Last month's Vanity Fair featured an article on Brooke Astor.  I had heard about the elder abuse charges against her son Tony Marshall, but I hadn't really followed the story.  But when I read this article last month, I felt outraged and disgusted--with Brooke Astor.  While I often enjoy the articles in Vanity Fair, I sometimes grow weary of their habit of having a friend of the subject write them.  John Richardson wrote an article than was heavily biased against Tony Marshall, but still I found myself sympathizing with him.  I was a little ashamed of myself and my lack of compassion and sympathy.  But there it was.  I didn't care if she was pretty and stylish.  I didn't care that she'd had a million friends.  I didn't even care about her considerable charitable work and was only slightly moved by the fact that she was, after all, a human being.  All I could think was, "Be nice to your kids.  They choose your nursing home."