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Leslie’s On Zee Go Newsletter

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”

— Mahatm Gandhi 

Packing Again
 

BACK TO SCHOOL
 

Say it isn’t so. No more sleeping in, lounging by the pool. Whine. Whine. And it’s back to writing as much and as fast as I can. I really wish there was a way to physically write faster, to have the words pour out of my brain through my fingers, into the keyboard and up on the page. Ugh. Patience is a virtue. One I am lacking.
 




PLASTICS, OUR OCEANS AND ME

From http://www.oceana.org/our-campaigns/plastics: “An estimated 17.6 billion pounds of plastic leaks into the marine environment from land-based sources every year—this is roughly equivalent to dumping a garbage truck full of plastic into the oceans every minute.”

Bob and I are huge supporters of Oceana, an organization that as Mr. President said: “Oceana is old-fashioned in their efforts. They make a commitment, raise the funds, spend the funds on the cause and deliver the metrics on the impact.” They do.

Their Gala, this year as in last year was at the iconic Rainbow Room. It is put together by our friends Susan and David Rockefeller and is always the most fun evening. Usually these things (as ya all know) are rubber chicken boring nights where you cannot wait to leave. This is unlike that. First, it’s in the Rainbow Room, which is gorgeous and iconic. Second, the speeches are short and to the point. There is dancing galore (as opposed to Gabor); I had a pinched nerve so had to leave early. And yes, I did wear trash on my head. I always wear a big crazy fascinator. This year, knowing it was a plastic event, I wrapped bubble wrap, New York Times plastic bag that our newspaper comes in, pill bottles, cork, shells, san, toothpaste tube, and a whole bunch of other shit that washes in our ocean killing the marine life and ultimately us on my head.

We are trying around the house to clean up. Going back to soap bars, biodegradable trash bags instead of recycled ones. Looking for cosmetic companies that package in something other than plastic, detergent in boxes. Straws: glass, metal, they have folding ones you can carry. Carry compostable or reusable cutlery (I got a great one from To-Go Ware (courtesy of Oceana) its made with Bamboo, comes in its own pack. Easy. Great for school lunches too. (We’ll see how many they lose). I am reaching out via social media to companies asking them to get rid of their single-use plastic. You can too. The ask is just a tweet away.

“A meager 9 percent of all plastic waste generated has been recycled. Recycling alone is not enough to solve the plastics crisis. To have an impact, we must reduce the amount of single-use plastic being produced at the source. Oceana’s plastics campaign will urge companies to adopt alternatives for single-use plastic packaging.”

Where Dead People Go
 

SAVANNAH

Couple days here in the hot and humid weather where the love bugs are out and doing their loving. Everywhere! But what a beautiful city. I re-read “In the Garden of Love and Evil,” before going so when I toured the house where the murder takes placed and walked through the squares, I’d have some background. Besides the southern food my favorite venture was getting up early and walking through Boneventure Cemetery. I love old cemeteries. And this one is huge, old and as romantic as cemeteries can go. Unfortunately, in the fist 5 minutes we were eaten ALIVE by encouraged-by-blood mosquitos. So slow and lazy they were easy to kill, but then the blood when spraying all over. Seriously

PALM SPRINGS

It has cooled down enough to return to my swinging city! It was a besties’ birthday weekend and so I wanted to try places I had not gone before. Here’s the food and drink report: Tac/Quila, great new Jalisco-style restaurant, beautifully decorated, music, fantastic service and food and tequila! (Or so I heard!). The Del Rey bar, super dark, sexy and elegant at the Villa Royale, an old hotel rumored to have been built for Sonja Henie in the ‘40s. (Actor, Norwegian, and Ice Skating Queen) The Pink Cabana for dinner way out at the Sands, the most gorgeous room, crap wine list. Breakfast at the Purple Palm (I wrote about this for something, I can’t remember! But the gist of it is the Colony Palm Hotel, where the restaurant is was built by a mobster who belonged to the Purple Gang. The owner of the racehorse Seabiscuit at one point owned the hotel).

Sonja Henie (She’s Almost Burlesque)
 

COCO
You know I’m crazy for Zsa Zsa Gabor. Hae written about her for the Huffington Post and got a few of her items at auction. Seemed appropriate our glam girl Coco sit on Zsa Zsa’s director’s chair. Right?

Have you subscribed to Coco’s You Tube channel? Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj2i8cr83ezcPjQ-vEv4ASA

WEIRD HISTORY
London in the 1850s was a dirty place. Can you imagine wearing a beautiful Worth gown (for example) of flounces and lace and silk booties and navigating through excrement and dirt? So, Crossing Sweepers would literally sweep a path ahead of people for a tip. Clever. The path that they cleared was called a “broom walk,” (as opposed to a cake walk). I found one reference to Crossing Sweepers as “cripples, and old men and women, shrivelled like dry wrinkled apples . . . “Children of course also took up the broom often fighting each other for domination of their turf. Okay that is your Victorian history lesson for this month.

Burlesque and Pinup Emojis
If your BOOK CLUB would like me to visit via Skype, I’m available. It’s been fun coming into your homes, sending specialty FAN cocktail  recipes before for you all to try. email me at staar@staarlet.com if you want me to join in. A questionnaire is on the website to download for your Book Club.
Books and Biscuits

“Dopesick” by Beth Macy is the BEST book I’ve read all year (and I’m up to about #74). Even though I had read her “Truvine” and loved it, when I saw this on my husband’s bed stand, I thought, boring! Opioid crises. Headline news. Give me the Second Empire any day. But . . . having no book to read in Savannah I stole it from him. I finished it a day later. It is so powerful and tragic and moving beyond what I could have imagined. It’s a story about PEOPLE and what opioids have done to them. I could not recommend this book enough. Reads easy, well and . . . just go get it!!! (Picture above taken at an amazing bakery in Savannah, Back in the Day. So good, I bought their recipe book – so CAKE ALERT!!
Baking Bitch is Upping her Decorating Game
(not blue dye but blue spirulina)

P.S. Yes, I had read “In the Garden of Good and Evil,” but really couldn’t remember it. So, I re-read it, which I hardly ever do, so many books, so little time! Another author to check out, my friend Karen Abbott and fellow historian’s “The Ghosts of Eden Park” about a bootlegger during the 1920s and the WOMAN who brought him down. This is a fascinating character, Mabel Walker Willebrandt. Willebrandt was 32 years old when President Harding appointed her assistant attorney general of the United States in 1921. Women had only just been granted (after fighting like hell) the right to vote. She was single, determined and had a hearing problem that required her to wear hearing aids. She would spend an hour every day styling her hair to hide them. She would investigate and be responsible for bring the bootlegger in Abbott’s boot to justice.

Almost through with Jo Nesbo (MY FAVORITE) “The Knife.” More on him next month.

And what I’m reading or recently read
for complete list, I have everything on Good Reads
as I can’t remember them all!

My best-seller FEUDING FAN DANCERS will be out in paperback October. If you do get on Amazon PLEASE leave me a nice review it helps so much! Thank you to my publisher Counterpoint Press.

See ya between the pages next month . . . (if there ae any typos this month – and every month, its cuz I’m dashing . . . in stilettos.


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