16 | The Tribune | Weekend
Friday, June 30, 2017
celebrity The Weekend Fashion Report BET Awards 2017
FAIL
HIT
SPLIT
FAIL
SPLIT
Model Blac Chyna
Skai Jackson (”Bunk’d”)
WWE wrestler Sasha Banks
Jada Pinkett-Smith ”Gotham”
Karin says: “This is such a cute look! Only 15, but already rocking the red carpet. Her hair is beyond fab and I love the kiss lips pattern of the dress. It’s sheer, but it’s age appropriate.” Cara says: “Her hair is natural hair goals. Love it! This lip dress is so cute and retro looking, perfect for her hair. I think this is a great look.”
Karin says: “OK, my first thought was, she’s trying to look like a mermaid. The dress is cute, but it’s you’re basic little lace number we’ve seen hundreds of times. And the teal colour with the purple hair is a bit glaring.” Cara says: “Those legs go on forever! The dress is interesting and it’s pretty. I love her shoes and her purple hair looks great. So I am here for this outfit.”
Karin says: “Yeah, I’m not feeling this. The pulled back hair makes her features look more severe, and the tacky gold just looks old-fashioned. Maybe she was going for a retro look, but I doubt it.” Cara says: “I am wary of this fully sequined, shiny fabric trend, because I sometimes feel it makes people look like they are draped in tin foil or gift wrap paper. I don’t like it at all, especially with the 80s throwback shawl at the neck.”
Media personality Draya Michele
Karin says: “She looks like a shaved poodle. You know, the kind where they leave some puffs of fur at the ankles, the tail etcetera. Also, that belt is atrocious. It’s not in the least sexy like you hoped, Chyna.” Cara says: “There is always one person….What is this? I won’t even bother to explain how much I dislike this. Surely she just wore this as a joke.”
Karin says: “I’m not crazy about all the frilly tiers, but the pale yellow is lovely on her. And of course the cut shows off her...assets. This is a classic case of less is more. A sleeker waist would have made this dress a true standout.” Cara says: “Somewhere in the design process this dress missed the mark. I don’t know, I feel like it has a bit too much going on. The ruffles and trim at the waist, and then the straps and the ribbon...it just feels confusing. That yellow is stunning though.”
PHOTOS BY RICHARD SHOTWELL/INVISION/AP
With Karin Herig and Cara Hunt
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Friday, June 30, 2017
theatre
Return to ‘Sapodilla Street’ for fun at the polls By ALESHA CADET Tribune Features Writer acadet@tribunemedia.net
A
fter celebrating Christmas and attending church on Sapodilla Street, it is now time to head back to this fictional neighbourhood for a fun election season. Tamara Moncur and her team at After Dark Promotions are returning with the fourth instalment in the series, entitled “Polling Day on Sapodilla Street”, on July 9. The play will be put on at St John’s College Auditorium at 8pm. The Sapodilla Street theme has been a successful one for the group, who after staging the plays “Christmas on Sapodilla Street Parts 1 and 2” and “The Church on Sapodilla Street” are now planning to produce a TV sitcom for the Fall. “This is a major and exciting project and we hope to garner cooperate sponsors to assist in this venture. The inspiration behind this Sapodilla theme came about after I began to look more into our communities, listening to radio talk shows, watching the news and talking to people daily. I realised that Bahamians are naturally comedic without even trying. Therefore, I thought of a way to use everyday situations, events and practices to create possible funny outcomes based on a general Bahamian mindset. I see it as embracing our very unique culture, the good, the bad and the ugly,” Tamara told Tribune Weekend. The live musical dramedy “Polling Day on Sapodilla Street” focuses on the election campaign of a candidate running for the constituency of Sapodilla. According to Tamara, the candidate’s crafty actions and the community bias will soon have the people spouting the popular Bahamian phrase, “Well, muddasick”. There will be deals made, promises broken, back stabbing, gossiping, lying, and of course laughing.
The cast of “Polling Day on Sapodilla Street” is ready for their July 9 premiere. “Preparing for this production can best be described as hilarious. Working with such incredibly talented people is phenomenal and a good way to release stress after work. The actors are funny on and off the stage. This show is particularly awesome because we collaborated with Taylor Made, a voice and music school owned by Trevante and Tamika Taylor who are talented beyond measure. It’s going to be lit when Tamika Taylor is featured in the rally scene as our special music performer. We are also delighted to have collaborated with Kenyatta Taylor who is known for the hit song ‘Brand New World’ among others. Combined with the musical talents of Calvin Parker and the After Dark singers Raquel “Kelly” Pinder and Holman McDonald, this show is one you don’t want to miss,” said Tamara.
