Excellence from the Excelsior.

Justin’s got youth, good looks and talent — and something  I covet.

He’s the proud owner of a portable typewriter he takes on the road when he travels.

We made a pledge when I visited him at his office in New York — and he let me bang on the keys — that we’d only write each other the old-fashioned way.

So far we haven’t violated our pledge … too badly.

In today’s mail I got a mysterious envelope marked “Excelsior Palace”.

A frisson of pleasure went up & down my spine.

What could it be?

Who is it from?

Rapallo, Italy?  Do I know anybody there?

I had no answers.  A mystery from afar.

I tore into it, barely waiting to slice the top neatly with my trusty letter-opener.

Typed, on the vintage machine I knew — was this letter from Justin, on stationery he “nicked” — to add to his “collection of aging grand hotel correspondence”.

I’m going to write him back on my best hotel stationery — some special notepaper from the Grand Hotel in Sweden that we got when Vin became a “Knight”.

It’s the only piece of  ‘grand hotel stationery’ I own, and just as I appreciate the symbolism of getting a letter specially typed

on “Excelsior Palace” stationery, I know Justin will appreciate receiving something that used to be the only way people could communicate when they were

“in residence”.

Those days may be gone, but I’m glad that Justin for one is trying to keep the feeling alive.

Excelsior location

Excelsior suite

Excelsior exterior