I had two personal experiences with the late Barbara Walters, although I don’t claim to have known her.

Many, many years ago, my then-husband was active in New York City political and civic life. We had a dinner party for 10 and he invited the financier Alan (Ace) Greenberg of Bear Stearns. Ace brought Barbara W as his date. Trying to make conversation with my famous guest, I asked her if she had interviewed the current President, Jimmy Carter. She said, rather haughtily, “I have interviewed every president!” I felt humbled. Put down.

The second occasion was years later, in 2010. I got a call from Robert Silvers, the editor of The New York Review of Books. He asked me if I would like to review a movie called “‘Wating for ‘Superman.’” He had two tickets for a preview. Of course I did. My partner Mary went with me to a large corporate building in midtown Manhattan. There were about 50 people in the plush setting. The aisles were pitched, carpeted steps.

As we settled in to the dimly lit screening room, we looked around to see if we knew anyone. We didn’t. Then the last person entered, and it was Barbara Walters. Unmistakable. She walked down the stairs, and a few rows past us, she tripped and fell flat on her face. Everyone saw it but for an instant, no one moved. Mary was on the aisle, and she leapt up, ran to BW, and helped her to her feet. She told me “she was light as a feather.”

The incident told me more about Mary than Barbara W. Mary was like that. Quick to jump in and help. Fearless. I remember one time near Lincoln Center when we saw two young men breaking into a car to steal its radio. Mary yelled at them, gave a loud whistle, and chased them for a block. Meanwhile, I yelled at her, “Watch out, they might have a knife!”

Those are my Barbara Walters stories. I have a large supply of stories where I had small and insignificant brushes with celebrities, incidents they would not remember but I did.

The upshot of the screening of “Wating for ‘Superman’” was this review-article. A magazine called “The Hollywood Reporter” cited it as one of the reasons that the film was not nominated for an Oscar (the most important reason was that one scene was staged, and another reason was that it was anti-union).

If you are on Twitter, watch Barbara Walters eviscerate Trump. Don Winslow⁦‪@donwinslow‬⁩Barbara Walters knew Donald Trump was a FRAUD.

pic.twitter.com/p53dyt2iMA

That’s one heck of an interview!

[The reason the beginning of this post appeared at noon is that I started writing it late last night, then decided to delete it before finishing. My deletion failed, so I decided to finish it a few minutes ago.]

I want to wish you the merriest of Christmases, the happiest of Chanukahs, and the blessings of Kwanzaa.

Relax. Enjoy friends and family. Don’t get stressed out. Peace.

If only there were peace in the world. And joy.

Let’s drink to that!

Diane

PS: I won’t post anything else today. But I have great stuff in store for you tomorrow and in the days ahead.

I started this blog in April 2012. At the time, I wanted to spread the word about the dangers that were looming via a coordinated, well-funded attack on public schools and the teaching profession. The blog was my medium for awakening the public and educators.

Each time, I reached one million page views, I would announce it. Page views are recorded each time someone opens the site. Some people log in more than once a day.

I just checked and discovered that the blog has been opened 40.1 million times.

Quite a lot of journalists read it regularly. I am guessing that most readers are educators.

I select articles that interest me and try to keep the site lively. On a few occasions, I have featured local stories shared by readers or by my daily reading of many newspapers and magazines, then discovered that those stories got national attention.

A note to readers: I read every comment.

Thank you for your attention, your time, and your participation.

As you read this, I am boarding a flight from Mexico City to New York City. I have been here for a week with my partner and our 15-year-old grandson. Two years ago, we planned to take the same trip in mid-March 2020. It was our gift for his bar mitzvah. But the week we were supposed to fly to Mexico City, COVID shut down everything, including our flight and hotel.

We stayed in a centrally located hotel, from which we could walk to several museums. Our first day we went to the National Anthropolical Museum, where we learned about the Mayans, the Olmec, and the Aztecs. We saw numerous examples of their art, which was breathtaking.

Over the course of the week, we visited Frida Kahlo’s house, Diego Rivera’s home and studio, saw the breathtaking Rivera murals on the walls of the National Secretariat of Education. Because of my interest in history, I was especially eager to visit the home of Leon Trotsky, where he was brutally assassinated by a Stalin secret agent. Trotsky was always on the run because Stalin wanted him dead. Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo had offered Trotsky refuge, but after his death, gave their allegiance to Stalin.

We toured the home of the great Mexican architect Luis Barrigan. I think my favorite place was the National Museum of Belles Artes, which displays magnificent murals in an elegant Art Moderne space. The building itself is a work of art.

And we visited much much more. Every night we had wonderful meals.

One interesting fact: Mexico City has a strict mask mandate. Most people wear masks outside as well as indoors. When you enter any public space, a guard checks your temperature (your head or neck or wrist).

I leave with a sense of the deep and abiding cultural pride of the Mexican people. They are connected to their past. They have a beautiful culture. The parks are magnificent and carefully tended. The public places are stunning. My grandson had the best bar mitzvah gift ever. An unforgettable experience.