Cast members also include Tiffany Aranha as Senator Lorraine Whitehead; Fabia Rolle as Beulah; Dellarease Rolle as Pearl; Carla Sands as Dra’Quilla; Kevin McPhee as Joe; Kencil McPhee as Wille; Jenson Rolle as Sylvester “Sly” Fox; Trevante Taylor as Richard “Rich” Deal; Jai-le Simmons as Hennessy; Tiara Josie as Victoria Darling, Franco Moncur as Hezi, and Tamara herself as Prophetess Josie. The singers and musicians include Calvin Parker, Aris Flowers, Tamia Graham, Kyla Rolle, Nathan Boyd, Dezaria McKenzie, Micheal Zonicle, Rudolf Wilson, Erin Hepburn, Tamika Taylor, Luvonne Wilson, Ashely Smith and Gia Smith. “Our motto suggests our overall goal, which is changing our community one laugh at a time. It is important for
me to write, produce and direct a show like this because it allows me utilise my talent, seek and expose the talent of others, and present a family-friendly comedy show to the public at large. The ‘Sapodilla Street’ series of shows is the beginning to my ultimate vision of employing singers, dancers, musicians, artists and actors/actresses to apart of a bigger vision,” said Tamara. “Polling Day on Sapodilla Street” tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for children at the door. Tickets can also be purchased at the following locations: Lil Mustard Seed Healthy Café on Mount Royal Avenue; GQ Diplomat Barber & Beauty Salon on the Top of the Hill, Mackey Street; SunTime Bahamas at the Mall at Marathon, and via WhatsApp at 466-7996 or 467-4738.
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film
review
‘Baby Driver’ is a toetapping, enginerevving jolt BABY DRIVER RUNNING TIME: 113 MINS
T
here’s nothing like an epic getaway chase to kick a movie into high gear, and the first five minutes of “Baby Driver” are pure movie magic. A driver named Baby (Ansel Elgort) sits coolly in a car — black Ray-Ban style shades on his face, earbud headphones in place and a jacket that’s, fittingly, somewhere between Ferris Bueller and Han Solo. His tough-looking passengers (Jon Hamm, Eiza Gonzalez and Jon Bernthal) exit with comical menace, assault weapons in hand. Baby sits back, cranks up “Bellbottoms” by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and air guitars his way through the sequence while the others rob a bank and exit in a hurry. That’s when things really get going as Baby steps on the gas and maneuvers away from the cops with heart-pounding, exhilarating polish. It’s a car chase for the ages. It should be no surprise then that what comes after doesn’t quite live up to that initial jolt of adrenaline. Nor should it, really — it would be brutal to sustain something like that for the duration of a film (and we already have “Mad Max: Fury Road”). Director and writer Edgar Wright crafts a slick, stylish and wholly original action epic with “Baby Driver,” which is both as good as anything you’re bound to see in theaters this summer and a bit of a drop-off from the incredibly high bar that Wright has
Baby (ANSEL ELGORT) helps Debora (LILY JAMES) do her laundry as they dance around each other and kiss in “Baby Driver”. proven himself capable of hitting. It’s about an outlaw kid with a good heart who’s at a crossroads. Some youthful indiscretions in Atlanta put Baby in debt to a big-time criminal orchestrator, Doc, played by a perfectly over-the-top Kevin Spacey. Baby’s been doing the dirty work of driving
Doc’s baddies ever since. Will he stay bad, opt for a life on the straight and narrow, or is it too late to even make a decision? We meet Baby two jobs away from being in the clear. To outsiders, he’s an odd duck. He doesn’t say much, ever, and he always has a pair of head-
phones in his ears. But this isn’t just any aloof millennial. The headphones and omnipresent soundtrack are there for a reason: Baby’s got tinnitus and the music helps drown out the “hum in the drum” as Doc explains in his quick clipped paperback noir way. The only people he engages with are his guardian, Joseph (CJ Jones), who is wheelchair-bound and deaf and whom Baby takes care of, and the waitress of Baby’s dreams, Debora (Lily James), whom he meets when she breezes into the throwback diner singing Carla Thomas’ “B-A-B-Y” to herself. They talk and flirt and fall for each other and wax poetic about heading west on I-20 in a car they can’t afford with plans they don’t have. It’s then that you know things have to start going downhill for our getaway driver. With freedom in sight, his cool is cracking, and things really go sideways when he gets paired up with Bats (a manic Jamie Foxx), who is as crazy as name suggests, on a few runs. “Baby Driver” is a swerve into seriousness for Wright, who has given us some of the most gleefully witty genre send-ups of this century, and it is missing some of that crackling Simon Pegg humour. LINDSEY BAHR AP Film Writer
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Friday, June 30, 2017
gardening
National plants Cuba is famous for its cigars, the Netherlands for their tulips, and Brazil for its nuts. Yet, when you take a closer look, Jack Hardy says you might find that these and other countries, including the Bahamas, have many other claims to fame when it comes to plants and related products
T
he Bahamas has its national tree and national flower, and I think all countries have these and other emblems. It turns out, however, that plants and plant products
The bark from the indigenous cascarilla shrub can be used for making bitters. associated with certain countries are often nothing to do with their national emblems. For example, the shamrock represents Ireland but it is the humble potato we call Irish. Akee is part of the national dish of Jamaica but three other plants are known world-wide as ‘Jamaican’. Jamaican ginger has long had the reputation of being the world’s most pungent and Jamaican allspice (pimiento) the world’s most redolent. Do I really have to tell you what the third plant is? Were I to mention Bermuda most people would think of the Triangle and shorts, but Bermuda was once famous for its onions. The islands are the nearest warm area to New York and were able to export onions earliest every season. I do not think Bermuda onions were superior in any way but were important to the Bermuda economy. Let’s take a trip to Europe for some examples. The Netherlands? The response must surely be Dutch tulips even though tulips originated in Turkey. Italy? Of all the great food in the country’s rich cuisine it is the distinctive paste tomato that gets called Italian, though it should be noted that Italian parsley also fits the bill. Hungary? That would be the peppers that are dried to produce Hungarian paprika. We call our hamburger side French fries even though it was the Belgians that originated this way of cooking potatoes. We also have French mustard (as distinct from French’s mustard) and the somewhat stronger English
