuals of Special Note Who Died in the North Tower Liz Thompson, executive director of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Liz Thompson 61 is executive director of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC. Thompson was on what was to be the last elevator down from the 91st floor in the north tower of the World Trade Center. She was in a meeting concerning a public art commission; Liz is reported to have exited the lobby at 8:43 AM.?LMCC artist in residence Michael Richards, was not so lucky, he remained on the 91st floor and perished. George Sleigh,?naval architect 62-year old naval architect, George Sleigh, was in a north-facing office on the telephone to a colleague on the 91st floor. Incredibly, George witnessed the aircraft heading towards his building when it was just two to three plane lengths away. “It was quite a shock to see a large passenger plane that close to the building. Almost immediately upon me seeing it, the plane hit the building, ” he says. George works for the American Bureau of Shipping; its suite of offices was on the 91st floor, immediately to the left of the impact zone. It took George 50 minutes to descend the 91 flights to safety within a northern stairwell. He remains the highest survivor from the North Tower, no others from his floor (or above) survived Peter Field, the chairman and chief executive of Risk Waters Group Peter Field, the chairman and chief executive of Risk Waters Group, was scheduled to be at the Risk Waters conference that morning. He recalls, “I was up at about 6:30am to check my e-mail and phone the London office, intending to leave for the inaugural Waters Financial Technology Congress at the World Trade Center no later than 8:00 am. But I had trouble retrieving my e-mail and I decided to call our IT manager in London to get the problem sorted out. It was this simple act that probably saved my life. By the time Id accessed my e-mail, I was running late, eventually leaving my hotel on the Upper West Side at about 8:10am.?I ran across the road from my hotel to
Windows on the World Watch freelance. Originally published in the September 2011 issue. This story needed an ending before it could find its first sentence. So please forgive me for delivering it ten years overdue. Maybe it shouldn't have been so hard to write. Looking back, it had everything: merriment, adventure, and a journey to the top of the world. It contained a crash into ground zero on one of the darkest days in America's history and a search for fulfillment afterward. Yet for ten years, the words were trapped inside me and I couldn't get them out. We all know the feeling of wanting to do something so well and so badly that we try too hard and can't do it at all. In the end, though, there's no trick to being yourself. So I'm simply going to tell this story the way it happened. It started fourteen years ago, when a new editor was hired to guide Esquire. The magazine was in distress. You might find only a dozen pages of advertising in an issue, and most of them were pitching hair-replacement schemes and promises to resurrect lost sex drive. The new editor called upon a group of writers whom he'd assembled over the years to join him. He was on a mission to resurrect a great American magazine, and he wanted good ideas. One of mine was to become the Perfect Man. The concept was to identify the subjects every man should know, and then have experts in each field show me how to master them. I was certainly up for the task. The only reason I call myself the Perfect Man, I used to joke, is that I have so many flaws to correct. We all know the feeling of wanting to do something so well and so badly that we try too hard and can't do it at all. The idea turned into a monthly column, and what a blast it was. The legendary Jack LaLanne showed me how to get in shape and eat right. I learned how to project my voice from boxing announcer Michael Buffer; how to smoke ribs at the Jack Daniel's World Championship Invitational Barbecue; how to walk with grace from a Victoria's Secret model; how to prolong my orgasms from specialists in tantric sex. (My wife is eternally grateful. The last area I poked my nose into was wine. Wine makes a lot of men uncomfortable. It's not as if sweat would bubble above my upper lip every time a waiter handed me a wine list. But I always felt uncertain and small in those moments, especially if I was taking out a woman or hosting a group. It was much easier to crack open a beer and mock snooty wine drinkers for their full-bodied aromatic claptrap than it was to admit I didn't have a clue. But in wine, you pay for your ignorance. A haughty waiter can roll his eyes and make you feel smaller than a raisin. A fast-talking one can chump you into ordering a bottle that will launch the check into the stratosphere. Anyway, the editor generously sent me off to wine school to finalize my education in self-improvement. In return, I agreed to showcase what I learned by becoming the guy who recommends wine to diners at an upscale restaurant. The sommelier. Then I'd write a story that would show how, with a little effort, any man could feel comfortable around wine. The Windows on the World Wine School, the best in the city, was down the corridor from the famous restaurant by that name, at the top of the World Trade Center. The elevator took fifty-eight seconds to reach the 107th floor, and you could always tell who was taking the ride for the first time. Halfway up, everybody's stomach did the same sudden somersault, and the rookies would grasp in panic for support. and then return the smiles of the vets remembering their own first trip. The classroom was a ballroom filled with tables topped with columns of empty wineglasses. Everyone who entered wandered first to the long stretch of floor-to-ceiling windows. On a sunny day or moonlit night, the view of lower Manhattan from Windows on the World was like the first time you heard Frank Sinatra singing "New York, New York. It was amusing to look down at helicopters. Just thinking about the acrobat who once walked a three-quarter-inch steel cable between the tops of the Twin Towers made you wonder what