Best-Kept Secret
Celebrity Seen: The Actress and the Ambassador
Corrections or additions?
These articles by Jamie Saxon were prepared for the September 22,
2004 issue of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
A Bed That Even Goldilocks Might Find ‘Just
Right’
Last year, Best Bets found a $20,000 stove (the Aga at
Domain), so when we heard that the new Sleepy’s in Market
Square on Route 1 was selling a $20,000 bed, we had to go
check it out. (We can’t help it; our eyes are bigger than
our wallets.)
Interestingly, both the Aga and the Vi-Spring bed are made
in the land of queens and princesses – England. If you buy
an Aga, you need only buy one in your lifetime (the Aga
salesman we interviewed said proudly that he got to keep
his Aga when he divorced); same goes for the bed. “Normal
mattresses are designed to last 8 to 12 years,” says
Sleepy’s regional manager Dan Thigpen. “The Vi-Spring is a
one-time purchase.”
Established in 1901, Vi-Spring beds filled the staterooms
on the Queen Mary and the Titanic as well as posh London
clubs. According to Thigpen, a typical mattress factory
pumps out a new mattress every four to six minutes – it
takes one master craftsman two and a half days to make a
Vi-Spring mattress.
OK, so labor and craftsmanship definitely account for part
of the five-digit price tag. The rest is materials. The
Vi-Spring is made of all natural fibers – no foam in
sight. A funky display box in the store, like a miniature
steamer trunk, opens to reveal all the materials used to
make the bed: all-cotton Belgian jacquard damask ticking
on the mattress top; calico cotton-wrapped springs made of
premier grade vanadium-treated steel (up to 3,200 in each
bed versus the American average of 364 to 660; lambswool;
a lambswool/horsehair blend (the stiff horsehair prevents
the soft lambswool from compressing over time); and lots
more of what Mother Nature makes best.
Sure, you get what you pay for. But what does it feel
like? I plopped down on the floor model, closed my eyes,
and thought, “This is the closest thing I’ll ever feel to
being in the womb.” It took all the strength I had to get
up off that bed. But wow, that’s some bucks. “A mattress
should be the best piece of furniture in your home,” says
Thigpen. Sure a mattress salesman is going to say that,
but if you think about it, he may have a point. He looked
at me archly and said, “Do you sleep well at night?” I
could not reply that I do…if only I could sneak into
Sleepy’s after hours… zzzzz.
Sleepy’s, Market Square, Route 1 North,609-919-0924.Best-Kept SecretIt pays to get caught in the rain. During one of lastweek’s downpours, I got caught at Olive’s on WitherspoonStreet. I stood in the doorway and, seeing that loathedlittle parking meter vehicle parked up aways, muttered tothe man standing next to me, ‘Boy, I hope I don’t getnabbed for a ticket waiting for this rain to stop.’ Heturned to me and I read the insignia on his shirt:Princeton Borough Parking Enforcement. ‘Oh, that’s yourlittle truck,’ I said. He leaned closer and said in astage whisper: “You’re fine. There’s a 10-minute graceperiod on Princeton Borough parking meters. If you comeback to your meter and it says “-3′ that means you’vestill got seven minutes to go before the expired sign popsup.” Now I know: When you put in a nickel and the meterindicates you have three minutes, you really have 13!Editor’s note: If you know a best-keptsecret, e-mail us at bestbets@princetoninfo.com.Celebrity Seen: The Actress and the AmbassadorIf your strongest memory of Debra Winger is from “AnOfficer and a Gentleman” or “Terms of Endearment,” you canfind out what she’s been up to since then at “Thriving onBalance: Your Health, Your Life,” a one-day women’s healthconference at the Hyatt Regency Princeton, Saturday,October 2, 8:30 a.m to 2:30 p.m. The event, sponsored byPrinceton HealthCare System, features Winger as thekeynote speaker, sharing personal anecdotes andobservations about women’s issues, social causes, and herexperiences as a woman, wife, mother, and actress.While Winger’s talent won her three Academy Awardnominations, she says she “didn’t feel the work wasconnected with her life all the time.” So she married andhad children with actor/director Arliss Howard, performedwith the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge,Massachusetts, taught a course at Harvard, and went ontour with the London Symphony Orchestra. On the activistfront, she serves as an ambassador for Sight SaversInternational.In addition to Winger’s keynote, the conference featurestalks and panel discussions by experts and staffphysicians at Princeton HealthCare SystemThriving on Balance: Your Health, Your Life,Saturday October 2, 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Hyatt RegencyPrinceton. Register by Friday, September 24, online atwww.princetonhcs.org or call 609-924-7621. $45.Princeton resident Jack F. Matlock Jr. was PresidentReagan’s principal advisor on Soviet and European affairsand later served as U.S. ambassador to the USSR from 1987to 1991. His insider’s perspective on helping broker thethawing of relations between a president “who knew verywell what he wanted and why,” and an iconoclastic anddetermined Soviet leader is revealed in his new book,”Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended” (RandomHouse, $27.95).Matlock appears at Barnes & Noble on Tuesday, October 12,at 7 p.m. His book uncovers everything from Reagan’s andGorbachev’s initial perceptions of each other to Reagan’sprivate thoughts before he first met Gorbachev, as well asother details of an extraordinary era in diplomaticreleations.Jack F. Matlock, Jr, Barnes & Noble atMarketFair, Tuesday, October 12, 7 p.m. 609-716-1570.Previous StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