mustard. Closer to home we have Cuba and its cigars, yet the finest cigar I have ever smoked was a Davidoff from Switzerland. I hasten to add that Davidoff cigars are made under licence from Cuban-grown tobacco. The flower associated with Switzerland is edelweiss but gardeners all over the world plant Swiss chard in their vegetable plots. The best cacao, hence the finest chocolate, comes from Peru but we are more likely to encounter Swiss chocolate than Peruvian even though cacao does not grow in Switzerland. The processing of plants and plant products often occurs thousands of miles from where the plants are grown. This started as a by-product of colonialism and is now continued by multinational conglomerates. Let’s take coffee. There’s an awful lot of coffee in Brazil – and Kenya, Hawaii, Colombia and many other places. Yet when you buy coffee you often see French roast, the style of preparation. Turkish coffee does not come from Turkey but is again a form of presentation. It is interesting to note that Americans often call coffee Java, not a country but part of Indonesia. Brazil is the world’s leading producer of oranges by far yet the eponymous nut carries the country’s name. Brazil nuts are usually encountered at Christmas time in bags of mixed nuts needing nutcrackers to open them. Brazil nuts resist cultivation and have been traditionally harvested by foraging, thereby
providing a source of income for indigenous Brazilians. The over-harvesting of nuts has led to a world-wide shortage because Brazil nut trees take a long time to grow and bear fruit. The nuts are contained in capsules about the size of a softball and each nut is packed inside like the segments of an orange. It is interesting to note that Bolivia produces more Brazil nuts every year than Brazil. Mexico is known for its tequila and mescal – both plant products – but over the years has mostly been associated with beans, particularly the infamous Mexican jumping beans. If we did have a national plant separate from tree or flower I feel there would be only one obvious choice for The Bahamas. The Italian cordial Campari uses the bark of Bahamian cascarilla to provide bitterness. Go to an encyclopaedia to search plant origins and you will find The Bahamas mentioned once – for cascarilla. It is the one plant that is unique to our country, yet because it is not a tree and does not bear pretty flowers it is not one of our national symbols. Perhaps Fr. Sebastian Campbell could rattle the cage here. Cascarilla (Croton eluteria) is found throughout the Bahamas, particularly the southern islands. It is a small shrub that can grow to 20 feet in ideal conditions but is usually much smaller. The scanty lanceolate leaves are two inches long and small scented white flowers are produced in early spring. The commercial part of the plant is its bark, yellowish-brown and containing up to three per cent volatile oils of a complex mixture. The bark is harvested for export without harming the shrub. There is a burgeoning interest in the use of bitters which are no longer the sole province of expert cocktail mixers. Angostura bitters from Trinidad and Tobago is one of the most popular and the manufacturers also feature orange bitters. Potions containing bitters are often used as a tonic or hangover remedy. If the Bahamas is ever to reach its economic potential we will have to stop merely selling raw materials to factors and develop them for both home use and export. Perhaps a chemist and a cook could get together to create and copyright a bitters concoction from cascarilla extracts. “Vodka and tonic with a dash of Bahamas bitters, please.” That has a nice ring to it. • For questions and comments e-mail j.hardy@coralwave.com
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photography Roderick Smith by Alessandro Sarno
Bahamian Project shines a light on ‘raw gems’ New exhibit to reveal latest additions By CARA HUNT cbrennen@tribunemedia.net
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he Bahamian Project is set to unveil the latest additions to its national portrait collection with a new exhibit of 50 photos representing a cross section of persons from all walks of Bahamian life. ‘The Bright Lights and Raw Gems’ exhibit opens next week at the Central Bank of the Bahamas’ Art Gallery. It will represent the works of 21 photographers
Lia Head and Gina Knowles (HeadKnowles) by Ben Jamieson
who donated their time and talents to photograph the selected subjects. The Bahamian Project seeks to build a permanent collection of photographs that provide recognition, foster cultural awareness and create a record of the people who form the heart and soul of the nation. Eventually it is hoped that the portraits can be housed and displayed in a permanent national portrait museum. Duke Wells, the project’s co-founder and creative director, told Tribune Weekend that they are delighted with the end results that will be unveiled next week. “It is very much a cross section of Bahamian society. We have young people, old people, rich, poor, black and white,” he said. While only the newest 50 photos will
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“...people often see photography as a service and not an art form, and some of that is because of a lack of exposure. But it is important that Bahamians are aware that there are multiple platforms for creativity, and photography is included in that.” be on display due to space constraints, all of the portraits which have been completed will be shown on a flat screen during the exhibit as well. To date, more than 130 portraits have been completed. “But we have only really just began to scratch the surface of subjects,” said Mr Wells. He noted that for logistical reasons the project has been very Nassau-centric up until this point, but now that more photographers have become interested in the endeavour he hopes they can branch out into the Family Islands. Participating photographer Melissa Alcena said she was drawn to the project because she wanted to showcase how photography is truly an art form. She photographed John Deleveaux, a tourism official instrumental in coining the phrased ‘It’s Better in the Bahamas’, and Jolyon Smith who created the tree sculpture at the Lynden Pindling International Airport. “I think that people often see photography as a service and not an art form, and some of that is because of a lack of exposure. But it is important that Bahamians are aware that there are multiple platforms for creativity,
