I've just returned from dropping my niece off at Kennedy Airport, where she will board a flight home to Denver. Tanya moved out there 30 years ago, married a guy a lot older than herself, divorced but stayed. She loves the area and is now so out of touch with Brooklyn. She fell in love with a guy from Grand Rapids, Michigan, moved there, then moved back to Colorado when that union failed. She re-started from scratch, moving in with a girlfriend until she was able to support herself. She landed a plum job as a weight loss counselor. She's doing very well, which is no surprise, as she is blessed with the gift of gab. My mom used to call her "avocatessa," which translates to "lady lawyer." Although I'm glad she is in the place she loves, we will not see her as often. A 14-hour drive has been replaced by a cross country trek.
The floating bookshop got a visit from Kofi, a regular customer, today. I found out he works in the psych department at Coney Island Hospital. He makes a lot of house calls and says patients are getting younger and younger. I asked his opinion about the drugs that are being given to children. He believes they are doing damage and blames it on pharmaceutical companies, which pressure doctors to pass out the pills. He also claims that any parent who opposes an ADD diagnosis is threatened with having the child taken away. Scary stuff.
I also got a visit from John, a retired teacher and aspiring writer. He is so intimidated by the process of book submission that he is suffering what baseball announcer Tim McCarver used to call "paralysis by analysis." He has written a thriller that is also an indictment of the war on drugs. For the second time, I urged him to submit it All Things That Matter Press. I don't know if it will be accepted, but I believe the publisher, Phil Harris, would be interested in the drug war angle. Good luck, John.
A while later a middle aged guy who recently had knee replacement surgery showed. He was on his way to a blood test. Initially, his cholesterol was too high, now it's too low. He, like my friend Arlynn, is feeling like a lab rat. Before he left he purchased Rizzo's War, Lou Manfredo's first novel, set in the old neighborhood, Bensonhurst. Thanks, sir. And thanks to the young lady who bought a large pictorial and Stephen King's Thinner just before the rain came.
For the 19th consecutive year the Pittsburgh Pirates will have a losing record. Halfway through the season they seemed a lock to break the streak. I know this is meaningless in the grand scheme of things, but it is stunning.
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