Algonquin Round Table

During my newspaper career in Williamsburg, our daughters came to work occasionally after school. The company was a family-friendly place where kids learned to get organized and help out. It was kind of like sailing.

Some children learned to type there. The risk was that a soda would spill on the keyboard, but it was an acceptable risk. I thought of all this in the context of the White Sox player who quit rather than let management deny his son regular access to the locker room.

Naturally the girls would come to appreciate the language and idioms of newspapers. If any of us had one more thing for the dishwasher or the washing machine, we would interject, “This just in.”

Their newspaper exposure taught them about proper grammar. To this day we trade photos and stories about redundant phrases, ironic situations and misplaced modifiers.

Bonnie and I went to New York City over the winter with our younger daughter Wendy. She wanted very much to see the old Algonquin Hotel, where the famous writers of the 1920s hung out.

It’s dark and elegant and rich with history. On the early evening we stopped by, the staff was eager to welcome us because apparently so few people today know about the Algonquin Round Table. Bonnie pored over a little bound book that was the bar menu.  It included a history of the Round Table and had the makings of “The Dorothy Parker Cocktail.” The name of the book:

Let’s Go Sail

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