Tag Archives: Graphic Lessons

NY Mysteries July 27, 2019

Another blissful week spent in Portland, Or. Last Sunday a friend and I went to Cathedral Park, sat in the shade and listened to jazz. 

Cathedral Park Jazz Festival

 

 

 

 

 

Later that week, old friends and I returned to a bar with four aquariums. 

Aquarium Bar on Mississippi
Aquarium Bar on Mississippi

 

 

 

 

 

 

I went to the Portland Art Museum on Monday. Closed, of course. So I’m going back today to find Childe Hassam’s Afternoon Sky, Harney Desert. It was the museum’s first original piece of art, acquired in 1908. What a concidence. I spent part of my childhood in Old Lyme, Ct. where Hassam and his painter friends had a colony.

This evening I’m giving a margarita party. Friends and I have done this for several years. We have it in my place at the Inn at Northrup Station. Usually, we drift up to the roof which is like an attic, tons of chairs and tables brightly colored and a perfect way to gently end a party.  

The Inn at Northrup Station

 

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 private 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 never listens or accuses her of lying? Her father who’s started a new family in 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 being stabbed ? His hated boss, Captain Dick Holbrook, being a trustee of the Windsor School?  Losing his girlfriend to Holbrook? 

NY Mysteries June 14, 2019

Father’s Day

I didn’t know my father but I revere him. HIs ship was torpedoed when I was two years old. He left me a copy of Shakespeare’s sonnets, college tuition and a letter. He wrote the letter a few days after I was born while he was at sea. He was on the S. S. Peu, the ship that two years later would be attacked by enemy action. The letter is my most precious possession. He describes in adult terms what life was like, how much he wanted a child and his joy when I was born.

Happy Father’s Day to my dear Father!

 

 

 

 

 

 

James Clarence McGovren standing in front of the Parthenon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 private 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 never listens or accuses her of lying? Her father who’s started a new family in 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 being stabbed ? His hated boss, Captain Dick Holbrook, being a trustee of the Windsor School?  Losing his girlfriend to Holbrook? 

NYMysteries June 8, 2019

It’s been a busy week.

It began on Monday, June 2. I went to The Bowery Poetry Club to hear a reading by Laura Catherine Brown who read from her delightful, off-beat novel, Made by Mary. She was followed by other prominent female writers.  Such fun to be in the new and old Bowery.

Next day I went to Washington D. C. to visit my Washington family. I hadn’t been in the capitol in years and felt like a hick coming to the

View from the Court of Appeals chambers 
View from the Court of Appeals Chambers

big, beautiful, clean city with a metro that was so efficient it might have been Swedish. I visited the open court of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to witness my nephew, a judge, who was appointed by President Obama in 2013. The two mornings I was there the different judges discussed patent cases, a veteran who claimed his healthcare benefits were inadequate  and the building of a road from a private New Mexico property across federal land. Although this court deals primarily with patent law its case load is hodgepodge. My nephew said this was done so that the judges did not develop too narrow a focus. 

The 70th Anniversary of D Day came up. I recalled going to Omaha Beach. Have you been there? It rubbed me the wrong way. It was gaudy, triumphant, very much in the MGM musical mode. I expected Gene Kelly to tap dance out of a grave. My friend and I then went to the nearby German military cemetery. As dark as Omaha Beach was light. From MGM to Dante’s Inferno. It reeked of defeat and death. It’s near Mont Saint-Michel.

Back in NYC, a friend and I went to a trendy East Village restaurant, Van Da. Its specialty is modern Vietnamese cuisine. It’s new, in the toddler stage with lots of explanation about the menu and philosophical musing, “Our culinary journey just began.” I give it a year. 

On Friday, yet another friend and I went to Hearth. I admit I entered with a chip on my shoulder because of the signs stressing the freshness of their food/ how to treat the earth etc. Surprise, surprise, the food and wine were delicious.  

 

 

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 private 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 never listens or accuses her of lying? Her father who’s started a new family in 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 being stabbed ? His hated boss, Captain Dick Holbrook, being a trustee of the Windsor School?  Losing his girlfriend to Holbrook? 

NYMysteries – April 27

 

 

A Judson Easter: music, food, fellowship: It was a zinger this year. Judson Memorial Church has wonderful music, a wonderful choir and a wonderful Music Director, Henco Espag. We had a feast of music. There was an original Easter Cantata by Rev. Micah Bucey and Henco Espag and sung by the choir, The Gardener’s Dance choreographed and performed by  Brandon Kazen-Maddox, traditional hymns including The Old Rugged Cross, The Strife Is O’er, the Battle Done. Afterwards, we had our shared, pot luck feast and lots of reminiscing and greeting old friends.  

