Thx! Claire
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Sent: February 10, 2008, 10:05 A.M.
Subject: The invite
Dear Claire,
Regarding the three points made in your e-mail of a few moments ago: I chose the title “Une Petite Soirée” very carefully. Granted, Nantucket is not Lyons, nor is it Aix-en-Provence, but “Une Petite Soirée” will lend the event an understated elegance it desperately needs.
Secondly, describing the location as “Town Recreational Fields” adds a Sunday-softball-game feel to our event that we would do best to avoid at all costs, and so I simply deleted the location when I gave Aster the information in the first place, figuring we would decide on a name for the location that would be more savory to our demographic than “Town Recreational Fields.” We might simply say, “Under the Tent, Old South Road.” This sort of makes it sound like a traveling circus, but it is an improvement on “Town Recreational Fields,” just as “Une Petite Soirée”—you understand the translation, yes, “A Simple Affair”?—is a vast improvement on “Summer Gala.”
As for our monikers, the way I have them written—“Mrs. Marshall French” and “Mrs. Jason Crispin”—is how it is standardly done in New York. I agree, it is a bit old-school Emily Post (and believe me, with the divorce I am going through, I am personally loath to use the name “Mrs. Marshall French”), but I am even more hesitant to buck tradition, especially in light of our demographic, who will, no doubt, appreciate the invitation worded formally.
Thx! Isabelle
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Sent: February 18, 2008, 11:21 A.M.
Subject: The invite
Isabelle—
Sorry it has taken me sooooooooooooo long to respond. My kids are all sick and my husband is on deadline with a job, and wouldn’t you know it, my au pair is on vacation in the Grand Canyon, leaving me to mastermind our daily survival. Time being of the essence, I will cut to the chase:
• I do understand the translation, thank you for asking. “Une Petite Soirée,” a simple affair, is a whimsical name for a certain kind of party, but not this party. I’d rather not be ironic—there is nothing small nor simple (nor French) about the event. And as I’ve said before, there is great danger in changing the name of an event that is as established as ours is.
• We have to use “Town Recreational Fields” because that is the name of the venue. Granted, it is not glamorous, granted, my children do play baseball and soccer there, but it is the only venue big enough to host this kind of event and it is generously donated to us by the town, and hence the town must be named on the invite. To say, “Under the Tent, Old South Road,” is cruelly uninformative. Old South Road is three miles long; I can just picture our demographic puttering along, trying to locate the peaks of a tent above the trees.
• Thirdly, it is the twenty-first century and it is okay, now, for women to use their own names. There is no reason why you should have to use your ex-husband’s name, just as there is no reason why I should have to use my husband’s name. I will use my maiden name as well as my given Christian name because that is how I am known, professionally and personally: Claire Danner Crispin. I am not willing to bend on this, and I thank you in advance for your kind indulgence.
Thx! Claire
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Sent: February 18, 2008, 11:24 A.M.
Subject: The invite
Dear Claire,
I will inform Aster of the nature of our discussion.
Thx! Isabelle
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Sent: February 28, 2008, 3:38 P.M.
Subject: Urgent question!!!
Isabelle—
Today in the mail I received the sample invite, and I noticed that—although it is utterly beautiful—only one of the changes we talked about had been made. I am still listed as “Mrs. Jason Crispin.” And the location is described as “Under the Tent, Old South Road.” You said you would give the changes to Aster. What happened????
Claire
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Sent: February 20, 2008, 3:41 P.M.
Subject: Urgent question!!!
Dear Claire,
I said I would inform Aster as to the nature of our discussion. He was willing to bend on the name of the event in order to be consistent with years past (I, however, was dismayed, believing, as I do, that “Une Petite Soirée” is a far superior title for the evening). Aster did not see the need to incorporate the other two changes.
Thx! Isabelle
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Sent: February 28, 2008, 8:24 P.M.
Subject: Sense of entitlement?
Isabelle—
I hope I will not offend you when I say that Aster Wyatt, gracious as he was to design the invite gratis, is not in a position to make decisions on behalf of Nantucket’s Children, and I am infuriated that he has done so. Please, I must insist, change my name to read “Claire Danner Crispin.” If you want to leave the location as vague as it is, be my guest, but get ready for the ensuing chaos.