Movie to Book

It is common for movies to be based on books, however the novel that I chose to read on my flights to and from Ohio was the opposite.  It was based on the screenplay of a movie.

 "Amistad" is a 1997 historical drama directed by Stephen Spielberg.  It tells the true story of a successful revolt aboard a Cuban slave ship in 1839.  When the ship sails into U.S. waters, it is seized, and the black mutineers are put on trial for murder.  The case went all the way to the Supreme Court.  I saw the movie many years ago and enjoyed it.

Alexs Pate, a writer and professor, took the movie screenplay and turned it into a novel.  Pate's literary style is not extraordinary (one reviewer described it as "clunky"), but it is easy to read... a simple, straight-forward retelling of the story.  The story itself is extraordinary and makes the book worthwhile.  However, this is one case where I would recommend the movie over the novel.

According to the Dictionary

 

(Image taken from the internet)

Flying Back Home

Last Thursday I left Ohio and flew back home to Mexico City.  My flight from Cleveland to Houston was scheduled to leave at 6:00 AM.  You are supposed to be at the airport two hours before the flight, and I had to return my rental car, so I set the alarm that morning for 3:00 AM.

It seems that there are a large number of flights leaving Cleveland in the early morning.  The shuttle bus from the car rental center to the terminal was standing room only, and the line for security was the longest I experienced on this trip.

My flight boarded and left the gate on time.  At that hour it was still dark.

Most of the flight was in darkness.

We were somewhere over Arkansas before the sky began to brighten.

The flight arrived in Houston slightly ahead of the scheduled time of 8:00.

I had a fairly long layover in Houston... around three hours.  Since I was flying first class on an international route, I was entitled to use the United Club lounge.  When I arrived, the lounge was jammed with hardly a place to sit down.  It was so crowded that people with one-time passes through their credit card were denied entry.  The crowd thinned out, however, about a half hour later, and the lounge was more relaxing.

From the window of the United Club

The gate for my flight to Mexico was just a short walk from the lounge.  It also boarded and left the gate on schedule.  Soon we were in air, and I was on my way home.

The plane flew out over the Gulf of Mexico, and north of Tampico we headed inland over the interior of Mexico.

The skies were cloudy over Mexico, and I not able to see anything below until we were descending to land.

There was no line to pass through immigration, and my suitcase arrived on the carrousel quickly.  At customs some people had to put their luggage through an X-ray scanner.  I was a bit worried since I had purchased so many personal items that I cannot find in Mexico... a couple eight-packs of soap and a dozen sticks of deodorant.  However, they must have thought that I was just another "gringo" tourist, and they waved me through without scanning my suitcase.

Once outside of customs, Alejandro was there to meet me and drive me back to the apartment.  I was home!

Last Meal in Ohio

My last evening in Ohio I had dinner by myself at a local Indian restaurant called the Saffron Patch.  Indian cuisine is one of my favorites.  We have a very good Indian restaurant in Mexico City just a couple blocks away from the apartment.  However, my introduction to Indian food was at the Saffron Patch many years ago.

As a starter I ordered "paneer pakora".  "Paneer" is an Indian version of cottage cheese, and "pakora" is a fried fritter.  These fritters were stuffed with chutney.  It was served with dipping sauces of mint and of tamarind.

For my main course I ordered chicken tikka masala, one of the best known Indian dishes, but one which probably did not originate in India.  It is thought to have been created by a South Asian chef in Great Britain.  It is debated who exactly invented the dish, but it has become one of the most popular dishes in Britain.

Along with the tikka masala I had garlic naan, Indian flatbread.  To drink I had a mango lassi, a traditional yogurt based drink.

The meal was very tasty, and I am glad to see that the quality of the restaurant remains as good as I remember.

Historical Footnote

While I was on Public Square in downtown Cleveland, I saw this historical marker which I had not noticed before.

The marker deals with Abraham Lincoln's funeral.  After his assassination, the President's remains were transported by train from Washington, D.C., to Springfield, Illinois, for interment.  Along the way the train stopped at eleven cities.  It came to Cleveland on April, 28th, 1865.  Unlike the other cities, where the casket lay in state in capitol buildings, city halls and other structures, in Cleveland the body was placed outdoors under a canopy on Public Square.  This enabled tens of thousands of people to view the President's remains before continuing on to Columbus.  Estimates of the number of mourners in Cleveland who viewed the coffin range from 60,000 to 150,000.

On the internet I found this historic photograph of the canopy that was built for the occasion.

  

No Lunch for Me

After I was done voting at the Board of Elections, I thought about stopping somewhere for a bite to eat.  I really wasn't hungry, but I wanted to take advantage of a very unique place in downtown Cleveland.

On the corner of Euclid Avenue and East 9th Street is a historic building which was the former headquarters of the Cleveland Trust Bank.

This architectural gem was constructed in 1907.  The interior features a dramatic rotunda and mural paintings.  In 2015, Heinen's, an upscale chain of supermarkets in the Cleveland area, opened a store here.  It was called one of the most beautiful grocery stores in the country, and became a tourist attraction.  In the prepared foods section, there were tables where you could enjoy lunch in this magnificent setting.

I had eaten there a few times in the past when I was downtown, and I walked over to Euclid Avenue to have some lunch. Imagine my disappointment to discover that the store closed permanently just a few months ago.

It would seem that a downtown grocery store would be a great asset given the growing number of people living here.  However the growth of delivery services such as DoorDash made the store economically unsustainable.

