West Coast at Last!

I'm in Portland now, ironically installed at the Hotel Deluxe, an Art Deco masterpiece that was cheaper for the first night here than the hotel for the IACP conference. I couldn't bring myself to ask the uniformed bellhop to tote my portable kitchen up the lobby stairs, so we had room service last night: delicious but expensive mac & cheese, pretty much the only vegetarian choice and probably intended for the children's menu. My first intended career out of college was to write articles and books about architecture, so staying in old restored hotels is a special thrill. Bertie Wooster and his butler Jeeves would be right at home here, and I bet Jeeves would have negotiated an even better price than I found through TripAdvisor.

In a few hours, I'm going to do a video interview with Andy Fisher, the Executive Director of the Community Food Security Coalition. The CFSC is the major beneficiary of this tour, so I'm eager to hear the latest news from this group of nearly 300 anti-hunger and pro-sustainability organizations.