The Admiral’s Wife: Barbara Bentley on BlogTalkRadio [Book Review of A Dance with the Devil:  A True Story of Marriage to a Psychopath]

Barbara Bentley’s charming, fascinating, and charismatic late husband presented himself as a retired Navy rear admiral and the descendent of two infamous admirals named Perry.  They were VIP guests of the Navy during Fleet Week in San Francisco.  He had war medals including the Congressional Medal of Honor.  They were invited to President George H.W. Bush’s inauguration and the inaugural balls.  The only part of his story that was true was that he was the black sheep son of Admiral Perry.

The truth was that he was a con man wanted by the FBI for impersonating a US Navy officer.

• Barbara Bentley:  Dance with the Devil
• Bravo, Barbara Bentley:  Paul H. Chapman Award Winner!
• The Admiral’s Wife: Barbara Bentley on BlogTalkRadio [Review of A Dance with the Devil:  A True Story of Marriage to a Psychopath]
• Artists’ Date: Barbara Bentley at Pike Place Market

 

Book Review: The Company She Keeps by Georgia Durante

Ms. Durante never knew her father.  She was born on July 9, 1951.  She was reared by her step-father Tony Durante, who was a golf professional at Braemar Country Club.  When she was 11 years old, she had two holes-in-one on the golf course.  She was also a wild child who took golf carts out for joy-riding drag races on the golf course and jumped freight trains.  Read more. . .

 

 Emily Post: Why did she become etiquette’s leading expert?   [Book Review:  Emily Post:  Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners by Laura Claridge]

Her ex-husband Edwin Post had humiliated her with his emotional abuse and debauchery.  When his infidelity hit the front pages of New York’s newspapers, Mrs. Post sought revenge.  She never forgave him.  In “Fundamentals of Good Behavior,” Mrs. Post opined:

“Far more important than any mere dictum of eitquette is the fundamental code of honor, without strict observance of which no man, no matter how “polished,” can be considered a gentleman. . .The man who publicly besmirches his wife’s name, besmirches still more his own, and proves that he is not, was not, and never will be, a gentleman.”

Clever lady!  She made it official:  a man who is abusive and/or cheats on his lady love is a jerk-wad.  Eitquette in a nutshell.

 

 Staying True by Jenny Sullivan Stanford

Jenny Sanford changed forever the paradigm of women standing by their powerful, cheating husbands.  She believes they need to be held accountable.  I agree.  I don’t think Tiger Woods would have apologized some 14 times to his wife Elin if it hadn’t been for Jenny Sanford.

She kicked her narcissistic, emotionally and financially abusive, self-absorbed, cheap, cheating husband Mark (governor of South Carolina) to the curb.  She didn’t bail him out when he asked for her help on how to save his sorry behind with the press.  Instead, she packed up the kids and moved to their beach house on Sullivan’s Island near Charleston, S.C.  She had hoped that rattling around in an empty governor’s mansion might help him get his priorities and values straight.