Washington DC - Publishing and Politics

Half of the year my husband and I live and work from The Adirondacks. It is a beautiful place to be Spring, Summer, Fall, and.... Is it already Winter? It is still only October and scraping the ice and snow off my car this morning before my drive to the Albany airport reminded me again why winter is an excellent time to be down in South Florida, where we will be heading in about three weeks.


I arrive in DC and have fun talking to everyone I meet - cab drivers, waitresses - about the upcoming election. Everyone is really excited and optimistic, and I wish I was going to be here next Tuesday when the results come in. I hope it will be the great change for the better that we all are hoping for. I drop my bags at the hotel and walk over to the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

I stop in on Karen Siatras, designer and production manager at The Smithsonian, and she is buried under with catalogues she and the staff are rushing to organize and get sent out. A few months ago we reprinted a title for Karen on the 19th Century American artist GEORGE CATLIN, painter of American Indians and the American West. Karen waxes poetic on how wonderful it is to work in Italy versus China. I do nothing to try to convince her otherwise - and we discuss the possibility of doing more work together in the future in Italy, if only the exchange rate would improve just a little more.....


Later I am back at my hotel. My favorite hotel. If I was a hotel I would be this hotel. But it shall remain nameless since it is already nearly impossible to get a room unless you book weeks in advance.

As usual my room is adorable, though there is one feature just outside my door that I am finding a little disconcerting. (Some of the rooms have shared baths, but....)

I have dinner at the bar. A steady stream of regulars stop in for a drink or dinner and to chat with Chantal, the bartender.

One Frenchman who I have seen before waves his arm in the general direction of the room full of diners and says "this whole place is full of Democrats! The owner of the hotel will not even allow a Republican through the front door!"  Following this remark I am surprised that the next person who sits down announces that he is - A Republican! He lives in Alexandria and sells mortgages. He says to me in a confidential whisper, "Obama scares me"  and knocks back his vodka tonic. The tiles that decorate the bar area would seem to indicate that the hotel bar is really a non-partisan watering hole. Looking closely at the tile work I notice that cavorting with the elephants and donkeys are a few small rats (note middle right edge), which may be the best indication of the hotel's true political sentiments.