Ye Olde Steel City Clubbe

"The most important thing in life is to be able to laugh at yourself and with yourself," so sayeth Dennis Unkovic of Meyer, Unkovic & Scott at Tuesday's book celebration at the Duquesne Club. "As my other five books are unmarketable," he teased, "I wanted a book that would make people smile." And he was not making idle threats.

If you long to chuckle in these trying times, then "Deal With It" , a Duquesne Club Retrospective on the Work of Tim Menees will do the trick ... with room to spare. You'll love it even if you don't know the Duquesne Club from the Duquesne Incline, although you'll get more of the inside jokes if you do.

Timed for our city's 250th birthday, what we have here is a mighty send-up of the DC that he lampooned as "Ye Olde Steel City Clubbe" for nearly 30 years when he was with the P-G. It didn't get Tim lunch there, but he served up our Grant Street power brokers en brochette.

A klieg light of charisma, Tim's as clever and funny as are his cartoons that "afflict the comfortable." To waves of laughter, he recounted career highlights, including teaching creative writing at our state prison. Then, shake baby, shake, he sat down at the upright piano and, singing along with Susan DeLuca of Pure Gold, tore up the posh dining room at the No. 1 city club in America with "A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On!" Can you stand it?

Laughter began at cocktails for more than 100 guests in the Patio Room and continued over a yummy sit-down at tables centered by large balloon bouquets that were, right, black-and-white-and-read-all-over.

The Club's Charitable Foundation was the eve's beneficiary, and benefit it did because folks were clamoring to bid on Tim's original cartoons, donated by Dennis to the silent auction, where we spotted A&LC chair Bruce Wolf; John Friel; Lou Astorino; Mary Kay and Oliver Poppenberg; former Mayor Sophie Masloff; Debbie Dick and Art Stroyd; Sigrid and Dr. Cyril Wecht; Tom McGough; Ed Linder and Kate Levertz; Dr. Michael White and Rick LeBeau; Barbara Barry; Trudi and Chuck Booth; Lou and Henry Gailliot; and Jackie and Dave Christopher.

As well as the Unkovic and Menees families; Nancy Bromall; Heather Semple; Ray White; Carol and Jim Chaplin; publishers Gino Tavoletti and Ron Moehler; Cathy and Robert Trombetta; Kathleen and Dr. Stephen Guinn; Dan and Debby Booker; Jim Mitnick; Kiera and John Lally; Kim and Scott McSparran; and Charles Pauli.

To order "Deal With It," visit www.duquesne.org .

Elsie and Henry Hillman opened their gem of a classic English manse, where museum-quality art and antiquities share spaces with stuffed animals and toys, for Wednesday's swelegant party to launch the new Fallingwater Cookbook, Elsie Henderson's Recipes & Memories.

Longtime cook for the Edgar Kaufmann family at Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece in Bear Run, Elsie Henderson, 95, collaborated with chefs Bob Sendall, Suzanne Martinson and the late Jane Citron for more than a decade on this gloriously illustrated tome. (Her fascinating "memories" even recall Liliane Kaufmann discovering her husband's mistress in her bedroom!) Now, she was in Elsie Hillman's kitchen fine-tuning the menu with Bob for 100 platinum palates to benefit Fallingwater. Though reservations were held to 100, there was nearly twice that number of requests.

Betraying their waistlines over the mouthwatering dishes, truly mythic desserts and the best thin-crust pizza this side of Rome (all from the cookbook) were such as Susan and Mike Boyle; Linda Waggoner; Anne Lewis; Eileen D'Appolonia; Judy and Dr. Ron Linaburg; George Miles; Catherine and Mark Loevner; Jan and Dick Pagliari; Bernita Buncher and Bill Fetter; Wallis and Marshall Katz; Silvia Speyer; Peggy McKnight; Susan Nernberg; Fran Abraham; Susan and Tom Schmidt; Jenifer and Mark Evans; and Susan Citron.

Here's a full-bodied story with a fruity aftertaste. A group of vinophiles gathered at Seviche on Saturday to raise their median wine IQ with a vertical tasting of red-carpet Barolo and Barbaresco wines from the Pio Cesare Winery in Italy. The tour was led by Sonoma Grille sommelier Uriel Marcovitz, the Trib's Dave DeSimone and winemaker Pio Baffa. Then things got a lot more interesting.

