The financial world might be drowning, but there are some people who will always stay afloat, the Times inevitably reminds us today with a scenic Metro-section feature about a fund-raiser Denise Rich held at her Fifth Avenue penthouse triplex on Wednesday night, despite the fact that, as her party planner Inez Weinstein worried beforehand, "It was the worst time in history" to ask Wall Streeters for money. In history. "Don’t worry," Cantor Fitzgerald chairman Howard Lutnick, the gala’s honoree, reassured Inez, "the room will be full." And it was, says Eric Konigsberg, who attended the party and duly reported back all the Babylonian details:

They inhaled the view of Central Park and the Plaza Hotel at twilight, sat on chaise lounges upholstered in turquoise and purple silks, and nibbled experimental canapés including tiny fried-oyster sandwiches accompanied on the caterers’ trays by tiny mugs of dark beer.

The moral of the story is that even in times of crisis, the rich stay rich, particularly Denise Rich. But we think Konigsberg missed something. They're eating fried food and beer! That's what poor people eat! And let's face it, the only reason anyone would be desperate enough to "inhale a view" is that they can't afford to buy cocaine.

At Fund-Raiser, No Financial Crisis [NYT]