From our vantage in the Putney building above the Black Trumpet restaurant where we've resided for two months, one of the focal visuals in the evening is the Clarke Hotel and attached restaurant known as the Black Trumpet.
The question of the moment is, has the Black Trumpet sounded for the Black Trumpet? We have seen very few customers through their windows during our two months here. VERY few.
Quite often the place is empty. The roofline running lights are off. Napkins are folded neatly on vacant table tops. Wine glasses wait desolately to be filled. Now the city taxing authorities are threatening not to renew their license to allow alcohol for those wineglasses unless delinquent 130K property taxes are paid up by June 30. A ruling is expected by the Common Council next Tuesday.
Other embroilments threaten, per the news......
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A Carroll County Maryland memory book sits atop our little table in the upstairs bathroom. Among the pictures within is this shot of an old jail in the shape of a true can.
Could this be where the term "in the can" originated? The steel plating forming the structure was sold for scrap iron during WW II, the caption says. (Enlarge)
Mona, the animal kingdom's representative in our household.
An antique hand crank pencil sharpener sits atop a chair on our landing to the loft. Son Lee gave it back to us for safe-keeping while he moves to Houston to begin his Teach for America two year stint, following his recent graduation from UW Madison.
