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“富人的生活是那么枯燥而乏味”，网络上流行的这句话自然是一种吃不到葡萄说葡萄酸的心态。其实，“富人的生活是你根本无法想象的”。有些人会说，富人过富人的，我过我的，互不搭界。这话看似没错，但不管你想不想知道，就是有那么一群人掌控着世界上绝大部分的资源，把舵着人类社会乃至人类文明这条巨轮朝着你所看不穿的方向日夜前行。你的日常消费无时不在流入他们的钱袋，你的生活方式无时不在因为他们的某个决策而改变。对此，你不服也没办法。不过，这里提到的富人并不是我们常说的某某老板，而是那些超级富豪。他们与当今世界政坛有着千丝万缕的关系。棕榈滩，一个美国佛罗里达州南部只有27平方公里却流动着全球四分之一财富的小城镇，就是这群富豪的聚集地之一，他们的故事在这里交汇，又从这里继续出发。
Lives of the rich and famous The lap of luxury 富人与名人的生活 奢华名流圈
翻译：一宁 校译：Sandy 统稿：一宁 “The rich are different from you and me, we all know that even if some of the people in Palm Beach don’t,” the writer Nora Ephron said of the town in south Florida where society is the local industry. In “Palm Beach, Mar-a-Lago and the Rise of America’s Xanadu”, Les Standiford, author of a book about Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, traces the history of a sandbar lifted from swamp and scrub to gilded glory by the Florida East Coast Railway line.“富人是有别于你我的，这一点我们心知肚明，尽管某些生活在棕榈滩的人并不那么认为。”作家诺拉·艾芙隆在描述这座以上流社会为当地产业的佛罗里达州南部的小镇时说道。《棕榈滩——海湖庄园和美国世外桃源的兴起》的作者莱斯·斯坦迪福特，曾写过一本关于安德鲁·卡内基和亨利·克莱·弗里克的书（Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership That Transformed America《在地狱中相遇——安德鲁·卡内基、亨利·克莱·弗里克和改变美国的痛苦伙伴关系》，2005年出版——译者注），而在本书中，他向读者讲述了一片曾经满是沼泽和矮树丛的沙洲，借助佛罗里达州东海岸铁路线，实现金光荣耀的蜕变史。Lapped by the Atlantic to the east and Lake Worth to the west, Palm Beach has been home to an epic cast of characters. Henry Flagler, who laid the railway at the turn of the 20th century, also built a string of majestic hotels—including the Ponce de Leon in St Augustine and the Royal Poinciana and the Breakers in Palm Beach itself. Marjorie Merriweather Post, a cereal heiress and philanthropist, built the 115-room Mar-a-Lago (dismissed by a local as “early Bastardian Spanish”) and took four husbands. The architect Addison Mizner set the town’s Mediterranean- Moorish tone (“Ali Baba Comes to Florida,” judges Mr Standiford). Among the newest arrivals are iguanas inadvertently introduced from South America.东临大西洋，西接沃思湖，棕榈滩已经成为众多大牌名流的家园重地。20世纪之交，亨利·弗拉格勒在这里架设了铁路，还顺带建了一批气派宏伟的酒店，包括圣奥古斯丁的庞塞德莱昂酒店，棕榈滩的皇家普林斯顿酒店和碎浪酒店。谷物帝国公司（即如今的美国通用磨坊食品公司——译者注）女继承人及慈善家玛乔丽·梅莉薇德·波斯特，在此修建了有115个房间的海湖庄园（Mar-a-Lago这个词被一个当地人斥为“早期的不伦不类的西班牙语”）并先后经历了4次婚姻。建筑大师阿迪森·麦兹那将整个小镇设计成地中海-摩尔式风格（斯坦迪福特称之为“阿里巴巴来到了佛罗里达”）。初来乍到者中还有被人们无意间从南美洲引入到这里的绿鬣蜥。
