Martha Stewart Shows Her Nutley Roots

She scares me. So does her mother Big Martha.

Oh, now I feel bad. Thanks for the info Georgette.

Wait a minute! Martha's show today is her "Hallowe'en Horror Spectacular!" What does that have to say about Nutely High, Class of '59?

Nutely = Nutley. Sorry, typo catcher is on vacation today.

Am I wrong for liking Martha? I think she's wonderful (of course, I might have a different opinion if I worked for her). She's extremely creative, full of energy and has a good business head.

I LOVE Martha!!!

She is self made and a Jersey Girl-- what's not to love?

And she was railroaded to jail and did it with her head high and came out seemingly unscathed is the more impressive.

I also love it when folks hate on her-- because I enjoy telling them that she's really just Martha Kostyra, Polish girl from Nutley.

Similar to little Ralphie Lipschitz from the Bronx, prof, Martha Kostyra has re-invented herself as a sort of "class enemy" to the folks who share her real roots. At least to the level of a semi-villain in a John O'Hara novel. So the waspiest, most-Prod-like of image vendors of mock class, privilege and achingly restrained "good taste" are, respectively, a Jewish lad and a Polish princess. And Ralphie in particular is never shy about putting his logo on things by way of reassuring the insecure (who so often seem to be reassigned Japanese execs and their families, so I've noticed.)

Yet just as Ralphie does not play Sophie Tucker songs and have seltzer bottles on the tables at his fashion shows, Martha only dragged her mother out to make pierogies when it proved politically convenient. (Oh those Christmas-themed shows which celebrated the virtues of flag, family and fireside, you know?) So while you may indeed admire her, prof, you'd likely find her very icy company indeed were you ever forced to spend much time with her socially.

It is also quite a bit easier, I'm guessing, to do a short sentence when you know that when you come out a marketing empire and battalions of flunkies await. In that sense, even if only in that sense, Martha Similar is akin to Al Capone, even though his sentence was longer and harder.

I love Martha.

And, her mother Mrs. Kostyra was one of my 6th grade teachers at Lincoln School on Harrison Street in Nutley.

Interesting woman! In my opinion she is anything but a social bore. She does understand the politics of social trappings and behavior, but she holds her own at the biggest and hottest parties around (at least on the east coast). I understand that she's introduced distinguished world leaders (from a few of the important islands of the Caribben no less) and had a rap off with Diddy at the same party!

The Polish working/middle class people from Nutly that I know mostly initially deny that they are proud of her but everyone seems to know when she is in the area, in town or there is a media reference to her being from Nutly.

....and she's really good at what she does.

So cathar, are you claiming to have dated her when she was still Martha Helen Kostyra and at Barnard and you were at Columbia singing Who Owns New York and Roar Lion Roar?

Who Owns New York?
Oh, who owns New York?
Oh, who owns New York?
Oh, who owns New York the people say.
Why, we own New York!
Why, we own New York!
C-O-L-U-M-B-I-A!

Roar, Lion, Roar
The Columbia Fight Song
When the bold, teams of old
Wore the Blue and White,
Deeds of fame, made their name,
Here at old Columbia.
Nowadays we can praise
Fighting teams again.
Hear the lion roar in pride,
While the men of Morningside
Follow the Blue and White to Vict'ry...

Roar, Lion, Roar
And wake the echoes of the Hudson Valley!
Fight on to victory evermore,
While the sons of Knickerbocker rally round
Columbia! Columbia!
Shouting her name forever!
Roar, Lion, Roar
For Alma Mater on the Hudson Shore!

I didn't realize that Martha was almost 70 years old. Say what you will, but there is no denying that she has been an extraordinarily successful businesswoman (and at making legions of American women feel incredibly inadequate over their home management skills), and an enormously popular public figure.

By the way, it's Lifshitz not Lipshitz.

...and she's really good at what she does.

I don't dislike her quite as much now that she's done time in the slammer, but her waspy Miss Perfect schtick always rankled me, even back in the go-go years, and it's hasn't aged well. If she's embracing her Nutley roots, it's only because she see it as a good branding move in these day so of the new normal. She's got about as much substance as a mortgage backed security.

walleroo- she's Polish and never claimed to be anything else. She also worked as a model from the age of 13. Her dad was a pharmaceutical salesman and her mom a teacher. She's working class and has always been.

She married a guy named Andy Stewart in 1961- at St. Pauls Chapel at Columbia. Incidentally she and her mom made her wedding dress.Oh and Andy Stewart's mom was a Christian Scientist and his dad was Jewish.

Dear, dear Hidingin..., while I'm impressed that you know the lyrics to COlumbia's fight songs, no, I've never made any claims whatsoever about Martha Stewart. As it happens, her time at Barnard was much before my own college days. But perhaps not your own?

Still, I don't quite see having a a college-educated (at least a degree from what was then called a "normal" school, which was how Montclair State began) mother and a father who was a pharmaceutical salesman as genuine credentials for a "working class" background.

It is definitely not one that Fidel and Che and Kropotkin and John L. Lewis and Samuel Gompers would recognize, nor, probably, our very own "lefty." And Lenin himself might have dimissed such roots as, more properly, "petit bourgeoisie."

And while we praise her for having fingers in so many pies, to others she remains at best a basically a mere caterer who got very lucky, one whose "recipes" often seem cribbed from both folk wisdom and old cookbooks.

Pork Roll, there is some debate over whether it was originally (meaning in the old country) Lipshitz or Lifshitz, as Michael Gross's bio of the guy makes clear. In any case, Ralphie has continually lied that the decision to change the surname was his and his brother's, claims his father did it long before he was born. This is despite that the diligent Gross in fact located the legal application to change said name, which was filed when Lauren was about, as best I recall, 17.

No, Martha does not, contrastingly, run full force away from her Polish roots. But she also doesn't exactly come down from CT to occasionally attend mass in Polish at Sacred Heart in Wallington, either, now does she? Even metaphorically? I also much doubt you'd ever find bottles of "Gdnyia" or "Zwyniec" beer in her fridge or that she ever plays Frankie Yankovic and His Yanks records. You can bet your dupa on that!