“In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.”
John Adams
Onward….
I’m spending some summer time in Portland, OR. The NYC-Portland Delta flight was smooth. I had remembered Delta as a dating site for attendants who were busy pleasing male customers. No more. At least not on this flight. Gone are the fly me girls. Now, there are mature people who concentrate on service to everyone.
As my pals know, I’ve had some unforgettable, slightly grusome experiences during my previous visits: last year’s airbnb, the Amtrak caper where many others and I were forced to sleep in the Lounge. I hasten to add that I’ve stayed in a charming cottage, a cool basement, Victorian hotels with very modern rates and am now at the Inn@ Northrup Station. Over a yearly ritual, martinis at the Benson, a dear friend told me that Northrup Station was originally built to provide lodging for flying attendants. Imagine handing Salvator Dali buckets of paint and a gift card to a second hand store . Result: The Northrup. It’s oddly charming or charmingly odd. Chartreuse dominates, animal prints, free streetcar passes.The weather is a silky coolness.
Graphic Lessons: Recent thirty-five-year-old widow Millie Fitzgerald applies for a private school teaching job, faints on a stabbed and dying man in the school kitchen, deals with the only witness to the stabbing – a troubled nine-year-old, develops a crush on a NYPD detective and her dog dies.
Graphic Lessons: Nine-year-old Dana is the only witness who overhears three people 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: Something’s eating at NYPD Detective Steve Kulchek: a failed marriage? surviving a car bomb? his girlfriend marrying his corrupt boss? screwing up an important case? It doesn’t matter because he’s relentless.