The six Saturdays of the polo matches in Bridgehampton are more than just sports. Viewers sip champagne or Stoli cocktails, munching on popped potato chips and mini-Crumbs cupcakes, and mill around looking for A-listers. Yesterday, some actually attended to the players: Black Watch vs. Great Oaks, while I chatted with John Gruen of Optyx, one of the sponsors, who is so kind and clever, an artist in the eye glass world, and, wanting to upgrade the shades I bought at Loehman's, I tried on Persols and Ray Bans. Sunglasses with decent protection seemed a healthy purchase I could easily justify in this economy. When I was introduced to Todd Rome of Blue Star Jets,however, it was hard to say I would be in need of a personal jet any time soon. But wanting to be hip and nice, I pointed out my hat, acquired at the polo event some years ago, to which he gently hmmmed and said I should throw away this relic from a long defunct company and get one of his immediately. Oops. Scrambling with both feet in my mouth, and while photographers were now shooting Todd Rome with Bravo's Real Housewives of New York, I snagged a new hat, which except for the name looked very much like the old hat, navy with white logo, happy that there are some people left who can enjoy his services.
     Onto the home of art dealer Louis Meisel and his wife Susan. hosts of the annual fund raiser for Samuel Waxman's Cancer Research Foundation in their sculpture garden. I was pondering an irony: my mother, the late Pola Weinreich died in the care of this world-renowned oncologist at Mount Sinai in 1996. Should I say something, remind him of an event commonplace to him and devastating to me? A sign of a good doctor, he very much wanted to talk about her demise and the deadly disease that he was hoping to cure in his lifetime with the foundation he created 30 years ago. Amidst the gambling tables and set up for the silent auction, well-wishers greeted him as we chatted. Restaurants offered their wares: Bobby Van's served steak sandwiches with creamed spinach, Shun Lee had Peking duck, Town Line BBQ had ribs. Annie's Organic Café and Market had scrumptious tofu topped with peanut sauce, and some handmade fruited and nut morsels from Chocolate Infusions to die for. Most surprising, Susan Meisel, the hostess herself served up her signature pigs in blankets and yummy chicken fingers. “You'll be back for more,” she grinned. They say she's vegan.

Regina Weinreich