After Left Coast Crime

Annamaria on Monday

It's Sunday afternoon and though most of my dear ones are gone, I am still here in Tucson. Because I wanted to stay here for the Sunday morning events, I had only one choice if I wanted to fly home today: fly to LAX and take the redeye to arrive early on Monday morning. I declined. I have taken the redeye many times in the past, but I think it is now against my religion to suffer that ever again.

So, after heartfelt goodbye hugs to friends I see all too infrequently, I am in my room working on my blog in between a lovely lunch and up coming dinner with writer friends who live nearby.  My plan was to prepare for writing this post by walking around the grounds of the hotel and photographing the wildlife alleged to be nearby and easy to find.  I walked and looked and walked and looked.  Nada.

Here are a few photos of the area that are , more or less, worth looking at:

This is as close as I got to seeing a cowboy

I know.  I owe the readers of MIE something better than this.  But the past few days have been so warm, so full of affection and friendship and have included one of my loveliest birthdays ever.  i am still basking in the glow of it all and cannot summon my usual determination.

I wanted, at the very least to show you all a photo of one of the legendary creatures that live nearby - a roadrunner.  I went to all the places where other attendees of the conference said they saw them.  No dice.

Here is the best I can do:

I am pretty sure that you laughed as hard as I did.  As far as I can tell, cartoons like this one are one of greatest artefacts of American culture.

Meeet meeet.

A Few Thoughts From Saguaro Land.

 

Jeff–Saturday

 

I absolutely love Left Coast Crime and this year, after a three-year Covid-induced absence from the US mystery convention circuit, Barbara and I are in Tucson, spending an absolutely delightful time engaged in face-to-face reunions with long missed book friends and MIE blog mates Annamaria, Kwei, Wendall, and LCC Guest of Honor Sujata.

 

I thought of posting a host of photos documenting our experiences thus far, but instead promised Sister Annamaria that I’d leave it to her to do the photo honors in her Monday slot. Instead, I decided to launch off on something that stared me in the face when I looked in the hotel mirror this morning.

 

Here’s what I saw.

 

Not what you expected?

 

I’ve spent thousands of overnights in hotel rooms, and never do I recall seeing anything quite like that before. 

 

Yes, I’ve seen placards appealing for guests to save water by reusing towels or putting off bedding changes, but never one advising guests that making beds, cleaning bathrooms, and emptying trash will not be provided unless requested, albeit “For stays of 4 nights or longer, we will provide a full room cleaning every 5^th day using Lysol protection.”

 

I suspect it’s a Covid-instituted position intended to protect housekeeping staff and guests from infecting one another.  But what’s the justification for keeping that in effect in today’s post-Covid restrictions times?

 

To me it’s simple.  Reduced housekeeping services means a direct reduction in labor costs and a concomitant increase in profits—unless of course there’s been a reduction in room rates to compensate guests asked to endure unmade, unclean, and trashy rooms?

 

Is anyone willing to take that bet?

 

I doubt my experience is isolated or unique, but rather a phenomenon playing out across a hospitality industry that’s come to accept as gospel a simple business principle: if the consumer is willing to endure, why change? 

 

My being asked to endure for the greater good of many appeals to me. Being asked to endure so that the many in need of work remain unhired in order to better profit the bottom line, does not.   

 

I think I’ll sic Barbara on them.

 

––Jeff

  

Tucson, MIE's On Its Way.

 

Saturday–Jeff

 

Next Thursday I’ll be in Tucson for Left Coast Crime, a conference I love, and not just because it once honored me as a nominee for Best Mystery in a Foreign Setting.  As an aside, when you’re nominated in the same category as Louise Penny (or William Kent Krueger) you soon learn to appreciate just the honor of the nomination. 

 

Left Coast Crime simply is one of those gems of a conference that always seems to pick just the right place to be, and the perfect folk to honor.  In this year selecting our own Sujata Massey as a Guest of Honor, LCC continues a tradition of conferring well-deserved praise upon our MIE contributors. In 2014 LCC Monterey chose Cara Black as a Guest of Honor, and in 2015 LCC Portland selected Tim Hallinan.

 

How can you not love a conference that shows such terrific taste in choosing its Guests of Honor?  By the way, each year’s LCC picks a catchy name for itself, and Tucson’s is “Trouble in Tucson.”  Here’s a link to all the info on next week’s conference.

 

I’m looking forward to breaking my three-year-long Covid induced absence from the US mystery conference circuit with this trip to Arizona––land of the Saguaro and other prickly things.

 

I’ll be participating in two panels, one as a panelist on Friday and the other as a moderator on Saturday, each kicks off at 9AM Pacific Time. I think I pulled that time slot because I’ll still be functioning on Eastern Time aka 12 noon.

 

Here are the details on my appearances:

 

Friday, March 17 @ 9:00AM

Left Coast Crime

Tucson, AZ – El Conquistador, Turquoise 1

Participating in Panel moderated by Alice Volpe titled, “Crimes Around the World,” with co-panelists Connie Berry, Juliet Grames, Carlene O’Connor.

 

Saturday, March 18 @ 9:00AM

Left Coast Crime

Tucson, AZ – El Conquistador, Presidio 1-2

Moderating Panel titled, “Both Sides of the Law,” with panelists Curtis Ippolito, Margaret Morse, Karen Odden, Michael Sears

 

And here are some photos from a past LCC conference in Hawaii.  I’ll have new ones for you next week.

 

––Jeff

 

The view from our hotel room of the complex hosting the conference:

Our Murder is Everywhere blogmates hard at work...on the right:

Sujata

Susan

Faces in the crowd:

Maryglenn McCombs, Ovida Yu, Dru Ann Love,  Anonymous Photobomber

Robert Rosenwald, Barbara Peters, Interloper

Ragnar Jonasson, Barry Lancet