 

 

 

Music Director Henco Espag
Brandon Kazen-Maddox performing The Gardener’s Dance

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soloist Michelle Thompson and Henco Espag

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of my favorite shows is Project Runway. One of my favorite places is F. I. T. Fashion Institute of Technology has great fashion exhibits. So with this in mind, let me present a chic NYC dog who’s sporting sunglasses. 

 

 

 

Fashionable NYC Dog
Fashionable NYC dog doing runway walk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 private 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 never listens or accuses her of lying? Her father who’s started a new family in 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 being stabbed ? His hated boss, Captain Dick Holbrook, being a trustee of the Windsor School?  Losing his girlfriend to Holbrook? 

NYMysteries – April 6

A busy week…

EXPERIENCE THE PRESENCE OF GOD THROUGH THE SOUNDS OF JAZZ. In caps, the Emmanuel Baptist Church on Brooklyn’s Lafayette Avenue announced its twin loves: God and music. 

Nedelka Prescod gave a spirited and spiritual performance at the Sunday afternoon jazz vespers. She was accompanied by family, friends and a lively congregation. 

Jazz Vespers – Emmanuel Baptist Church
Nedelka Prescod

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday evening, the calm before the storm: A delicious dinner at Scandinavian House around the corner from the Morgan.

 

Scandinavian House’s Restaurant

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Followed by an evening at the Morgan party celebrating the exhibit, Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth.

A Fair Maiden
Fair maiden’s arsenal
I fear the front
Tolken’s Shire at Thirty-Six Street and Madison

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Forest Footwear

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Followed by a talk about Judson Memorial Church’s architecture by Francis Marrone. 

The Architecture of Judson Memorial Church, a lecture by Francis Morrone

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 private 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 never listens or accuses her of lying? Her father who’s started a new family in 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 being stabbed ? His hated boss, Captain Dick Holbrook, being a trustee of the Windsor School?  Losing his girlfriend to Holbrook? 

NYMysteries – Feb. 22

I belong to Sisters in Crime, a writing group devoted to promoting women crime writers. D. M. Barr the author of Expired Listings, and Slashing Mona Lisa gave a generous and informative account of what you have to do to be published: everything from evaluating small presses, evaluating a contract, guest blogging opportunities to a free course on List Building for Authors. D. M. worked in real estate and understands and enjoys marketing (!). She said she’ll write a book and then spend a year marketing it. 

D. M. Barr gave a recent talk about book and author promotion to Sisters in Crime at The Jefferson Market Library

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m in a political frame of mind.

  1. Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s prime minister, is a model for all other heads of state. 
  1. This dopey GOP message is directed at Beta O’Rourke, the Democrat presidential candidate. This is from the party of Lincoln?

GOP

✔

@GOP

On this St. Paddy’s Day, a special message from noted Irishman Robert Francis O’Rourke.

D1340JGWoAEYJPe.jpg

 

3. New York City activist Ravi Ragbir was quoted in The Guardian.

Ragbir, the executive director of the New Sanctuary Coalition said at a rally outside NYC’s ICE office that a a fear of ICE would not stop him from speaking out. He has turned to lawsuits to legalize his claims.

“It’s just very uncertain and very traumatizing to know the government is watching you,” Ravi said. “But I can’t allow that to debilitate me … If they’re going to move me, I might as well fight as hard as I can.”

This is the link to The Guardian’s article about the targeting of journalists and immigration activists.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/20/leaked-database-targeting-journalists-immigration-activists?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

  1. Why aren’t Boeing executives in jail?

5. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been pressuring the U.S. to support Israel’s illegal annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights. Trump has announced that the U.S. will now recognize this as Israeli territory,

 

 

 

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 private 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 never listens or accuses her of lying? Her father who’s started a new family in 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 being stabbed ? His hated boss, Captain Dick Holbrook, being a trustee of the Windsor School?  Losing his girlfriend to Holbrook? 

NYMysteries Feb. 15

On the Judson Memorial Church list serve there were comments about education. One person wrote, We could do so much more to equalize opportunities by supporting early childhood education and focusing on process over product!! She went on to say there were underpaid care providers who work with low income families and are committed to making a difference for children. 

I worked in the private school world. There was emphasis on status. Not all, but a considerable number of parents, thought private schools guaranteed their child would gain entrance to a fancy college. It was competitive and commercial.  It came home to me once again with the college admissions fraud. 

The Frick Concert series featured the Ensemble Caprice, a German group now based in Montreal. The five musicians played the recorder, flute,  baroque cello, baroque guitar, and various percussion instruments. The 17th and 18th century music was superb and lively. Unfortunately, the ensemble drifted into coy territory with some rigamarole about the joys of chocolate. 