Arlene Nash-Ferguson by Guilden Gilbert
Errington Watkins by Duke Wells
and photography is included in that. I still think that Junkanoo is considered the biggest form of cultural expression in the country, but we want to tell the woman or man who takes photos that they are an artist as well,” she said. Ms Alcena said that her approach to capturing the essence of her subjects is to just let them be themselves. When she shot Mr Smith, for example, she said that he actually took off his shoes and climbed barefoot into his tree sculpture. “The airport security actually came over because they had heard that there was this crazy man who was barefoot in the tree,” she said. Guilden Gilbert is one of the photographers who has shot the most portraits for the project. To date, he has photographed John Cox, Nick Dean, Patricia Glinton-Meicholas, Arlene Nash-Ferguson, Raymond Tucker, Patrick Rahming and Edith Powell. What drew him to the
project is its historical component. He explained that in 1940 his father was one of 50 marines who travelled from Bermuda to Portsmouth, England, for the Royal Naval Dockyard. He was the youngest apprentice in the programme and it was stopped before many of them were documented. However, Mr Gilbert noted that because he always took photographs of his father, upon his death they had a full documentation of his life. “My children will now be able to know their grandfather through the photos of him and that is what a portrait is; it is a snapshot of a particular time,” said Mr Gilbert said that he also allowed his subjects to dictate their photo shoot. “You sit with them and chat with them and then you are able to figure out their personality and make them as comfortable as possible,” he explained. The exhibition opens on Thursday, July 6, at 6pm and is open to the general public.
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literary lives pat cavendish o’neill
The tumultuous life of an heiress and animal lover (Part I of III) Sir Christopher Ondaatje examines the life of an heiress who couldn’t say “no” and sacrificed everything for her love of wild animals, about which she wrote two bestselling books.
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at Cavendish O’Neill was born into a world of enormous riches, eccentricity and intrigue. Her mother Enid Lindeman of the wealthy and powerful Australian wine family was a world-famous beauty who married four times. Two husbands were multi-millionaires, two had titles, and all died after relatively short relationships. Somerset Maugham, a nearby neighbour in the South of France referred to her mother as “Lady Killmore”. Indeed Pat Cavendish O’Neill has said of her mother: “I often wonder if Mummy was ever really in love with any man. She loved
their company and her whole life was centred on pleasing men but she certainly never remained faithful to any of them. Five lovers committed suicide over her; I imagine they were not able to take the strain. They also chose the most spectacular deaths.” Franz Meissner, an Australian scientist, blew himself up. Another lover threw himself under Le Train Bleu, the luxury train that ran between Paris and the South of France. Another besotted man leapt overboard on a ship he and Lady Furness were travelling on to Australia – leaving a pathetic suicide note of eternal devotion. Pat Cavendish O’Neill’s best-selling book ‘A Lion in the Bedroom’ is full of extraordinary stories about her mother. She met her first husband Roderick Cameron, an American who owned the R L Cameron shipping line, when she was 19 years old but was prevented from marrying him for two years. Cameron took his young bride to the United States but died a year later leaving his young widow with a fortune of several million pounds and a nine-month-old baby – O’Neill’s half-brother Roderick or “Rory”. She then had affairs with the American financier Bernard Baruch and Walter Wilson, a director of the White City greyhound racing stadium in London. Frederick “Caviar” Cavendish was her next husband. He was a good looking cavalry officer and a 10-goal polo player – but he had only his army pay to support himself. They married in 1917 and after the war Cameron, Pat O’Neill’s father, was given command of the 9th Lancers in Egypt. The Colonel’s young wife could ride as well as any of the cavalry officers and it was suspected that she slept with most of them. Pat Cavendish O’Neill was born on 30 June 1925, and her young brother Caryll 15 months later. She has dim memories of those early days in London and in Egypt but remembers that Egypt was one of the best times of their lives. It was beautiful and there were parties and polo and everyone was very nice to them. When the Colonel died of a cerebral haemorrhage in 1931 O’Neill was only six years old. She did not remember
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Pat’s mother, Enid Lindeman, dazzled men and incited passion. him very well but knew him to have been a fearless officer who loved the good life. As he had married a rich young and generous woman he was able to indulge in strings of polo ponies, hunters and all the other things his heart desired, so he ignored her infidelities. O’Neill’s mother next married the fabulously wealthy Marmaduke “Duke” Furness in August 1933. He was reputed to be one of the world’s richest men. His father, a shipbuilder, had left a good business behind and an estate worth around £113 million. He had been knighted and then made a baron in 1910. “Duke” was also successful at business, selling the Furness-Withy shipping company but keeping his interest in coal, steel and banking. He also advised the American shipbuilding industry for which he was created Viscount Furness in 1918. He could not bear any other man having contact with his wife. One lover, Peter Coats, a garden designer, left her his fortune - but she refused it. Captain Walter Wilson, Pat O’Neill’s godfather, also left her his fortune with the intent that it would eventually come to his goddaughter. Again she refused and instructed lawyers to re-direct the money to the woman he was living with before he died. She seemed to spend a great deal of her time with lawyers reversing the outcome of wills. Because the wealthy and jealous Furness resented the fact that he had married a
Roderick Cameron, a shipbroking millionaire from New York, became Enid’s first husband.
