A lovely man died, Hecky Powell. He had a great barbecue place in Evanston, Ill. A friend from Evanston honored Hecky, a community leader, who offered scholarships, mentoring and jobs to hundreds of young Evanstonians, “You can be anybody,” Powell told young black men from Evanston. “The reason we’re rated number one on the North Shore in Chicago is because I outwork everybody, and that’s the key. You got to outwork them, and you know something? It’s real simple these days to outwork somebody, because nobody wants to work.”

The next time you’re in Evanston and want great barbecue just ask the way to Hecky Powell Way.

The Israelis continue to flout international law. In July the unity government will annex part of the west bank. This land grabbing against the Palestinians has gone on for decades. Who cares? Certainly not the U. S. Israel or the EU. Maumoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader,  has denounced the U. S. and Israel.

On a brighter note, dear friends treated me to a birthday party. I was driven, sitting in the back seat with mask, to the upper west side where a feast was presented in the backyard on land once owned by Audubon. Don’t I have wonderful friends???

Graphic Lessons: What do a thirty-four-year old, a nine-year-old and an eighteen-year-old have in common? Murder. 

Millie Fitzgerald applies for a Windsor School teaching job, faints on a  dying man in the school kitchen, deals with a troubled nine-year-old and with the eighteen-year-old niece of the murdered man.

Graphic Lessons: Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears a person fighting with George Lopez, the soon to be stabbed Windsor School kitchen worker. Who can she tell? Her mother who  accuses her of lying? Her father who’s fled to Singapore? She tells Millie. 

Graphic Lessons: NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek is assigned the murder case at the prestigious Windsor School. What’s bugging him? His partner was stabbed. He feels remorse over screwing up an important case. His corrupt boss is a trustee of the Windsor School. His girlfriend married his boss. And his daughter quit college.