Wesley Armstrong, the best plumber in American and the second most important man in my life, was in the hotel last week getting the air conditioning operational.  Wesley told Noel and me the story of one of his many brothers doing two tours in Viet Nam almost forty years ago.  Warren had been wounded twice, and his family always felt grateful he came home in good health. 

Recently, a Vet from Kansas made a trip to Viet Nam.  While there, he visited a junk shop that offered a large tray of American soldiers’ dog tags for sale.   The fellow from Kansas purchased the whole tray and brought them back to a Boy Scout troop he was involved with back home.

Warren has just received his dog tags along with a detailed letter explaining the project from the young men of the Boy Scout troop.

I hope they all earned a merit badge. 

One of the perks of spending my winter on Sanibel Island is to partake of the “Forum” at BIG ARTS .  Many interesting speakers on a variety of topics give a thirty-five minute lecture and take questions from an audience that can seat no more than 415 people.  The hottest ticket this past winter was for the Justice Ginsburg’s lecture.  When Mr. Brown down the street was unable to attend and gave me his ticket, I jumped at the chance to hear my second speech from a sitting Supreme Court Justice.  Ten years ago I was a guest at a luncheon where Justice Scalia spoke.

Justice Ginsburg spoke about writing descenting opinions and took several questions from the audience.  Her husband cooks for her every night, her greatest treat is an opera, she thinks Linda Greenhouse at The New York Times has a brillant command and talent for interpeting what goes on at the Court, the Court receives between seven and nine thousand petitions per year–some of which are handwritten from prisioners, and she socializes with Justice Scalia.  

At the end of the lecture Justice Ginsburg went into the reception hall to meet and greet.  (She donned a pair of beige gloves for the handshaking.)  I went in to the reception hall to meet the folks I had come with looking for my ride home.  It was Justice Ginsburg, her Secret Service contingent and me. 

Without the need for a handshake and without a question, I told Justice Ginsburg that I was at Saratoga Racecourse the same day several years ago that she was a guest of the president of Skidmore College.  She sat in a box on the finish line and I sat in a box many rows behind her.  I told her that each time the people behind her either exited their boxes or returned to their boxes, they were interviewed by her Secret Service contingent.  With just two minutes to posttime for the seventh race, a Damon Runyon type jumped out of his box to run to the betting windows.  The Secret Service jumped on him.  Eager to get his wager down, he loudly exclaimed  to Justice Ginsburg’s bodyguards, “I’m here to play the horses.  What is she here for?  She hasn’t moved all day!”

By then a line had formed behind me.  Justice Ginsburg looked up and welcomed the next person.

I returned to Saratoga Springs last week after a wonderful winter on Sanibel Island.  I drove down in January by way of a fabric mill in South Carolina.  (The sign on the door of the mill advised, “No Loaded Firearms Allowed Inside”.)  I stopped in Atlanta for America’s Mart, where I ordered some wonderful lamps and furniture and rugs for the terraces.  I arrived back at Saratoga Arms in time for the US Food show across the street at the City Center where I chose the new china pattern for the hotel.  We have been using a service for three hundred that we purchased nearly thirty years ago when we were in the restaurant game.

Even though I get to spend my winters in sunny Florida, I try to use that time to expedite the constant refreshing that enables us to earn the title of the nicest hotel in town. It’s obvious I didn’t use my Florida time to refresh my blog. 

General Manager daughter was asked by the New York State Hospitality and Tourism Association (NYSHTA) to participate in a press conference headlined by New York State First Lady Silda Spitzer.  The press conference was held to launch a statewide promotion called “Cozy Inn”.  Until the end of March if anyone books at participating hotels, inns and motels (yes, Saratoga Arms is one of them) for a Friday and Saturday night the Sunday night is free.  The press conference was held on a beautiful Sunday morning in Battery Park in NYC overlooking the Hudson river and the Statue of Liberty.  Mrs. Spitzer was warm, gracious and an advocate for the NYS hospitality industry.  So if you are able to get away to Saratoga Springs for a weekend, make it 3 nights and the last night is on us!!!  Just mention Cozy Inn when you are making your booking and we’ll give you Sunday night.

(Those featured in the picture from left to right are:  Bill Schickel-Geneva on the Lake, Jan Chesterton and Daniel Murphy-NYSHTA, First Lady Silda Wall Spitzer, Howard Mont-Sparrow Hawk Bed & Breakfast, Amy Smith-Saratoga Arms)

 A lady telephoned on Monday (December 10, 2007).  She stayed at Saratoga Arms in early November but couldn’t remember which room.  She is packing for a Christmas trip to Mexico and cannot locate her charger.  Did she leave it here?  Tech-savvy daughter asked what brand.  “No idea”, says she.  “It’s very different looking” was the only clue she could give. The computer told T/S daughter what room she had stayed in.  T/S daughter went to the Lost and Found Log and found something that might have been left around the first part of November. 

Now here’s where it gets to be amazing.  Tech-savvy daughter takes a picture of the missing equipment and emails it off to woman packing for Mexico from her iPhone.  “Is this yours?”  Two minutes later woman packing for Mexico emails back with her Fedex number.  And now that it is Wednesday, the charger is in the Mexico bound suitcase. 

I just want to keep up.

As I said in my previous blog, people leave lots of their life behind in their hotel rooms.  Years ago, the housekeepers turned in an engagement ring found in the corner on the carpet.  It held an unusually small diamond, and the office staff theorized that its size was no doubt a surprise to the bride to be.  It was probably tossed across the room and each must have thought the other retrieved it.  No one has ever telephoned for its return, and you know my rule.

There has been a book left behind many times this fall.  Eat, Pray, Love.  All of these copies have been left with bookmarks about one hundred pages into it.  No one has ever telephoned for its return either.  Apologies to Oprah, but I think many ladies are getting stuck.

Based on these “in house” reviews, I have chosen not to attempt to read it. 

Daughter just had a sitdown with her mother explaining the duties of a blogger.  I am not paying attention to the timeliness factor.  Well, said I, business is starting to “seasonally adjust” and I took a trip to visit her sister and the triplets, visited her baby sister to celebrate her last birthday in the 20’s and by way of a long, long story, I attended the awards dinner for the International Center for Journalists at the Reagan Building in Washington, DC.

George Stephanopoulos was Master of Ceremonies, I had a chance to “mingle” with Bob Schieffer (and tell him how much I enjoyed him on the CBS nightly news), Tom Brokaw and Bob and Leigh Woodruff and lots of other interesting people.  One of the honorees that evening was a young Egyptian man named Wael Abbas.  He received the 2007 Knight International Journalism Award, the first time such a prestigious award had been given to a blogger.  His introduction stated that “Egyptian journalists are struggling to work as the government imposes new restrictions on their activities, underscored by arrests, convictions and imprisonment. …It is in this context that in 2004 Abbas launched his ‘Egyptian Awareness’ blog.  Abbas has broken news on subjects generally avoided by local media:  protests, corruption, and police brutality.  His vivid first-hand reports, videos and photographs have attracted thousands of viewers and the attention of mainstream news outlets…He has been arrested, beaten by thugs, and faces persistent government harassment and intimidation.  ‘I am an Egyptian blogger,’ he wrote in The Washington Post, ‘and the Mubarak regime is out to get me and others like me.’”

As I listened to the efforts he makes to get his blog out, I thought perhaps I could pay a little more attention to mine.