The Charles Scribner's Sons building at 597 Fifth Avenue, designed by Ernest Flagg and built in 1912-13, now houses a Sephora—I just noticed for the first time, though it may have been years. Last time I looked at the building it was a Benneton, which was bad enough; I remember it from back in the 60s, when it was an enchanted place with all that visible greenish ironwork and the grand staircase. It's imaginable that as a teenager I could have purchased a book from Patti Smith, who was on the sales staff. The posters currently inhabiting the great bay windows are advertising an emerald eyeshadow that the model has smeared all around her eyes to look like a green raccoon's mask.
And you youngsters call that rubbish capitalism! Harrumph, harrumph. Why, in my day...
