Enjoy the abundance of the season with an earful (and if things get messy, an arsenal) of Elsa Maxwell’s musings on the Art of Lively Entertaining.
Wishing you a supreme gustatory gathering!
Serve the dinner backward, do anything – but for goodness sake, do something weird.
Someone said that life is a party. You join in after it’s started and leave before it’s finished.
Under pressure, people admit to murder, setting fire to the village church or robbing a bank, but never to being bores.
Bores put you in a mental cemetery while you are still walking.
A bore is a vacuum cleaner of society, sucking up everything and giving nothing. Bores are always eager to be seen talking to you.
I make enemies deliberately. They are the sauce piquante to my dish of life.
Giving parties is a trivial avocation, but it pays the dues for my union card in humanity.
20 Responses to “Zippy, Pithy Elsa Maxwell Quotes for Thanksgiving”
Here’s to another weird Thanksgiving! Else makes me feel “normal”. Let’s have more of her!
What a character! I haven’t started the book yet, as we’ve been prepping our house for guests all weekend long. I am so curious about how you’ll be spending your Thanksgiving, Lydia. Do write a bit about your family’s traditions. I bet between you and your dad, there’s plenty of tales to tell.
Lydia, you do come up with some gems. Our Thanksgiving is long since done for the year, but I hope you thoroughly enjoy yours.
This book is really interesting! :) Looking forward to see how you celebrate thanksgiving too! Have a lovely merry happy day and love to you!
Dinner backwards…I love that… yes, lets start with the pumpkin pie! :o) Thank so much for visiting me and leaving such a lovely comment. I hope you’ll stop in again. I’m having a gift giveaway to celebrate Thanksgiving week–stop back if you can. Wishing you a lovely Thanksgiving!
@Jane lol, I think Elsa’s gift was that she made others feel normal. She had the knack for being the joker of the party, allowing her guests to open up. Is that what we can an ice breaker? Oh, I don’t by any means think that she didn’t follow rules of social decorum; she just tossed some whimsy in there.
@Angie I will certainly have to share how my childhood Thanksgivings played out! This year I will be at my in-laws home, but I never forget our Thanksgivings. Here’s a teaser: They involved singing, lots of it, and off key!
@ Stacey You Canadians warmed up the dinner table for us!
@ Jacqueline You are very far away, so I guess there’s no sharing a slice of pie with you?;-) I’ll have to take a picture for ya. xo
@ Tracy You already know me too well and we just met. My lord, do I love a give away. Ask my husband, my family. I took a peek and see that they are table linens?
HHHmmmm, I love it. It fits me like a glove….weird, I do weird…especially not normal.
At least it is not perfection she is looking for, I have yet to hit perfection!
Dinners with my family are never boring…we just dont leave out potty humor- ever!
Thanks for sharing these delightful quotes! Serving dinner backwards – love it – too bad I’m not the hostess this year. You have a great blog, thanks for commenting on mine so that I could find you!
I have to say that is entertaining, I loved the lines about bores. Next time I’m in a setting like that I will quietly drift back to your post with Elsa Maxwell and a little smile will appear on my face…the guests will just think I’m enjoying their conversation.
:)
Lovely and precious comments :)
I wish you a wonderful and blessed week !
xoxo
This is fabulous! What interesting musings. I would have loved to meet this woman, even if she was a little…different. Thank you for the amusing tidbits! I’ve added this book to my “want list” on swaptree.com! Maybe someone will have it. Hope you have a wonderful rest of the week and a safe and happy Thanksgiving!
That sounds like a ton of fun! Have a lovely time with the in-laws. And write ALL about it!
I love the quotes… so décalé!
I equally enjoyed your suggestions regarding my Deep in Vogue outfit. So yep, I’d definitely change the ensemble to better suit a more of a formal occasion.
Thank you so much for the link on fashion bloggers! I knew some of them, and will surely go and discover new ones. And I’m very touched that it all made you think of me… the tiny, gentle fashion gal from Paris, making her lil’ way in the big world;)
Have a sweet NY day Lydia!
Your quotes are so fun today. Thank you so much. I wish you a happy happy Thanksgiving that is anything but boring. Your blog is charming!
hello lydia, nice to meet you! i like your blog very much – you have beautiful pictures here and nice posts to read. i will be back soon to check the new posts! by the way, do you have polish origins? your name and surname sounds familiar to me ;)
have a sweet day and a great thanks giving eve!
justyna
This post & this wise ladies advice is supreme. How I would of adored rubbing elbows at any gathering with her. So glad you posted this for all us pre- holiday. So happy to read your kind comment on my blog today too. Thank you! You are not in the least provincial, you would have to read the post previous to the one you read to understand, when I think about it. It was my way of cooking up a thank you for all the supportive people who comment on my blog. I’m sure you’d agree, it’s been the nicest most thoughtful people a person could ever hope to run across. The post got rather long so I appreciate you taking the time to get through it! Happy, happy T-Day to you and yours ~ deb
@lovelivesinthekitchen Thank you for sharing t he love. I will have a new post popping up on Monday, after the holiday winds down. funny you ask about my potential polish origins. Actually, I am english, scottish, italian by birth; by marriage, my husband is half Ukraninan on his dad’s side and half Polish on his mother’s. You figured us out!
@Deborah It was an excellent post and I make all efforts to read what people work so hard to write! I do appreciate you allaying my fears about being too provincial;-) I’ll check out the previous post of yours to get the full point. Thanks for the wishes, too!
Dear Lydia,
I hope you had a good thanksgiving and i wanna give thanks to you for being such an inspiration and always sending me your love and support! Hope you’re having a wonderful merry happy weekend! Love to you!
[...] Love the Clueless Crafter’s latest post: Elsa Maxwell’s quotes for Thanksgiving [...]
[...] meal is a time to slow down, share stories, talk about roads less traveled or overly trafficked. Elsa Maxwell would have groaned, and I’m sure audibly, at my ostentatious displays of insignificance.I am [...]