Several friends and I ventured to former Amazon territory, Long Island City, to have a delightful lunch in the Indian Restaurant, Adda, Indian Canteen . We feasted on Dilliwala Butter Chicken and Mumbai Lamb Curry, Garlic Naan, Vegetable Samosa. All delicious and washed down with Thums Up, an Indian cola drink.    https://www.addanyc.com/menu/ 

Indian Lunch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thums Up
Have a slurp!

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 private 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 never listens or accuses her of lying? Her father who’s started a new family in 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 being stabbed ? His hated boss, Captain Dick Holbrook, being a trustee of the Windsor School?  Losing his girlfriend to Holbrook? 

NYMysteries Feb. 9

What do these dance companies have in common? They’ve all appeared at the Joyce in the heart of Chelsea. The 472 seat Joyce is named after the daughter of the donor who underwrote the building in 1982 for $225,000. Sigh, pocket change in 2019. The building had begun life in 1941 as the Elgin, a movie house. Even if you don’t like modern dance, it’s a treat to go to the Joyce. Not a bad seat (maybe an exaggeration about the first two rows) in the house and the 1981-2 renovation was perfect. 

On Monday, a friend and I went to a half hour showing of the Royal Ballet of Flanders. The program included Sidi Large Cherkaoul’s Faun and an excerpt of  Drew Jacoby’s Supreme. Beautifully presented to a packed house (at least the main seating section). 

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 private 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 never listens or accuses her of lying? Her father who’s started a new family in 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 being stabbed ? His hated boss, Captain Dick Holbrook, being a trustee of the Windsor School?  Losing his girlfriend to Holbrook? 

NYMysteries Feb. 23

KGB is at 85 East 4th Street. Its speakeasy bar, the Red Room, is squashed into the second floor up a steep flight of stairs that would have given Alfred Hitchcock ideas for another Psycho sequel. I went to an open mike session sponsored by the Mystery Writers of America. Nervous? Yes. Excited? Yeeees. I read the first chapter of my revised version of Graphic Lessons and received an enthusiastic response. KGB features nightly performances of writers of different genres: fiction writers, mystery writers, trumpet writers. (What’s that?) Monday night is poetry night. The atmosphere is prohibition cozy: dark, crowded with lots of chairs and a bar that runs one side of the room.  It’s a rainy fall or winter night atmosphere twelve months of the year.

 

 

 

KGB
KGB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Isn’t it fun to surprise friends with a restaurant that’s different in design but great in what counts: delicious food, efficient and friendly service. IchiUmi at 32nd Street and Fifth fits the bill. Its buffet runs for miles and don’t forget desserts and other goodies on the other side of the restaurant. 

IchiUmi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IchiUmi

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 private 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 never listens or accuses her of lying? Her father who’s started a new family in 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 being stabbed ?  His hated boss, Captain Dick Holbrook, being a trustee of the Windsor School?  Losing his girlfriend to Holbrook? 

NYMysteries Feb. 16

We’re sitting in tiny $100 seats in the Minetta Lane Theatre on Minetta Lane waiting for Colin Quinn’s show, Red State Blue State to begin. But wait. A vagrant in a hand-me-down shirt, Salvation Army jeans, and a batch of new whiskers moseys onto the set.  Should we call Security? No. It’s Colin Quinn, everyman’s everyman. Quinn dives into the state of the nation. He has a pleasant edge. If you were arguing with him, bar stool to bar stool, he would make you listen even though he’s pro-guns and pro-death penalty . He’s also pro-choice and pro-marriage equality. In other words, he’s a mix. Colin Quinn for vice president on the Howard Schultz ticket! 

Red State Blue State is a one man show with a cast of thousands. Well, a crew of nineteen including Quinn. Edward T. Morris’s set is great. It’s a  back wall of wooden planks with splotches of U. S. states. Quinn has a great riff describing the various qualities of all fifty.  Red State Blue State is 75 minutes of manufactured simplicity and honesty and it works.

 

 

Edward T. Morris’s Red State Blue State set

 

 

 

 

An annual event I dearly love is our Chinese New Year’s dinner at Evergreen. I have all the fun. A wonderful friend from hiking days does all the work. We were twenty four old friends who spun with gusto the gigantic lazy Susan laden with Shanghai-influenced dumplings, noodles, pork buns and more.

 

 

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 private 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 never listens or accuses her of lying? Her father who’s started a new family in 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 being stabbed ?  His hated boss, Captain Dick Holbrook, being a trustee of the Windsor School?  Losing his girlfriend to Holbrook?