▲玛乔丽·梅莉薇德·波斯特Palm Beach, Mr Standiford observes in a book that will appeal to nose-pressed-against-the-glass readers, helped redefine class in America. Once upon a time, status was predicated on lineage and ancestors who had arrived on the Mayflower. That was before celebrity “became the new imprimatur of consequence”. Newport, Rhode Island? Stale upper crust. Saratoga Springs? That crème de la crème had curdled. For social cachet without the prerequisite of pedigree, up-and-coming Americans looked to Palm Beach, which has welcomed the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, King Hussein of Jordan and the pornographer Larry Flynt.斯坦迪福特在一本书中评论说，棕榈滩对于重新定义美国社会阶层起到了推波助澜的作用，这势必会引起那些喜欢一窥究竟的读者的关注。很久以前，人们的身份地位是以血统和登上五月花号（英国清教徒首次前往北美殖民地所乘坐的船名——译者注）的祖先为依据的。不过那都是在名流“被公认为新的显赫地位”之前的事了。罗德岛的新港？那里的上流社会趋于陈腐。萨拉托加斯普林斯？那里的精华都已沦为糟粕。由于社会声望不再以名门血统为先决条件，一些大有前途的美国人就把目光投向了棕榈滩，据悉，温莎公爵夫妇、约旦国王侯赛因以及色情作家拉里·弗林特都曾光顾此地。It was also where, in 2005, Melania Knauss, a model, married reality-show host, future president and latter-day lord of Mar-a-Lago Donald Trump, with Elton John and Hillary and Bill Clinton among the big names and net worths in attendance. Buying Mar-a-Lago and its furnishings for $8m in 1985 was Mr Trump’s ticket to Palm Beach—now his permanent residence after he and New York fell out of love. Post had bequeathed the property to the National Park Service in 1973, for use as a winter White House, but in 1981 Congress returned it to the Post Foundation as too expensive to maintain. It was put on the market and Mr Trump snapped it up.也正是在棕榈滩，2005年，身为模特的梅拉尼娅·克诺斯嫁给了一位真人秀主持人、未来的总统以及海湖庄园现任庄主唐纳德·特朗普，艾尔顿·约翰、希拉里和比尔·克林顿等知名人士和网红大咖出席了他们的婚礼。1985年，特朗普以800万美元的白菜价将海湖庄园及其全部家具装饰收入囊中，以此获得了棕榈滩的入场券——特朗普将自己的主要居住地从纽约迁到棕榈滩后，如今这里已是他的永久居所，而纽约就随之失宠了。海湖庄园的所有权曾在1973年根据波斯特的遗嘱捐赠给美国国家公园管理局作为越冬的“白宫”，但1981年国会又把庄园还给了波斯特基金会，原因是无法承担高昂的维护费用。后来庄园被投放市场出售的时候让特朗普抢到了手。▲唐纳德·特朗普Now it is a private club, with a portrait of Post on a wall in the former library, across from a younger version of the current proprietor in tennis gear. The announcement, when the club opened, that Prince Charles and Lady Diana had bought memberships was “rubbish”, said Buckingham Palace; but Mr Trump was undeterred. “Even people who hate me are joining the club,” he crowed. The initiation fee is now said to be $200,000. One day, probably, rising seas will sink Palm Beach and leave behind a level, if soggy, playing field.现在的海湖庄园是一个私人俱乐部，在早先作为图书馆的大厅（现被特朗普改造成了酒吧——译者注）内墙上挂着波斯特的肖像，其对面则挂着身着网球服的年轻时的现任庄主像。白金汉宫曾在一则通告里指责查尔斯王子和戴安娜王妃在俱乐部开业时购买会员身份是“愚蠢的想法”，但特朗普先生并没有就此打住。“甚至那些讨厌我的人都想加入俱乐部。”他吹嘘道。据说现在的入会费已经涨到了20万美元。未来某一天，不断上升的海平面很可能会让棕榈滩沉浸于海水之中，如果这里还剩有湿软的场地，那么给人们留下的将是一片公平竞争的游戏场。
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