Enid with her third husband, Lord Marmaduke “Duke” Furness. He was reputed to be one of the world’s richest men.
very rich widow and wanted the money to come from him instead she signed her entire Cameron fortune over to her first son Rory, making him a very wealthy independent young man in his own right. She was a chameleon devoting herself to whichever man was in her life at the time. Viscount Furness had met Enid Cavendish in the Casino at Le Touquet, and instantly fell in love. He arranged for an introduction, following which flowers and jewellery would be sent – only to be returned immediately. Back in London he took her to The Savoy for dinner and their love affair began. “From then on my mother could have virtually anything she wanted ... Furness had a steam yacht to go around the world. His first wife Daisy had died in 1921 during one of these voyages. There was always a doctor on board and a fully equipped hospital, but at the time of her death they were somewhere far out from shore. Daisy was buried at sea, which caused quite a scandal at the time; the on dit was that the burial had been unseemingly quick because Furness had really given her an overdose.” Apart from the yachts, Furness later acquired a private plane and a personal pilot. He also had private train carriages and a Rolls Royce. He had an obsession for neatness. He lived at Burrough Court in the country and in London. The livery of the Furness footmen was plum knee breeches with yellow stockings for evening wear and long plum-coloured trousers for day wear. The children were expected to keep out of the way. Furness was famous for his foul language, his temper, and his drinking. Furness had three children – two with his first wife Daisy, and one younger son by his second wife Thelma whom he referred to as “the bastard”. Furness would have nothing to do with him because he was rumoured to be the Prince of Wales’s bastard. Foolishly Thelma Furness had introduced the Prince to her great friend Wallis Simpson. The rest of the story became a cause célèbre. Marmaduke Furness and his third wife would spend three or four months every year in Kenya on safari. Both Lady Furness and her daughter were teetotallers, but Furness was known as “Champagne Lordy” and consumed huge amounts of alcohol. A jealous man, he wanted when possible to keep his beautiful wife to himself. A Furness safari was like no other. Two Rolls-Royces were fitted out with pull-out bars,
Continued on page 24
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Continued from page 23 and the chauffeurs wore cockaded white caps and white dustcoats. Grouse or salmon or whatever was in season was flown out to replenish supplies. The year before the war, 1938, saw the last of these safaris. It was only weeks before England went to war with Germany that Furness bought the Villa La Fiorentina in St Jean Cap Ferrat in the South of France. Not content with this huge Florentine-style mansion, he bought all the neighbouring houses as well. Presumably this was to keep would-be lovers away from his beautiful wife. The war was going very badly for England. There was always a terrible shortage of food – despite all the luxury. Also Furness by now was very frail and kept to his room. There were daily visits from the doctor. They could feel the presence of the Germans even though they were in Vichy France or what was called the Free Zone. Furness had a night and day nurse, and demanded constant attention. A few days after the fall of Paris England organised a refugee ship to bring all the British citizens home from the South of France. It would be the last chance to escape from France. Anyone left behind would almost certainly end up in a concentration camp. Despite Furness’s ill health they would have to risk the journey. Furness was carried into his Rolls Royce by the butler and one of the footmen. Arriving at the pier, piled high with luggage and desperate people, terrified of being left behind, Furness refused to go, saying that it was simply a cargo boat. He was given a morphine injection to calm him down. So they returned to Fiorentina. Whatever happened then nobody really knows – but Furness, who was suffering from cirrhosis of the liver, died during the night of October 5, 1940. Lady Furness and her children stayed on in Fiorentina for a few months but eventually had to make the nightmare journey in a crowded train across the border into Spain and finally to Portugal where the British Embassy organised a flying boat that flew them from Lisbon to England. They arrived back in London in 1942 and stayed in Claridges while the Furness townhouse in Lees Place off Grosvenor Place was made ready. But life wasn’t easy. There were constant blackouts, very little rationed food, and the Germans were bombing London constantly. Churchill and Anthony Eden made several visits, questioning
Pat with Hollywood star Gary Cooper.