I then remembered that there were food trucks on Public Square, so I headed down there.

However, lunch hour was over, and by the time I reached Public Square, the food trucks were driving away.

I crossed over to Terminal Tower to take the train back to the suburbs.

Oh well.  I usually only eat two meals a day, and as much as I had been eating on this trip, I really could do without lunch! 

More from Cleveland

Cleveland boasts some truly beautiful architecture.  Here are some more photos that I took when I went to vote at the Board of Elections.

Cleveland has one of the top library systems in the country.  The main branch on Superior Avenue is a five story building in Renaissance style that opened in 1925.  Beyond it you can see the modern addition that was built in 1997.

Across the street from the library is the Arcade.  Opened in 1890, was one of the first indoor shopping malls in the country, and it was modeled after the Galeria in Milan, Italy.  

Today it houses the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

Next door to the Arcade is the Leader Building.  It was once home to one of the city's early newspapers.  It was built in 1913 in Beaux-Arts style.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland designed in Italian Renaissance style was completed in 1923.

The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist was completed in 1852 and is the seat of the Bishop of Cleveland.

An interesting piece of street art that I had never seen before.

I was struck by the amount residential development in Cleveland's downtown district.

Some of the apartment buildings have been around for a while.  For example the Reserve Square Apartments were built in the 1970s.

However, there are also a lot brand new apartment buildings.

And there are many older commercial and office buildings which are being converted to residential space.  One example is this building of loft apartments called "The Grant".

The building was once occupied by W. T. Grant, a store which I remember from my childhood.

The 2020 census reported that over 13,000 people live in downtown Cleveland, and the percent increase of population is the highest in the city.

VOTE!

(Image taken from the internet)

At the Polls

After walking about a mile from Public Square in downtown Cleveland to the Board of Elections, I reached the polls at around 11:45 in the morning.  It was the first day of early voting in Ohio, and the line waiting to receive a ballot was long.  Obviously many people felt, as did I, that this was the most important mid-term election in our lives.

The line behind me kept growing longer and longer.  I waited about fifty minutes to receive my ballot, and those at the end of the line probably were going to have a wait of an hour or more.  However, no one that I saw left their place in line to return another day.  We were all determined to cast our votes now.  Two years ago for the Presidential election, the line was long, but it seemed that the wait this year was considerably longer.  I hope that the large turnout is a good sign.

U.S. citizens who live in another country vote according to the last address at which they were registered. So, I received the ballot for my former hometown of Olmsted Falls.  It was seven pages long.  Not only were we voting for senator and representative to Congress, but for governor and other state officials.  There was also a large slate of judges (including two Ohio Supreme Court justices) and a number of state and local issues. By the time I scanned my completed ballot and left the building, it was around 1 P.M.

The most important reason for this trip had been accomplished!  

Going Downtown

Tuesday marked the first day of early, in-person voting in Ohio.  I went to the Cuyahoga County Board of Election in Cleveland.  I suspected that there would be a lot of people turning out, and I did not know what the parking situation would be.  So, I decided to drive to the Rapid Transit station and take the train downtown.  The new headquarters for the Board of Elections is located about one mile from the center of downtown.  It was a sunny, brisk, autumn day, so I decided to walk the rest of the way.

I drove to the Brookpark station, and bought a round trip ticket for the train.  It cost 5 dollars.  (Two rides on the Mexico City Metro would have cost the U.S. equivalent of 55 cents.)

The Rapid Transit train was almost empty, a big contrast to the crowded subway and buses in Mexico City.

Granted, rush hour was over and I got on at the second stop on the route to downtown.  A couple people at most would get on at each stop.  I suspect that even if I had left at the height of rush hour, there would have still been plenty of seat.  In the U.S., people simply prefer their cars to public transportation.

After about a half hour, the train arrived downtown at the Tower City station.  It is located beneath the Terminal Tower where, in the era of train travel, Cleveland's terminal was located.

In 1990 the area was converted into a three story shopping mall.  Unfortunately, today most of the stores are vacant.  They say that shopping malls are dying in the U.S., but long before that, Tower City was dying because people would prefer to shop in suburban malls.

The beautiful lobby of Tower City which dates from the late 1920s when the Terminal Tower was built.

Exiting Tower City, you are on Public Square, the heart of downtown Cleveland.  It is surrounded by the city's tallest skyscrapers.

With 52 stories, the Terminal Tower was the second tallest building in the world when it was completed in 1927.  For several decades it was the tallest building in North America outside of New York City.

The headquarters of Huntington Bank is a skyscraper originally built for Sohio (Standard Oil of Ohio) in 1985.  It is 46 stories high and was deliberately built lower than the Terminal Tower so that it would continue to be the tallest building in Cleveland.

The Terminal Tower lost that distinction in 1991 however when the 57 story Key Tower was built.  It is the tallest building in Ohio.

Public Square's newest skyscraper is the world headquarters of Sherwin-Williams Paints.  It is 36 stories high, and was completed in 2025.

The oldest building facing Public Square is the Old Stone Church, a Presbyterian church that was built in 1855.

The Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument on Public Square was built in 1894 and honors the men and women of Cuyahoga County who performed military and patriotic duties during the Civil War.

I saw a sign saying that on Tuesdays and Thursdays in October there will be food trucks on Public Square during lunchtime.

Several food trucks were already getting ready for business.

From Public Square I walked down Superior Avenue.

After walking about twenty minutes, just beyond the core of downtown, I came to the Board Elections.  Their new headquarters moved last summer to the building which used to house the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper.