September 30
Truman Capote's Birthday

Capote and Katherine Graham at the Black and White Ball, Plaza Hotel, 196

In Gian-Carlo Menotti's magical madrigal/ballet, The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore, the Countess is depressed
because she covets the poet's unicorn. The Count is unaware of the cause of his wife's depression, and asks:

Why are you sad, my darling?
What shall I buy
To make you smile again?
Velvets from Venice,
Furs from Tartary,
Or dwarfs from Spain?

Truman was in many ways the upper class's talented dwarf who believed that one of his goals in life was to amuse the bored, glamorous wives of the rich and famous. When his royal patrons turned against him, his once stiletto wit became severely
eroded by alcoholism and narcissism.

Truman's popular literary talent, his venomous wit, and social-climbing ambitions made him the darling of New York society
in the 1960's. Like the generous count in the Menotti madrigal, Capote was bought by rich and famous husbands as
amusements for their wives, including: the Bouvier sisters, Princess Lee Radziwill and Jackie Kennedy. Capote's
prominence as New York's social lion peaked in November of 1966 in which he invited 500 of his celebrity friends to
an extravagant masked ball at the Plaza Hotel in honor of Kay Graham, the publisher of Newsweek and the Washington
Post. Life magazine described the fête as the social event of the century. Not a bad achievement for the First Lady's
royal dwarf.

The dwarf lost his royal patronage by trashing some of his former idols when he published excerpts from Unanswered
Prayers in Esquire in which he abused the confidences of many of his celebrity friends with scathing comments about
their personal lives. When Truman and his friend Ann Woodward quarreled at a debutante ball and Ann, a little drunk, called
him a "little faggot," Truman got portrayed her in the Esquire article as a slut known as "Madame Marmalade" by the boys
of the French Riviera for a "trick she did using her tongue and jam." Ann subsequently committed suicide with cyanide
over the notoriety of her portrayal/betrayal. Truman became a social pariah and his declining celebrity was kept alive by
talk show appearances in which he was almost a parody of himself.

For Truman's birthday, we suggest a watching his brilliant Academy Award portrayal by Phillip Seymour Hoffman in
Capote (2005) and making some faggots, or as they are sometimes called "Poor Man' s Goose." Faggots are a popular European breakfast sausage that goes back to at least the 16th century The sausages used to be stuffed into a pig's
caul (the fatty veil around the pig's intestines), but any sausage casing will suffice. In America faggots are becoming more commonly served without casings, like pork sausage patties.

In Britain and Ireland, there is a commercial frozen food form of faggots called Mr Brain's Faggots that were once hawked
in a now banned TV commercial that featured a husband who wanted lasagna for dinner. When his wife replied that,
since it was Friday, he was to have faggots. He responded: "I've nothing against faggots, I just don't fancy them."

Faggots

Ingredients

1/2 lb pork liver
12 slices of bacon
6 medium onions
1 cup water
3 cups of breadcrumbs soaked in 1 cup of dark beer
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp dried sage
1 TB salt
freshly ground pepper, to taste

Instructions

Mince onions in food processor fitted with a metal chopping blade. Remove and set aside.
Chop pork liver in food processor. Remove and set aside.

Cut bacon in 1/4" pieces and fry in a heavy skillet. Add onions after bacon begins to render fat and cook for about 8 minutes over medium heat. Add liver and water, reduce heat to a simmer, and cook for 15 minutes.

Add soaked breadcrumbs and spices. Mix well. If you want to use mixture to stuff sausages, allow mixture to cool before stuffing casings.

Preheat oven to 300º F.

Either lay sausages in a well-greased baking pan or form sausage patties about 2" in diameter and place in greased pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes and serve either hot or cold