JGA July-August 09 - The Jewish Georgian
JGA July-August 09 - The Jewish Georgian
JGA July-August 09 - The Jewish Georgian
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<strong>July</strong>-<strong>August</strong> 20<strong>09</strong> THE JEWISH GEORGIAN Page 3<br />
What’s<br />
HAPPENING<br />
HE ST. REGIS ATLANTA. St. Regis<br />
Atlanta developer Paul Freeman has<br />
T<br />
hit a home run with his stunning new<br />
resort-like complex in Buckhead.<br />
Located on West Paces Ferry at<br />
Peachtree, the magnificent hotel has condo<br />
residences, restaurants, and bars that are<br />
attracting crowds of Atlantans.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Wall Street Journal calls the<br />
Starwood Hotels-managed St. Regis “by far<br />
the prettiest hotel in town, a modern take on<br />
traditional Southern grandeur, with spectacular<br />
public spaces and spacious rooms and<br />
baths decorated in soothing cream and aqua<br />
shades.” Reporter Laura Landro says she<br />
was also impressed by “the lobby’s 750pound<br />
chandelier and two marble staircases<br />
sweeping up to a second-story lounge<br />
area... <strong>The</strong> vast outdoor piazza with cascading<br />
waterfall...19th-century Venetian mirrors,<br />
antiqued-glass vases filled with tall<br />
pussy willows, silver plated objets d’ art,<br />
and paintings by Atlanta artists, many commissioned<br />
for the hotel. My favorite ‘green’<br />
feature: a toilet with one flush button for<br />
‘half’ and one for ‘full.’”<br />
<strong>The</strong> St. Regis has it all: <strong>The</strong> Paces 88<br />
American Bistro; the St. Regis Bar,<br />
designed after the legendary King Cole Bar<br />
and Lounge at the St. Regis New York;<br />
afternoon tea in the lobby; a wine-tasting<br />
room; the Poolside Cafe and Bar, with fireplace;<br />
the Grotto Bar and Cafe, tucked into<br />
the Grand Terrace—and each space with its<br />
own special cuisine, atmosphere, culture,<br />
and style.<br />
Overlooking the pool are the five-star<br />
Remede Spa, a<br />
billiards and card<br />
room, a well<br />
equipped gym and<br />
health center, plus<br />
a lovely ballroom,<br />
all giving the St.<br />
Regis a resort feel.<br />
Paul says that he<br />
has spent the last<br />
five years of his<br />
life focused on the<br />
project, “...build-<br />
St. Regis Developer<br />
Paul Freeman<br />
ing an Intown<br />
resort, a landmark<br />
facility with time-<br />
less architecture that will benefit Atlanta,<br />
serve its guests, and provide a wonderful<br />
place for people to live and visit.”<br />
POWER DINERS. Spotted power-dining at<br />
Hal Novak’s popular eatery, Hal’s on Old<br />
Ivy: Native Atlantans Richard Alterman,<br />
Jerry Gordon, and Paul Ehrlich, haggling<br />
over the bill and debating whether to leave<br />
a 5% or 10% tip. Here’s “What’s<br />
BY Reg<br />
Regenstein<br />
Happening” with these legendary Native<br />
Atlantans:<br />
• Paul’s father-in-law, Stedman Shropshire,<br />
a World War II Marine veteran of Iwo Jima,<br />
just turned 90. He is an active architect who<br />
still draws by hand. Paul’s wife, Gray, is his<br />
only living child. Congratulations to Mr.<br />
Shropshire, thanks for serving our country,<br />
and Semper fi.<br />
• Jerry’s son Brandon is getting married to<br />
the lovely and delightful Leila Mansouri.<br />
Both are students working on their Ph.D.s at<br />
the University of California-Irvine.<br />
• Richard just took a trip to New York City<br />
with his wife, Marty, and his 91-year-old<br />
mother, Sara. <strong>The</strong>y went to see his prodigy<br />
son, Joseph, perform on the piano at the<br />
world-renowned Blue Note Jazz Club with<br />
Grammy-winning saxophonist Ralph<br />
Lalama. After the performance, Bubbie<br />
Sara (whom Richard describes as “the<br />
spryest one of the lot”) jumped up on stage<br />
to have her picture taken, saying, “Now I<br />
feel fulfilled, having seen Joseph play at the<br />
Blue Note.”<br />
Ralph Lalama, Joseph Alterman, and<br />
Sara Alterman, at the Blue Note<br />
DON OBERDORFER HONORED. We ran<br />
into our friend, insurance magnate Gene<br />
Oberdorfer, who is always gracious, charming,<br />
and sporting a big smile. Gene tells us<br />
that his distinguished brother, Native<br />
Atlantan Don, has just been awarded the<br />
prestigious James A. Van Fleet Award by<br />
