'Kristen' and the Emperor: how the mighty have fallen
The woman at the heart of the Spitzer scandal talks to Serge Kovaleski and Ian Urbina in New York.
SHE left a broken home in New Jersey at 17 and went to New York City to work the nightclubs as a rhythm-and-blues singer. Now, at 22, she is the unwitting, and as yet unseen, star of the seamy drama that is the downfall of Governor Eliot Spitzer.
“Kristen”, the high-priced prostitute described in a federal affidavit as having had a February 13 rendezvous with Mr Spitzer at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, has spent the past few days in her ninth-floor rental apartment in Manhattan’s Flatiron district. On Monday, she made a brief appearance in federal court as a witness in the case against four people charged with operating the prostitution ring Emperors’ Club VIP.
If a customer had the money, Emperors’ Club VIP had the women. For the right price, the New York escort service flew prostitutes to Beverly Hills and London, Miami and Paris. A trip to Europe could cost more than $US25,000 ($A27,000). An hour could run to $US5500.
The business had a colourful cast of characters: leggy models with names like Raquel, Chrissy and Maya; a booking agent who graduated from an elite New Jersey prep school; an owner with a background in financial consulting; and wealthy customers such as the governor of New York.
Tags: new, pasche, york
What’s interesting to note is that the main huge fuel tank is white. For the first launch, they painted it white - but after realizing how much goddamn paint was used and how much weight it added, they now don’t paint it (and it’s that rust-orange color).How do I know this?My dad briefly worked for Lockheed, and had contacts at NASA.
The external fuel tank here is white in this picture, while now it’s a rust color. It’s an interesting story how that happened. Initially, they used to pain the tank white. It was actually a question to a NASA engineer from a summer intern student that got them to change it. The student asked why they painted it white. The engineer had no good reason, other than aesthetics. So, they just started to leave it as the bare material. They saved a ton of weight from not painting it too. I hope that intern got a job!
Buried. This is old news.
Beautiful ship. She’s sorely missed.
I was there at Cape Canaveral that day, when the Columbia first launched. My dad worked for NASA and pulled me and my sister out of school to go see it. I was only in fouth grade, but I remember it vividly. Studying the shuttle through my binoculars, gleaming white under the spotlights in the predawn gloom. The electricity in the crowd counting down the last seconds. The cloud of steam shooting out of the launch site silently before the sound reached us. And the sound was so powerful, you could feel the air, like fabric, ripping around you, even though we were miles away. And the crowd cheering “Go BABY GO!” as it climbed and rolled up into space on a tower of clouds and fire. One of my favorite childhood memories.
Looks like it grew…
Fail for the copypasta of the description.
“April 12, 1981, twenty years ago today”… really?
I was at this launch. My parents let me take a week off from school and my Dad drove us from Massachusetts to Florida (straight)! The launch was scrubbed twice before the actual launch. Which meant once we got out of traffic we got to spend a day at Disney, then Seaworld. The launch was amazing, the sun had only been up for a little. We were across the bay from the launch pad and as I remember, the launch was LOUD.
You could tell it’s old picture because they no longer white-painted the fuel tank in order to save cost.
Is not 12th yet, anyway, this picture thrills me a lot, so meaningful —I also dare to call it emotive—, I always try to imagine how it feels being there waiting for the launch, the count back… gosh, it has to be amazing!!