“Franz Meissner, an Australian scientist, blew himself up. Another lover threw himself under Le Train Bleu, the luxury train that ran between Paris and the South of France. Another besotted man leapt overboard on a ship he and Lady Furness were travelling on to Australia – leaving a pathetic suicide note of eternal devotion.” her mother about the situation in the South of France and the prisoners there. Lady Furness must have been one of the last Englishwomen to leave the country – Patricia O’Neill was then only 17 years old. She was slim and beautiful and always made heads turn. But there were serious problems. “Thelma Furness, Duke’s second wife, was determined to get her hands on the Furness fortune. She was now a
thoroughly embittered woman, having lost a fantastically wealthy husband as well as her Royal lover, and she was determined on vengeance. Prior to the war, morphine was the panacea for all excessive pain and freely administered by doctors. Furness had become addicted and Thelma thought she could prove that Mummy had kept Furness drugged and got him to change his will, cutting out her son Tony. The gossip
turned that into a story about Mummy actually administering a fatal overdose of the drug. She even produced an affidavit signed by one of the nurses who had been with us in France. Thelma engaged the services of one of the most famous barristers in England, Sir Walter Monkton, to represent Tony and her interests. An equally famous defence counsel, Sir Patrick Hastings, was to represent my mother ... “ These actions tied up Lady Furness’s inheritance and she had to borrow money against it to finance her household. Bernard Baruch, Pat O’Neill’s godfather, helped but it was serious financial strain. Some time later however it was discovered that the nurse who was Thelma Furness’s witness had been bribed, and the case was dropped. The way was then clear for Lady Furness to inherit the Furness fortune and houses which in today’s money was worth about £150 million – although, in an out of court settlement, Thelma Furness’s son did receive a considerable sum. It was a nasty business. The beautiful and alluring Lady Furness did continue to have lovers and boyfriends, but it was not until January 1943 that she married Valentine Castlerosse, the Earl of Kenmare, a former boyfriend. Castlerosse was a splendid figure of the 1930s and 1940s – a hero in World War I where he almost lost an arm. He was a very tall and large gentleman – a dilettante, a gambler, a reckless spender, a lover of women and a great wit. Lord Beaverbrook, who owned The Daily Express and The Evening Standard eventually convinced him to put his talents to good use and to write a column Londoner’s Fog for his newspapers. There now began a constant procession of lunches and dinner parties at Lees Place in London. “Castlerosse entertained an endless list of petrified people. He had a mind like a rapier and would fix his little cold eyes on some unfortunate guest and make him or her the butt of his satirical humour ... But everyone adored him and his friends kept coming back for more; they seemed to enjoy the sport.” At the time Castlerosse was writing a biography of Tolstoy. He and his new wife didn’t seem to have much in common except for a passion for golf. They had been lovers during the First World War and he was furious when she chose to marry Furness. He owned the vast estate of Killarney, including the lakes, and what was left of the original Castle Rosse – a romantic
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Friday, June 30, 2017
Forgotten facts Paul C Aranha tower crumbling into the lake like a dejected lover. Now that he had married a woman who had inherited an enormous fortune he persuaded her to let him make the most of it. His great ambition was to build the best golf course in the world on the banks of the Killarney Lakes and they both set about creating a resort that would bring tourists to the Castlerosse estate. One evening in London Patricia O’Neill recalls, Castlerosse had gone to his club in London, and she had gone with her mother and young brother to a film at Leicester Square and then dinner at the Savoy. As they drew up to their London flat they could hear, despite the blackout, Castlerosse screaming with rage and could see objects being hurled out of the window. “I followed Mummy as she rushed upstairs. Chairs and tables had been thrown everywhere and were lying in pieces. Castlerosse was in the Sitting Room like an enraged elephant. He screamed, ‘You whore!’ and as we entered hurled the chair that was in his hand at my mother... She had ducked from the chair and was leaning against the wall, laughing. ‘I might be a whore,’ she declared, ‘but it seems to me that I am the one paying for our servicing.’ ‘Who is he? I am going to kill that SOB. I am not fathering someone else’s bastard.’ “ It was the first time that the young Pat O’Neill had realised that her mother was pregnant – which was true. In between her laughter she managed to calm him down and warned him that if he kept this up he would have a massive coronary and the child would never see its father. Castlerosse did have a bad heart and the doctor had warned him about it, recommending that he go for walks every day – which he reluctantly did. That year, 1943, when Pat O’Neill celebrated her 18th birthday, they had a wonderful summer in Ireland after which she returned to London with her mother. Two days later they heard that Castlerosse had been found dead on the floor beside his bed in Ireland. It was a bitter blow to her mother who had once more lost a husband and her security. As a painful coda to this sad loss Lady Kenmare was convinced that she would not keep Castlerosse’s child, not only because it was dangerous at her age (she was now 51) but also that she would not be able to raise a child in
the Catholic faith. She chose to have an abortion. Tragically, the child was a boy. Lady Kenmare was the last to bear the name of Kenmare. Pat Cavendish O’Neill had an usually close relationship with her mother – which continued during her life and which she wrote about in her first best-selling biography ‘A Lion in the Bedroom’ published in 2004. When she was 18 she worked in the British Embassy in London, and then with the US Air Force in Orly, France. She stayed in Paris with her Aunt Mimi, who had been married to her father’s brother Henry Cavendish, but within six months was back with her family in the South of France where her elder brother Rory undertook the restoration of La Fiorentina. The villa had been used as a German headquarters. Underground blockhouses and gun emplacements had been blown up when they left, together with part of La Fiorentina. It was a huge job. While this was being done Lady Kenmare rented the magnificent La Leopolda overlooking the bay of Beaulieu. Back in Fiorentina in the South of France they entertained lavishly. Princess Ashraf of Iran; Prince Pierre de Polignac (another of her mother’s lovers); Prince Rainier (before he married Grace Kelly); the Mitford sisters; the actress Claudette Colbert, Somerset Maugham, who lived nearby in La Mauresque; Fred Astaire, Greta Garbo, and Frank Sinatra. The Fiat magnate Giani Agnelli eventually bought La Leopolda before it was purchased by the banker Edmund J. Safra, who was murdered in his Monte Carlo flat. From the South of France the family travelled everywhere – one wonderful country after another: the pyramids and the Nile in Egypt; India and the Taj Mahal; Florence, Venice and Rome in Italy, Mexico and Guatemala; even the outback of Australia. There was plenty of money – and they spent it. They returned to London; and took the Queen Elizabeth to New York – always travelling first class – and then to Nassau in the Bahamas. NEXT WEEK: Pat Cavendish O’Neill continued • Sir Christopher Ondaatje is an adventurer and writer resident in the Bahamas. A Sri Lankan-born Canadian-Englishman, he is the author of several books, including “The Last Colonial”.
