Out & About
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The New York Public Library is known for its lions, but what about its cubs? While the stone lions on the front steps of the Fifth Avenue flagship haven’t yet spawned any little ones, on Saturday afternoon there were several cubs inside
The Cubs is a children’s membership program for families who annually contribute $1,000 to the branch library. The mascot of the group is a scrappy cartoon cub, who appeared on several billboards around the library.
There were still plenty of lions — meaning parents — around, and some distinguished ones too — meaning longtime library supporters. The chairwoman of the library, Catherine Marron, came with her daughter Serena, and trustee Barbara Goldsmith came with her daughter Alice Elgart and granddaughter Evelyn Elgart. There were also literary lionesses, such as Deborah Copaken Kogan, who just finished a novel, “Suicide Wood,” that will come out in 2008 and who brought along her three children Leo, Jacob, and Sasha.
Entertaining the cubs is the first priority for the lions/parents who are members of the Cubs group committee, such as Molly Jong-Fast, Hannah McFarland, and Paula Zakaria. On this day they did not disappoint, arranging for a musical performance by the Gothic Archies and a dramatic reading of passages from the new book “The End” by Lemony Snicket.
Mr. Snicket, the band’s percussionist, did not show for the event, so his fellow band members Daniel Handler and Stephin Merritt performed the songs “Shipwrecked” and “The Abyss” without him.
Mr. Handler invited two friends from the audience to use Mr. Snicket’s instruments to provide the proper sound effects for the passage he read. Evelyn Elgart and Gabriella Verdolini eagerly volunteered (they are great fans of Mr Snicket’s “Series of Unfortunate Events,” having read all 12 books before “The End,” they told me).
One of the lessons of the series is just how much knowledge and mystery books contain, and the importance of knowledge in general for dealing with the hardships of life. The reading of “The End” sent a most appropriate message to the inquisitive cubs assembled.
