Back in the BAR

The newspaper, not the booze hole. They ran an updated article on my Jackie auction/eviction story today. Nice story. Although the picture of a 64 year old man holding the figurine of a 3 year old boy turned sexiest man alive of 1988 might give some pause. I don’t see it.

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Travel has always been the best tonic for me. Stepping away from problems and out of the daily routine puts things in perspective. It recharges the batteries and helps with the creative juices. There’s no better time to think than on a 4 hour flight when you have nothing to read and refuse to watch yet another Kate Hudson romantic comedy.

I’m taking a four day weekend to sip the tonic and prepare for the drama that is coming next week. The mid-west is having another frightful winter but there is an upside to zero degree weather: cheap airfare and cheap hotels. Tonight I’m at one of my favorites, The Palmer House in Chicago.

To me hotel lobbies are usually a let down. I’ve stayed at some grand hotels through the years: the George V in Paris, the Hotel Imperial in Vienna, Beck’s Motor Lodge in the Castro. Their lobbies were elegant but understated. But the first time I rode up the escalator at the Palmer House the great reveal was amazing. Their lobby is like a Beaux Arts Sistine Chapel

It was the work of Bertha Palmer who had too much time and too much of her husband’s money on her hands. She hired the artists and had Tiffany do the light fixtures. In her spare time, she invented the Brownie.

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The Jackie Obsession

• The Metropolitan Museum of Jackie
• Life in the Pink Suit
• Winning Streak
• Life of Outrage, Life of Beauty
• Life, Afterlife and Lowlife
• Feliz dia veinteidios de Noviembre!
• High Jackie
• Low Jackie
• Clearing the Cobwebs
• Eviction Countdown Day 6
• Jackie’s Tears