The headline from The Miami Herald on November 23, 1963
Total recall
W
here were you, when ... John F Kennedy was assassinated? My wife came upon a treasured copy of the Miami Herald of Saturday, November 23, 1963, and posted a picture of the front page on Facebook. Within minutes she was inundated with positive responses. It seems that everybody remembers where they were and what they were doing. In 1963, I joined Bahamas Airways as a first officer, and the November 22nd entry in my pilot’s log book records that Captain Dick Williams and I operated flight BH322 from West End, Grand Bahama, to Miami International Airport, in VP-BBR, a Douglas DC-3. The flight took 50 minutes. In those days, co-pilots sat in the left seat whenever the captain allowed them to handle the controls. This was one of the times when I was doing the flying. After we passed abeam Bimini and were talking with Miami Approach Control, we were cleared to make an approach to runway 27 right. Because this runway did not have an ILS approach, the best way to find it was to tune our Automatic Direction Finder
(ADF) to the CBS broadcast station WQAM, 560 on the radio dial, and let the ADF needle point you to WQAM’s transmitting antenna, which was directly in line with the runway. Before following the needle, however, it was essential to make sure the ADF was correctly tuned to the chosen station, and not to some other nearby frequency. DC-3s are known to be noisy and pilots’ headphones were not yet capable of cancelling out extraneous noise, so tuning in WQAM required a lot of fiddling and fine-tuning, but I managed to hear that someone had been shot in Dallas. I told Capt Williams what I had heard and I can still hear him say “Oh my God! That’s where Kennedy is”. Once in Miami, after clearing Immigration and Customs, the three crew members walked half the length of the terminal to get to our departure gate, hardly able to believe our eyes. It was as if time had stopped. No one seemed to be moving. They were crowded in front of any store that had television sets. • Comments and responses to islandairman@gmail.com
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Cancer June 22 – July 23
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Capricorn Dec 22 – Jan 20
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You’ve always enjoyed working with Don’t be insulted when someone 26 The Tribune Weekend your hands. Take some time out of your busy who is younger offers to teach you a skill. By schedule to bake, garden or paint. Having a allowing this teacher to take you under their creative outlet makes it easier to cope with wing, you’ll learn a great deal. Expanding daily stress. It’s easier to talk to an annoying your knowledge will boost your confidence. Best described as a number crossword, the task in Kakuro after exercising your imagination. beisa alifelong pursuit.puzzle based colleague Sudoku number-placing on a 9x9 grid is to fill all of the empty squares, using numbersLearning 1 to 9, so should
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the sum of each horizontal block equals the number to its left, and the sum of each vertical block equals the number on its top. No number may be used in the same block more than once. The difficulty level of the Conceptis Kakuro increases from Monday to Sunday.
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Leo July 24 – Aug 23
You make a good impression on other people. This is a good time to make a presentation. Don’t gloss over the details. Lay out a step-by-step case for why your will work. Don’t get nervous when You’veidea always enjoyed working with someone questions your assertions.
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Aquarius Jan 21 – Feb 19
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0905 789 3711**
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Pisces Feb 20 – Mar 20
Putting yourself on a regular schedule will make your productivity soar. You prefer going with the flow but this caused important jobs to fail. By devoting a few hours each day to tackle chores, you’ll have more time for the activities you love.
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**Calls cost 80p per minute plus your telephone company’s network access charge – maximum of five minutes duration. You must be over 18 and have the bill payer’s permission. Service Provider: Spoke. Helpline: 0333 202 3390.
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*SP: Spoke – Helpline 0333 202 3390
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Extra letter clues
0907 181 2560
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Full solution
0907 181 2558
*Calls cost 80p per minute plus your telephone company network access charge.
PLAY MORE CR
The Tribune | Weekend | 27
Friday, June 30, 2017
animals Animal matters Kim Aranha
Mom of nine says: spay and neuter your pets!
