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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.
609-919-0924.
Best-Kept Secret
It pays to get caught in the rain. During one of last
week’s downpours, I got caught at Olive’s on Witherspoon
Street. I stood in the doorway and, seeing that loathed
little parking meter vehicle parked up aways, muttered to
the man standing next to me, ‘Boy, I hope I don’t get
nabbed for a ticket waiting for this rain to stop.’ He
turned to me and I read the insignia on his shirt:
Princeton Borough Parking Enforcement. ‘Oh, that’s your
little truck,’ I said. He leaned closer and said in a
stage whisper: "You’re fine. There’s a 10-minute grace
period on Princeton Borough parking meters. If you come
back to your meter and it says "-3′ that means you’ve
still got seven minutes to go before the expired sign pops
up." Now I know: When you put in a nickel and the meter
indicates you have three minutes, you really have 13!
secret, e-mail us at bestbets@princetoninfo.com.
Celebrity Seen: The Actress and the Ambassador
If your strongest memory of Debra Winger is from "An
Officer and a Gentleman" or "Terms of Endearment," you can
find out what she’s been up to since then at "Thriving on
Balance: Your Health, Your Life," a one-day women’s health
conference at the Hyatt Regency Princeton, Saturday,
October 2, 8:30 a.m to 2:30 p.m. The event, sponsored by
Princeton HealthCare System, features Winger as the
keynote speaker, sharing personal anecdotes and
observations about women’s issues, social causes, and her
experiences as a woman, wife, mother, and actress.
While Winger’s talent won her three Academy Award
nominations, she says she "didn’t feel the work was
connected with her life all the time." So she married and
had children with actor/director Arliss Howard, performed
with the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, taught a course at Harvard, and went on
tour with the London Symphony Orchestra. On the activist
front, she serves as an ambassador for Sight Savers
International.
In addition to Winger’s keynote, the conference features
talks and panel discussions by experts and staff
physicians at Princeton HealthCare System
Saturday October 2, 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Hyatt Regency
Princeton. Register by Friday, September 24, online at
www.princetonhcs.org or call 609-924-7621. $45.
Princeton resident Jack F. Matlock Jr. was President
Reagan’s principal advisor on Soviet and European affairs
and later served as U.S. ambassador to the USSR from 1987
to 1991. His insider’s perspective on helping broker the
thawing of relations between a president "who knew very
well what he wanted and why," and an iconoclastic and
determined Soviet leader is revealed in his new book,
"Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended" (Random
House, $27.95).
Matlock appears at Barnes & Noble on Tuesday, October 12,
at 7 p.m. His book uncovers everything from Reagan’s and
Gorbachev’s initial perceptions of each other to Reagan’s
private thoughts before he first met Gorbachev, as well as
other details of an extraordinary era in diplomatic
releations.
MarketFair, Tuesday, October 12, 7 p.m. 609-716-1570.
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