The spirited quaffer moved to the PPG Wintergarden for the tenth anniversary of Passion for Wine, a benefit for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, where the sniffing and swirling continued for 300 guests like Charlene and Patrick Mercier; Carl Dozzi; Rosemary and Joe O'Neill; Valerie and Dave Straight; Tweed Banister; Christine and Charles Schilleci; Janet and John Brendel; and Linda and Joe Hughes.

"One thousand veterans of the war die every day. We are in danger of literally becoming untethered from our past." More than 700 history buffs were nailed to their seats on Tuesday at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall by acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns' powerful remarks based on his epic PBS series.

Eight years in the making, "The War" captures the emotions of our brave men and women who experienced the unimaginable during World War II. "Great Men, capital G, capital M," he emphasized. To remain unmoved by their eloquence is simply not to be human.

Three cheers to Gerald McGinnis Cardiovascular Institute Speaker Series at West Penn Allegheny Health System for bringing this unforgettable benefit lecture to town. In the final standing "O," we spotted WPAHS president Dr. Christopher Olivia; Dr. George Magovern Jr. and Jamie; Dr. Srinivas Murali and Dr. Marie Baldisseri; David and Barbara Burstin; Paul and Susan Dimmick; Dr. Tony Farah; Dr. David and Gretchen Medich; Frank and Ann Cahouet; Michael Benson; and Dr. Mark Rubino.

-- Kate Guerriero

Creatures of the night, what beautiful music they made at Spell, a costume party of spooktacular dimension. Persad Center scared up a fever-pitched hoot on All Hallow's Eve at the Mt. Washington manse of rhinestone cowboys Peter Karlovich and Steve Herforth.

John Denver (aka Nathaniel Soltesz ) strummed his guitar to "Country Roads" as Kermit the Frog perched on his shoulder. PC prez Dave Sufrin worked the room in stilettos as wife S uzie Neft lamented how hard it had been to find heels to fit his size 11 feet!

Among the witch and famous were Sam Badger as Glinda the Good Witch; Bob Davis and John Klein in knockout masks; Tim McGraw-lookalike Steve Bedling; PC director Betty Hill with Kathi Boyle as hippies; Lost Boys Richard Nicholson and Steve Jones; winged sprites Nachum Golan and Steve Hough; and sugar daddy John Fedele with sugar baby Debi Lieberman.

-- K.G.

"Something social this way comes," they all said when the Israel Bonds invite hit the mails to celebrate the birthdays of the State of Israel and Natalie Berger, one of our town's leading party planners, who were born in the same year. The Circuit Center shimmered to a fare-thee-well in blues and whites and the fiery colors of autumn ala designspace's stunning floral bouquets.

Indeed, 'tis hard to say no to Natalie, just ask hubby Richard Berger who had us in "ahh" over a tribute to "the love of my life and best friend." As well as the more than $7 million in bonds that were sold in her honor!

There were mazel tovs galore from daughter Jacki Savage Gelernter and Steve; co-chairs Sarita and Milton Eisner, Selma and Leon Sherman and Pat and Alan Siger; Sheila and Joel Justin; Sara Baum; Dr. John Waldman and Terry Porges; Sabina and Brian Berger; Rabbi Stephen Steindel; Sara and James Guttman; and Stan Davis.

-- K.G.

Some 100 guests braved a brazen appearance by Old Man Winter on Wednesday for Planned Parenthood 's donor reception at the uber-chic Weisshouse showroom in Shadyside, where we succumbed to stomping a snow-covered stiletto to the tune of "ooh, I want that!"

Mingling midst sublime design collections from the likes of B&B Italia, Cassina, and Ligne Roset (oh, my!), we held on to our glass of vino and chocolate-covered strawberries while scrambling for our AmEx cards.

Sophistication and elegance abound throughout every corner of classy space, and Stacy Weiss, with hubby Will Carpenter and those designing Weissguys, made restraint virtually impossible by such as PP prexy Kim Evert; Jody Figas; Jack and Andy Weiss; Susan Zelicoff; Steve Mendelson and Tony Chiappini; EB Pepper; Amy Weiss; Tim McVay; David Bush; Elizabeth Mertz; Greg and Ellen Kander; Stuart and Kathy Horne; Patricia Schroder; and Georgette Pascale.

-- K.G.