PET OF THE WEEK
By The Bahamas Humane Society
“H
won’t be producing more puppies. It’s hard to find homes on this tiny island. Right now, the BHS is having a dog/puppy adoption special where dogs like me can be adopted for $5 (trade in your Starbucks latte for a bundle of furry love!) and puppies for $25 (less than a tank of gas). You can see photos of some of the available adoption animals at the Facebook page or you can come in to the shelter. Adoption hours are 11am to 4pm, Monday to Friday, and 10am to 4pm on Saturday. You can also call 323-5138 for more information. The adoption dogs and pups look forward to meeting you. Please remember to spay and neuter your pets! Thank you!”
– a sensory overload for this island girl who loves nature and the beauty of it. Our last stop before the airport hotel in Heathrow was at my youngest son’s godmother who lives in the small and appealing village of Pewsey in Wiltshire. Driving to her was interesting indeed, down narrow roads, boarded on both sides by hedges and fields, barely wide enough for our rental car, and these country roads were for two-way traffic! Going around tight corners was not for the fainthearted, for sure., however, everybody was very well mannered and British. When two cars heading in opposite directions came to an impasse, one would back up to a slightly wider spot on the side and pull in, enabling the other car to pass, with affable nods to each other. Plum Tree Cottage is situated on a quiet little road that leads to the forest with a garden at the back that goes
up a gentle little hill. Vicky and Curly Haskell call this home, and how lucky they are! Everybody passing by knows each other, even the dogs heading out for an evening walk in the fields seam to know everybody. Shortly after our arrival I was introduced to “the girls”. Out in their garden were three very well behaved brown hens: Bonnie, Florrie and Thomasina. I was quite intrigued with the process of name selection. It turns out that the girls have been named after Vicki’s niece and two nephews: Bonar, Florence, Thomas. The girls are Gingernut Rangers. They are cousins to the Rhode Island Red chicken. They know when it is mealtime and cluck around where they are usually fed. They also know that the kitchen door leads to unexpected treats that are kept in a container on the kitchen counter by the door, and
PHOTO/SHELLEY HARDMAN
ello! My name is Erin. I’m a fluffy potcake, about a year and a half old. I’m not actually up for adoption at the moment, so you may think I’m an unusual choice for Pet of the Week. As you can see, I’m very busy with my nine puppies. My back story is more common than you might think. I had a home, you see. But my owners moved away and left me at the house, pregnant. I was very fortunate that some kind neighbours looked after me until I had my pups, at which point the neighbours decided that it was a lot of work so they brought me in to the Bahamas Humane Society to be cared for while my puppies grow up and can be adopted. “At that point, I will be spayed so there will be no more puppies for me. The BHS is a very busy place, I’ve found! They have over 300 adoption animals and there seem to be more every day. Please, if you have a dog or cat, have it spayed or neutered! In the long run, we’re healthier and in the short run we
Vicky Haskell with “the girls” – Bonnie, Florrie and Thomasina.
Three hens called “the girls”
I
am still reeling from the wonderful vacation we had in Europe last month. During our three weeks over on the other side of the Atlantic I saw and learned so many different and interesting things to do with animals and the environment. During our wanderings around the English countryside we visited many beautiful places, homes of friends and family; lots of super friendly dogs and flowers, gardens, water features, ducks, birds, horses on farms, sheep grazing
these girls are as bright as pennies. The only leftovers they are allowed are fruits and vegetables. To watch them tackle leftover watermelon rind was quite a spectacle. They were quite confused when their heads got splashed with the watermelon juice, but joyous all the same. These industrious girls lay an average of one egg each a day, which is actually more than Vicki and Curley need. I was amazed how affectionate these hens were. They would come readily for a head scratch and stay clucking happily for as long as affection was being doled out. Vicki found that they got bored easily so she has purchased a chicken toy, which is much like a KONG toy for dogs. Made of durable rubber, you put food inside and the chicken has to manipulate the toy around to get the food to come out. It provides them with hours of entertainment. If a hen is happy it lays more eggs. I have quite a few friends here in Nassau who keep their own pet chickens and have wonderful fresh eggs daily. They tell me that they simply can’t imagine how they ever enjoyed eggs before. I must admit that I noticed at Vicki’s house that the soft-boiled egg I had for breakfast tasted very different from the ones I buy here at the store. I have no idea how long those eggs sit in their Styrofoam boxes. Why can’t they be in biodegradable cardboard egg boxes anyway? The total surprise for me was how these chickens were regarded as family pets. They came when called, they looked for affection, they were smart and funny… and clearly give a lot of pleasure to Vicki and Curley. I have enjoyed photos on Facebook of some of my Nassau friends with their chickens sitting on their children’s lap; just too sweet. Sadly, quite a few gated communities have a ban on any farm animals and clearly the chicken fits into that category. Also, if you have a dog, you might be courting disaster as many dogs, particularly potcakes, do not take kindly to chickens or other birds around the garden. We have a few friendly pigeons around here and Boss and Chief spend their time sending them on their way up the trees. It was indeed a great pleasure making friends with Bonnie, Florrie and Thomasina. And I look forward to enjoying their delicious eggs again one day.
28 | The Tribune | Weekend
Friday, June 30, 2017
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