A Random Post

In this season of the onset of Presidential primaries and the 

attention that will be paid to popularity polls and the like, I heard 

the Gallup Poll mentioned the other day and immediately thought 

about my personal connection to that Ivory Tower of American

opinion research. Alec Gallup was a regular customer of ours 

for decades before I was able to say "ours".  He was a grizzly

bear of a man, but as kind and self-effacing as the day was long.

The Gallup Organization was started in Princeton in the thirties, 

and well after it was acquired in the late eighties by a Nebraskan,

with whom I am also familiar, and who insisted many times on 

smoking cigars in the restaurant by the way, Alec and his close

associates came often for lunch around 1 pm.  He did his best

to uphold the 3 Martini lunch, although if he made it past 2 it

was unusual.  Soup was the appetizer almost always, and 

entrees varied.  One thing I'll never forget was him asking about 

the accompanying vegetables on a given plate.  " I don't like sticks.

I don't want any sticks on my plate."  Julienne vegetables. 

My two favorite memories of him were these:  watching the 2000

vice presidential debate between Joe Lieberman and Dick Cheney

in the back of our bar, near the mens' room where our little TV was.

He was going back and forth between the private room where the 

Gallup Org. was having dinner and the mens' room where the TV was.

Sitting on a wine crate watching at the same time was Arthur 

Schlesinger, who was attending another PU function upstairs.

And then there was me.  Picking my nose.

The second memory is actually more meaningful, because it does

not involve politics, but flavor.  Alec was sitting at the bar waiting

for his dinner guests one night and decided to have some steamed 

clams to hold him over.  Upon finishing the clams, he asked Chris

to take the buttery broth in the bowl and pour it into a glass, and 

make a spicy bloody mary on top of it.  Chris asked him if he had a 

name for this drink and Alec quickly replied, "the clamdigger!"

This man was as old school as they come and I'm fortunate

for him to have known me, even if it was just as a servant.