Exceptional Linda

Here is a photograph of mom at her most elegant. Of course, mom was always a very elegant woman, just as she was a marvelous cook (Sylvia's stories notwithstanding). She was also an exceptional woman, both in the sense that she was exceptional as a human being, and in that she had exceptions to every one of her own rules.

For example, everything that Linda wore was very stylish and tasteful, from cashmere to raw silk, except for her jeans, which were always horridly and obviously cheap and looked as if they had come from rummage sales (which, in all likelihood, they had).

As a cook, she was sublime, her duck was (eventually) out of this world, and she showed an unparalleled mastery of turkey. But I shudder to think about the chicken. Really. Ask Sarah, Aziza, or Osman.