wasn't possible. You had to hand it to the architect who envisioned that millions of people would travel millions of miles to dine some 1, 300 feet above sea level. For a time, no restaurant in the United States took in more money, and no restaurant on the planet sold more wine. Courtesy Kevin Zraly The guy who ran the wine school was, and still is, sort of a cross between a stand-up comic and Monty Hall from Let's Make a Deal. His name is Kevin Zraly. I could never describe all that Zraly passed on during this eight-week course in 1999. Time and a storm has eroded most of the memories. But a writer who prided himself on never keeping a diary once told me that "the good shit sticks. Nine years later, I'm left with what stuck. So here's a story that gets to Zraly's core: As a young man, Kevin was interviewed by the legendary restaurateur Joe Baum for the position of cellar master at Windows. Baum's first question was "So, Kevin, what can you tell me about wine? Now, that may appear to be a casual way to start an interview, but it's a terrifying question for an applicant who's depending on the answer to get a job. The question's too big. What possible answer is there? I like to drink it. Zraly replied. He knew how to shrink the complex to the simple?a good quality to have if you're going to introduce people to wine. For example, he'd point to the three major varieties of white wine?Riesling, sauvignon blanc, and chardonnay?and ask you to visualize them as skim milk, whole milk, and cream. Before you'd even tasted the wines, you had an idea of where they stood from light to heavy. Then he did the same for reds. Pinot noir: skim milk. Merlot: whole milk. Cabernet sauvignon: cream. With that information alone, you could go into a restaurant, order a thick sirloin, and know that it was wiser to muscle up to the steak with a hearty cabernet than a willowy Riesling. Classes passed quickly, and the wines that Zraly exposed us to began to work their magic. They encouraged us to go out and seek, to lose ourselves in a world that no one person could ever fully explore. In wine, you pay for your ignorance. The first day I got lost was a memorable one. April 20, 1999. When people who loved wine heard that I was attempting to become a sommelier, they immediately took me in as a long-lost brother. I had been invited to a wine-tasting lunch at the great restaurant Daniel, where eleven wines from Chateau Lagrange, in the French region of Bordeaux, were to be poured. One of the first things you need to know in order to function at a tasting is how to roll the wine around your mouth, spit it into a bucket, and define the flavors left behind. This allows you to discern the different styles and tastes without getting drunk. Unfortunately, novice that I was, I hadn't quite figured out how to spit and taste by the time of that lunch. So I drank all eleven glasses. Then, in a warm fog, I walked downtown to class at Windows on the World, where another dozen wines were poured, then drifted off to dinner with a winemaker, during which several more bottles were opened. It was like the best day of school you could imagine, when you also discover you have an enormous family that you never knew about. The Brotherhood of the Grape, someone called it. I learned, I laughed, I embraced. It was one of those days that end with you peeling off your clothes, lying down, and drifting off to sleep happy to be alive. And I did just that, completely oblivious to the fact that early that same day, twelve students and a teacher were gunned down at Columbine High School. Getty Images There's only one way to know which bottle of wine to order at a restaurant or buy for a friend: taste it. Problem is, how do you taste them all? Something like sixty-five hundred French wines alone can be purchased in the United States. Tens of thousands of labels are imported from Italy, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Hungary, Austria, New Zealand, South Africa, Greece, Argentina, and New Zealand. Wine is produced in all fifty states. Where would you start? There are good answers to this question. I was most impressed with the shortest: Vinexpo. Every other year in Bordeaux, winemakers from around the world pour their juice for more than fifty thousand buyers to sample. By brazenly promising to taste nearly every wine on the planet over a few short days, I wrangled some expense money from the editor and jetted off. My bravado evaporated the moment I stepped into the convention center and felt the bottom of my jaw dangling beneath my balls. I faced a hall that was?no exaggeration?a mile long and two football fields wide. I'm usually the type of guy who never says no unless you ask me if I've had enough. But this. was almost too much. I tasted, spit, and scribbled in a notepad as if I were one of the chosen few, the Jedi who could taste a wine blindfolded and tell you everything about it. But it wasn't long before I was lost in the maze. My first day would've ended without a memory of a single wine if I hadn't stumbled upon a man named Anthony Dias Blue. The pourers treated him as if he were a celebrity, because when Blue highlights a wine in the press, that label is elevated above tens of thousands of competitors. As I followed him around, I noticed that when certain pourers saw Blue, they reached under the table and pulled out bottles the rest of us weren't getting. I glued myself to his side and the pourers had no choice but to show good etiquette and fill my glass beside his. That was how I found out about La Turque, a wine made by Guigal in the Rhône region in France. Tasting a 400 wine when you've been cutting your teeth on 20 bottles will widen your eyes. But for me, this wine was bigger than that. La Turque opened my ears. It made me hear music. As I drank, Edith Piaf was singing "No Regrets" right out of that glass, and
It makes me sad to think about all those poor people on the top floors who had no chance of being rescued, that they had to choose between waiting and suffocating or to just jump out of a window. I would never be able to make a choice like that. May we always remember those who lost their lives that day.