What’s that white stuff? Oh, it’s snow. I’ve just returned from the land of sunshine, Florida. Glorious weather, Cumulus clouds, friendly, POLITE people, lovely drinks, delicious wholesome and not wholesome food and poker.

When you say you’ve been to Florida you’re asked where in Florida. i.e. how rich are you. Well, showing you my bank account, I was in Stuart, Ft. Pierce and Fort Lauderdale. Two hospitable friends shared the honors of entertaining me. First, in Ft. Pierce, my host  arranged for us to go to several natural farms and have a late stupendous lunch in one and a five course dinner at Kai-Kai. We planned a dinner party for the last night I was there. Such excitement. Any excuse to buy far too much at food stands. He also took me to the Flaglier Museum, known as Whitehall to the locals. In addition to a scrumptious tea, after a light breakfast of bloody marys, we walked around the mansion built by the railroad magnet. We climbed the stairs down which Flagier fell (pushed?) to his death. The highlight of the day was a lecture given by Professor Erica Ryan, When the World Broke in Two: The Roaring Twenties and the Reshaping of American culture. Her account of the KKK’s rise was chilling. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mine host and I drove to Fort Lauderdale and lunched with my friend who was putting me up and putting up with me for a few days. That evening she and I played poker. We went to Kelly’s with a group of her friends. What a great experience. How patient people were with my attempt to learn Texas holdem. We ducked in and out of the unusual shops on Las Olas Boulevard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we took the water taxi to Margaritaville. Down the river we went. It was a lovely day, not too hot, a hint of rain. After a hamburger large enough for a family of four, we walked down the beach stopping to listen to an outdoor concert by Paul Anka era musicians. So beautiful, so calm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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?