the Korea Society, the first journalist ever<br />
chosen for this prize.<br />
In his four decades in journalism, Don<br />
has established a reputation as one of the<br />
world’s foremost experts on North Korea,<br />
and his articles on his visits there are classic<br />
accounts of life in a country that, in many<br />
ways, is like a medieval monarchy.<br />
Don has served successively as <strong>The</strong><br />
Washington Post’s White House, Northeast<br />
Asia, and diplomatic correspondent. His<br />
books <strong>The</strong> Two Koreas and Tet are considered<br />
among the best ever written about the<br />
conflicts in Korea and Vietnam.<br />
GRADY HIGH’S CLASS OF ‘59. Grady<br />
High School’s renowned class of 1959,<br />
which has contributed some of our city’s<br />
most colorful figures, just celebrated its<br />
50th anniversary.<br />
Martha Jo Katz, who is much too<br />
young to have graduated way back then, but<br />
her husband, Jerry, did, told us all about the<br />
reunion.<br />
Coming in from out of town were such<br />
notables as Michael and Eleanor Blass from<br />
Waleska, Georgia; Charles and Gail<br />
Herman, from Birmingham, Alabama; and<br />
Marsha Siegel Belson and Harvey Belson<br />
from Columbia, South Carolina.<br />
Also in attendance were Alan<br />
Alterman; Larry Cooper; Gail Feldser<br />
Natter; Larry Fine; Daniel Hirsh, his twin<br />
Martha Jo Katz and Marcia Siegel<br />
Belson<br />
Jerry Katz, Ronnie Goings, and Jan<br />
Jackson<br />
Jerry Katz; Mr. Overton, chemistry<br />
teacher; and Gary Goldstein<br />
bro, Marvin, and Marvin’s wife, Rita; Cary<br />
and Sherry Adelman King; Nancy Mitzner<br />
Markle; Charles and Ann Marie Rosenfeld;<br />
Charles and Bunny Rothberg Rosenberg;<br />
Alice Isenberg Sanders; Eleanor Leff<br />
Schwartz; Marilyn Makover Shapiro; and<br />
Dick Sokol.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Varsity truck catered the Friday<br />
night event at Garden Hills Park, so the<br />
food was great. And when one guest<br />
thought he might be having a heart attack,<br />
guess who came up with a much-needed<br />
aspirin? Jerry! He was the only one at the<br />
party who was prepared for a medical emergency.<br />
But what would you expect from<br />
someone smart and lucky enough to marry<br />
Martha Jo?<br />
Those were great days, back then,<br />
which we did not appreciate at the time, but<br />
we’ll always have those wonderful memories.<br />
STAN LEWIS, P.I. We love to write about<br />
Atlanta’s colorful characters and interesting,<br />
offbeat people. And we knew we’d<br />
found one when we recently met Stan<br />
Lewis at an anti-dogfighting event hosted<br />
by <strong>The</strong> Humane Society of the United<br />
States. First of all, Stan does the best<br />
Rodney Dangerfield imitation we’ve ever<br />
heard. We asked him how he was doing, and<br />
he replied, in perfect Rodneyese, “I’m OK<br />
now, but last night was rough.”<br />
But his main gig is as a private investigator,<br />
and as head of ICU Investigations, he<br />
has worked to locate missing and runaway<br />
children, serve summonses to hard-to-find<br />
defendants, and check up on cheating<br />
spouses.<br />
Stan was featured a while back in an<br />
article in the<br />
Atlanta Journal-<br />
Constitution, saying<br />
that when<br />
men cheat, it’s<br />
usually with<br />
someone they’ve<br />
met through<br />
work. “But they<br />
are horrible at<br />
covering their<br />
tracks. I had a<br />
husband going to<br />
Private investigator<br />
Stan Lewis<br />
his girlfriend’s<br />
house five days a<br />
week at the same<br />
time every day. Monday through Friday,<br />
quarter to six, he was there. It was like<br />
shooting fish in a barrel.”<br />
Stan’s son Adam works with him.<br />
“Adam once served papers to a gentleman<br />
in Midtown Atlanta, who came to the door<br />
wearing nothing but his socks and shoes,”<br />
Stan recalls. “Adam was shocked, and after<br />
he told me about it, I said, ‘I have the same<br />
outfit.’”<br />
BASEBALL CHAMP JOSH FARBER.<br />
Josh’s team, the Mountain Park Marlins,<br />
just won their 3rd-grade league championship<br />
in Lilburn in the Mountain Park<br />
league, with Josh playing outfield and scoring<br />
lots of runs. Josh rocks, and thank goodness<br />
he takes after Mom Roberta “Rocky”<br />
See HAPPENING, page 4