AMERICA’S MOST TALENTED LADIES: 1-Linda Bird Francke (The ghostwriter of Rosalyn Carter, Geraldine Ferraro and Jihan Sadat’s bestsellers)  2- Leontyne Price  3-Wendy Rose  4-Alice Lees  5-Joan Danziger  6-Denise Austin  7-Mary Lide (Author of “Ann of Cambray”)  8-Dina Merrill  9-Linda Pastan (Author of “A Fraction of Darkness”)  10- Anna Hart (Mezzo Soprano).

AMERICA’S MOST RESPECTED AND ADMIRED LADIES:  1-Former First Lady, Nancy Reagan  2-Former First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson  3-Former First Lady, Rosalyn Carter  4-Former First Lady Barbara Bush  5-Helen Hayes  6-Katharine Graham  7-Clare Boothe Luce  8-Lena Horne  9-Catherine Shouse  10-Zelda Fichandler.

AMERICA’S SEXIEST WOMEN AS REMEMBERED BY WASHINGTON:

 Photo: Judy Esfandiary & Lisa Pumphrey.

These are the American women who made “Fureur et Rage”. The list was selected by Douglas Kiker and inspired the one and only Art Buchwald to write an elaborate article on the subject. The article was published in the Washingtonian Magazine, on November 1, 1973. America’s sexiest women, back then, were:1-Diane Sawyer  2-Melinda Nix  3-Barbara Howar  4-Amanda Zimmerman  5-Kay Graham  6-Mieke Tunney  7-Diana Knight  8-Judy Claxton 

Photo: Shahla Amsary and Carol Lascaris.

9-Ferrell Rutledge. On Diane Sawyer:  Diane Sawyer works for for the White House Press Secretary, Ron Ziegler. She is an extra pair of eyes for Ziggy Ziegler, an extra brain. Her principal job is to monitor the media –newspapers, magazines, radio and television- to spot potential trouble and controversy and alert Ziegler to this. Diane is 26, a former Miss Teenage America. She got her job at The White House the way most women get good jobs in Washington. Diane is so pretty and poised that new reporters who come to The White House usually are put off by her. Kissinger dates her occasionally. So do I.

Photo: Barbara Howar.

 On Melinda Nix: She is a reporter for Washington’s Channel 7. How did she become a reporter? Funny story. She started out by peddling a story to the National Enquirer, after that weekly began dealing with more serious and substantive subjects than Kennedy gossip and Siamese twin horror stories.

Her first story was about a New York bank which had arranged to have its records buried in an underground vault so debts could still be collected in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. She came up with a lot of stuff like that. She lives in a big, old rambling apartment filled with green plants and waterbeds. Physically, she is a big woman, big bones, big sexy teeth, big mind… On Barbara Howar: That’s right, by God, Barbara Howar. One of the sexiest women this town will ever see. She talks too much. She is Washington’s living, ongoing soap opera. Look, now she’s having another affair! Behold, she’s writing a book! Good God, she’s out of work! The reason she is sexy is the same reason why people who know her are so loyal to her despite her on-and-off bitchiness, inconstancy, and vanity.

Photo: Pamela Turner.

She is a sweet woman and a good mother. Let there be a death in the family, Barbara comes rushing over with soup and comfort. Let there be an end to a love affair which never should have started in the first place, there is Barbara, sympathizing with the person everybody else in town is down on. Get hungry. If you know Barbara, just go knock on her door and she will drag herself into her kitchen and cook for you. On Kay Graham: Is, well, Kay Graham, publisher of The Washington Post and one of the most powerful, influential women in the world today. She sort of reminds you of one of those Edna Ferber heroines, strong-willed daughter of a strong-willed father who has to carry on and ends up setting even higher standards of excellence. She is just right-bright, involved, forceful and astute. Socially pleasant, smiling, cordial…and sexy. On Judy Claxton: She is so typical, yet so super. That it is hard to believe that she really exists. Everything about her is contradiction. She flew for awhile as a stewardess for Trans-Texas Airlines, but didn’t like the gingham costumes, so she switched to Braniff.

Photo: Katherine Graham.

She also would like to meet Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn because she is big into horoscopes and believes she has a message for them. “You can have them all”, she says with her customary forthrightness. “Redskins civil servants, lawyers, visiting firemen, politicians, secret agents, I’ve known them all, and the only thing I can say is, I should have stayed in Dallas.” This was, twenty years ago…  And now, I wonder, were are those women? What happened to them? Are they still around? In Washington? Dallas, Texas, Paris? I  have no clues. I haven’t seen any of them in twenty years and especially after I have left The United States. Names, titles, power, wealth and positions come and go. Everything in life fades away except the memories, the face of the first person whom we fell in love with, the biggest mistake we made in our life and perhaps, just perhaps, the opportunity we missed when we could give more, love more, forgive more and we did not.