The first thing to understand is that the dilemma was of my own making. If I had looked at my schedule ahead of time, I would have known that it didn’t tell me how I was to travel from downtown Cleveland to the Beachwood branch library.
Could I take a cab? Of course I could take a cab, and for a very reasonable amount. But, usually, the schedule says “Take a cab,” and I was worried that there was an plan, and I didn’t know it. (And, yes, the schedule usually states such basic things as “Take a cab” because touring lowers your IQ point-by-point, until you are basically an idiot.) I didn’t want to take a cab and later learn that some nice library person had shown up at the hotel and been thrown into a panic because the author was missing. What to do?
I e-mailed the branch manager — whose e-mail was available to me because we’re both members of DorothyL. Wendy Bartlett not only picked me up, she let me hang out in her office, using the library’s Internet, took me to dinner at a lovely Thai restaurant and drove me to the airport. She is, in short, a full service branch manager.
And without DorothyL, I never could have found her. I also wouldn’t know what spotted dick is, but that’s a story for another day.
We librarians are a delightful bunch, aren’t we! I do know what spotted dick is and I know that the best I ever had was at the restaurant in the crypt at the church of St. Martin in the Fields in London.
I never had their spotted dick but I loved to take visitors to the crypt for lunch. It has a certain cachet.
Um… No, you didn’t want to take a cab from downtown out to Beechwood. It’s roughly the same as cab fare from JFK to Midtown, only with less traffic. (Relatively. I get culture shock anymore when I go back to Cleveland.)
The cab company said it would have been $26.90, Jim, which isn’t much more than the fare between the Baltimore airport and my house.
However, the trip between the library and the airport — man, that was long. I am even more grateful for Wendy Bartlett.
The restaurant is in the crypt at St. Martin in the Fields and is run by students from somewhere close by. I haven’t been there in years but it is worth going to while in London. I’ll have to try the on at St. Mary Le Bow if I get back there! Laura, you’ll have to go to London and give us a restaurant review!
Librarians rock!
Zelda,Barbara,
Do you mean the restaurant in the crypt of St.Mary Le Bow? I didn’t know there was a restaurant in the crypt at St. Martin- but then there is just one more reason that I need to get back to London.