"You're a traitor to your class!'' this grand-daughter of a Midwestern mouthwash manufacturer told one distinguished Boston lawyer after he explained that he genuinely liked the project.

Mrs. Mellon was the Martha Stewart of her socialite crowd, the self-appointed Queen Mother during Jackie Kennedy's reign. Indeed, she had stayed so connected to the Kennedys that she ended up supervising the arrangements around Jackie's death as well. She knew little about the wind farm, but she did have one fact correct: From her many chimneyed home on the south shore of Oyster Harbors, she would have an absolutely stunning view of Jim Gordon's project.

Mrs. Mellon enjoyed much self-respect. Her grandfather was Jordan Wheat Lambert, who created and marketed Listerine via the Lambert Pharmacal company, based in St. Louis. . . . Over the years, the Lambert family would make considerable social progress. From marketing bad breath they would soon assume responsibility to setting the standard for good taste in general. In 1922, Bunny's father started a phenomenally successful New York City publicity agency, which helped the public understand that it needed to buy all sorts of new products in order to become happy. . . . Eventually Gerard Barnes Lambert devoted himself to sailing and by the 1930s, he was in the running for the America's Cup, a sailboat race requiring a fortune to compete in.

Lambert was never a particularly successful competitive sailor, but he did instill in Bunny a strong respect for the kind of social life a yacht could promote.