Anderson Cooper and the Vanderbilt "curse"

Do all Vanderbilts turn into bronzes?

If you have ever visited New York's Grand Central Station, you might have noticed Anderson Cooper's great great great grandfather and gilded age maven: The Commodore Vanderbilt.

His grandfather Reginald Vanderbilt , Gloria's father, had his image cast in bronze.

From Dispatches from the Edge

"After seeing it (Cornelius Vanderbilt’s Statue at Grand Central Station) for the first time when I was six, I became convinced that everyone's grandparents turned into statues when they died," Cooper writes

The young Anderson wasn't spared of the tradition and in 1972 his parents commissioned a bronze piece of him to the artist Elaine Lavalle.

A reader sent me this passage from Wyatt Cooper's book Families which I would love to share with you:

"In Puerto Rico we get a book on Puerto Rican history; we
explore the huge and ancient fort; we run our fingers along
the iron of the cannons and try to imagine them firing upon
pirate ships. We walk along the streets that have been there
for centuries and that have known the tread of millions of
vanished men of other races, colors and tongues, and we
feel a kinship with the panorama of human history. The boys
go over the pictures in their scrapbooks, relive the high points
of their travel, and feelrooted in the world.” --Wyatt Cooper-

Last but not least, we switched the commentary section to registered members only. The anons and the trolls were getting a little old. So if you want to make a fool of yourself, you have to do it with your registration info. I know it wont stop Centepide aka Arachnae ( thanks for the ID heads up), but it will be a lot easier to just delete.

Thanks and sorry for the inconveniences.
Chris