The idea for the party was hatched almost a year ago, inspired by some former colleagues’ conversation. They had all agreed that their time working at National Public Radio in Washington, D.C., was the best years of their lives. That’s quite a declaration for a bunch of fellows nearing 70 who went on to very distinguished and accomplished careers afterward. They made me feel nostalgic and sad and I wanted to do something about it.
NPR is 48 years old. I’m sure the 50th anniversary will be celebrated vigorously. It will be a golden jubilee and worldwide press will take note. There is a film in the works for the occasion and America loves a semicentennial/quinquagenary.
My party was intended for those who were there at the beginning. When I explained this to Art Silverman, who has been there since 1978, is still a senior producer at “All Things Considered,” and looks preternaturally young, he said, “So you want the cool kids.” Yes, I did, and we were the cool kids and there were no grown-ups in charge at the time. Okay, Frank Mankiewicz was our president, but we ran the shows. “All Things Considered” was on the air; “Morning Edition” was new. There were no computers and no cellphones. Information from around the world came in on the wires: Associated Press, United Press International, and Reuters. For particularly important news or a breaking story, a bell would ring, the sequence of rings
announcing how urgent the news was. My job was to answer the phones for the entire news bureau and rip the wires, delivering the story immediately to the appropriate people, Nina Totenberg, Cokie Roberts, Robert Krulwich, Linda Wertheimer, Ira Flatow, David Ensor, Robert Siegel, Susan Stamberg, and so on.
So my vision for the party was to gather together some of these O.G.s of NPR, many of whom still work there, many of whom do not. I felt a small sense of urgency because some colleagues were getting older and quite a few had already passed.
Here is what I have learned from organizing a party long distance: Find your venue first if you can. Decide on a firm budget but be prepared to be flexible. Compile the guest list and pray that they will respond in a timely manner. Or at all. Good luck with that. If you are organizing a party with someone else, be very clear about each other’s responsibilities. If you can befriend the chef, owner, and/or manager (in the case of booking a restaurant) it is possible you can negotiate the price. Try to be consistent and firm with the vision of what you want, do not change the date to accommodate one or two people, do not be afraid of serving meat, do not serve cheap booze.
Washington, D.C., has a lot of beautiful parks and buildings owned by the government that can be rented for parties. But Donald Trump bumfiddled that plan by shutting down the government for a good while. If you go that route, you then also have to rent equipment, hire a caterer, and get a bucket load of insurance. I did a lot of research, went on a scouting mission to D.C., starting sending smoke signals on the Former Nippers Facebook group, and decided to have the party at a friend’s restaurant on the Wharf called Kaliwa. Kaliwa (which means “left” in Tagalog) is a kooky, cavernous fantasy of an Asian night market opened by the chef Cathal Armstrong and his wife, Meshele, who is from the Philippines. The restaurant serves Filipino, Thai, and Korean food. It is right on the water at the Wharf. The only negatives were the acoustics and parking. Easily solved: Turn down the music and take an Uber or a water taxi like we did.
By the time the party got close, the vaguely patched together guest list (my fault for not knowing these brilliant journalists, composers, editors, and producers can be even worse at technology than I am) was up to 83 people. I told the restaurant to be prepared for 80 to 125, and we ended up with approximately 150! This made my wallet a nervous wreck, but they did not charge me a penny more than the original agreed upon price. Whew!
The food that I barely got to taste was beyond splendid. It was smoky, sweet, spicy, light, creative, citrusy, bold, and crunchy. There were lumpia, thin crisp spring rolls with wild mushrooms or shrimp and pork, raw tuna with avocado and house-made gochujang, a Korean red chile paste similar to miso paste but spicy and sweet. There were chicken satays, Filipino street barbecue, many pickled vegetables, head-on shrimp naam jim, grilled rib eye steaks with a chile lime sauce, bibimbap, green curry, and duck confit. Chef Cathal Armstrong, along with Chef Paolo Dungca, are firm believers in local produce and fish, so we had whole roasted rockfish. There were three desserts, a chocolate roulade cake, a chocolate custard with puffed rice, and light green pandan cake with coconut cream glaze.
It was an abnormally gorgeous day for summer in Washington, i.e. low humidity. Coincidentally, there was a Filipino festival taking place on the Wharf that day that Kaliwa was hosting. By the time Cathal got back to his restaurant (around 9 p.m.) he was thrilled to be able to sit down with us and give his feet a rest. It had also just been announced the day before that Susan Stamberg (NPR pioneer O.G.) was about to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. So we were all quite thrilled with the news, the weather, the atmosphere, the food, and each other’s company.
The best tip I can give for throwing (what can turn out to be) a massive party is to remember why you are doing it: your friends. If you can make it memorable and give them the first opportunity in over 30 or 40 years to get together, have some Little Nipper signature cocktails, and break lumpia together, even better.