Jane Amsterdam, the former Manhattan inc. editor who dropped out of the media whirl to drive horse carriages, has now been hired by Tina Brown of the New Yorker as a part-time editor. “At the moment, carriage driving is a lot harder to do than editing,” Amsterdam told the New York Observer, presumably while sharpening her quill pen. Meanwhile, the January 9 Home section of the New York Times carried the vital article “A Vision of Simplicity Is New Grist for the Mill,” which adds new depth to the esthetic limned two weeks ago in our article “The Liberal Gentry.”
Edward Wilson, a dentist, and Barry Salzman, a management consultant, have renovated an 18th-century gristmill. The windows have been enlarged to mammoth size. Antique fence posts have been converted into sconces. A 19th- century wood and iron shoe rack has been turned into a wine rack. New white parchment shades were soaked in water, baked, dried, crushed, and ironed to give them appropriate texture. New ceilings were made from 100-year-old barnwood, while fresh wood for the staircase was beaten with a hammer, five- pound iron ball, ice pick, tiles, and chains to give it the proper aged look. (The ice pick made fake wormholes.) No cliche has been left out. A Liberal Gentry shrine.
