How does a person get listed in the Social Register? Obviously genetics must be a factor, along with piles of money. But many people with both appear to be excluded, while others lacking one or the other are listed. Who decides anyway? And why does such a silly institution continue in the first place? –Fania, Washington, D.C.
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They leave you out again, kid? I told you they wouldn’t be impressed by that bowling trophy. Although the Social Register folks declined to be specific, I gather it’s like the Masons–you have to be invited. There’s an anonymous admissions committee, and if you can get several people who are already in the book to nominate you, or, even better, if you can get married to a listee, you’ve got a chance. If that doesn’t work, your best bet is to get yourself elected president of the United States–he always gets in, whether he deserves it or not.
The rest you’ve got to piece together for yourself, which isn’t easy. Much of the book is written in some sort of Venusian Morse code. In the 1991 edition, for example, after the entry for Charles Norton Adams (no relation), we find the following: “Unn.Nrr.Srb.BtP.Evg.Myf.Ht.Cw.” Goodness, you think, next time they ask the man for information they should untie the gag. But the letters are abbreviations for Charles’s clubs. If we refer to the front of the book we learn that “Nrr” is the Newport Reading Room, “Srb” is the Spouting Rock Beach club, and “Unn” is either a typo or someplace so exclusive that to have to ask about it is proof that you don’t belong there. Norton isn’t listed in the 1994 book, possibly on account of being Dd.As.A.Doornl.
