California, the second floor of Kansas City Union station was the of the business. Everything they saw that they took to people was from a kansas city view. They were in the old union depot before it burned down. I have spent a lot of time in your town in my brain over the last few years. The easiest way to get you for mee book would be to read from the beginning of the book. Who the hell is fred harvey . On that spring not in 1882 the drunken cowboys riding through northern new mexico could have inn forgiven for squinting disbelief at the Montezuma Hotel. It did appear to be a hallucination. It was one of the most astonishing architectural creations in america. It was nestled in a gorgeous middle of nowhere in the foothills of the mountains outside of las vegas, new mexico. The largest woodframe building in the night it states, the featured atyle that casino, wine cellar, 11 bowling alleys, and an immense therapeutic bathing facility. Couldtrons experience the hot springs. The service was brilliant with staff imported from the best andls in new york, chicago, st. Louis. The cuisine was ambitious. The expertise of classically trained chefs of the world, with fresh regional american ingredients. Fruits, vegetables, delicacies like green turtles and c celery harvested. To which few other kitchens had access in which most what he come to appreciate for a most another century. Only a few weeks, the resort was attracting dukes and president s on theked passage railroad whose newly laid tracts were the only way to get there. In front of the montezuma was a k. Rge par at the center was a huge fountain flanked by lawns for tennis and croquet, and archery range, and a zoo where the deer and the antelope literally played. When read john and his men approached on horseback that night they could not believe their bloodshot eyes. Parkap boys rode to the while they galloped across the manicured lawns. The commotion could be heard throughout the hotel from its grand entrance way to its cavernous dining room. Dyckfectly groomed van eyes, youp, cautious try to ignore the noise and enjoy his dinner but soon threw down his napkin and rose from dressed in ahe was dark blue suit with a waistcoat and dangling watch bob. , with ad quickly Nervous Energy of america drawing the attention of the dining room staff as he passed. By the time he left the cowboys had dismounted and were running right in the hotel. He could hear them in the billiard hall where they were taking target practice, shooting the tops off of liquor bottles. Boys, put up your guns he cried out. Who the hell are you, read john asked . My name is fred harvey and i will not have any rowdies seared. If you cannot believe like gentlemen you cannot stay here and you cannot come again. Guns and take a drink with fred harvey. Fred retained his british accent which made some westerners titter. As the cap boys laughed and taunted him, and hotel guests started gathering he grabbed read john by the caller. He yanked the dusty desperado over the bar and penned him to the floor. You must not swear in this place he told the stunned cowboy. There was a moment of silence then read john told his men to stand down. Lets have those drinks. When the drinks were done they were served a midnight breakfast as well. The breakfast for which he was becoming famous, the freshest eggs in stake ship from farms and refrigerated train cars, pan sized wheat cakes, apple pie, and the best coffee these cowboys had ever had in their lives. Read john and his men never made trouble at the montezuma ever again. Who still wanted to know the hell is fred harvey . A century later im peering over the lip of the grand canyon in my pajamas and i am wondering the same thing. As the sun illuminates the canyon walls i am reminded of why there is substantial literature explaining why words cannot describe what i am saying. As i turn away i taken another site, less all inspiring but equally intriguing, created by a edge ofricans, on the the divine of this. Hotel thatustic afforded me the luxury of rolling out of a plush bed at sunrise, shuffling down a staircase, and stepping outside to have the grand canyon to myself. It is arguably the most in demand hotel in the world. Most guestrooms are booked more than a year in advance. It is one of the last places where fred harvey lives on. The founder of the Family Business that created the hotel and americas First Hospitality empire, he oversees every detail of its daily life from his , nextit in the main lobby to where the maltre darrives to of varieties. Ng he looks formidable and anxious, a clenched fist protruding from his black waistcoat. Most of have an inkling of why this englishman matters or how he changed america. They are not aware there was a time not that long ago when he was one of the most famous and intriguing men in the country. On a quest toary symbolize the United States one meal at a time. His waitresses were the first female workforce in america along single women the first time to travel independently, earn a decent living and settle the west. I was unenlightened when i first encountered the fred harvey saga during a visit to the grand canyon in the early 1990s. I discovered him in a photo in the brochure. I started tripping across pieces of his story and legacy all over the country. Mostly in the areas that i think of as americas better half. Fred harvey has become an obsession because it seems the more i learn about him, his business, his world the my understand about my own homeland and how it came to be. Seen through the prism of the Harvey Family saga, a time many of us slept through in High School History class, becomes a riveting drama of a great nation expanding and uniting one steel rail at a time. Besides those reasons that is another one. It best is exemplified by this photo. This is my wife. In 1993ture was taken on our first visit. She is spending six guns which i bought for her at the fred gift shop. She is wearing a share of star. When my wife was a kid she liked to dress up like a cowboy. I knew that and thought that by her the sixgun would be great. This has hung over my desk for the later part of my career. Thatnk what it shows is glee that comes from americas western past. It is something i have thought over the years, why are we fascinated with the west . Wife haveple like my such a fascination with this . One of the reasons i realize as i read about working on this book is part of the point of writing of the late 1860s into the 20th centurys we are looking at a country divided so terribly by the civil war. With the west meant was a new america they could romanticize together. The america they had for all those years was broken to them as a place they could romanticize as a country. Part of the reason we are fascinated is it because it represents more than cowboys and indians. It represents the uniting of the United States after the civil war. The west was the only thing all americans could agree on. That is the part of the reason why you see this look on my wifes face. Some of you know the fred harvey story. Some dont. What i would like to do is take you through a slideshow of what i can tell you. One of the benefits i have had, i have had access to the documents with nobody knew existed. We have the opportunity to show you some of fred stuff and his family stuff. If you are alive here you probably only know the fred harvey system from its later years. It began in the 1870s. It continued through the 1960s. This is how big the harvey system was. Restaurants and hotels of chicago to los angeles from los angeles to San Francisco. Boatsstaurants were on that when across San Francisco bay because the trains came into oakland. Later from st. Louis down through oklahoma into texas. This is a huge part of america and no most everything that happened in these cities, fred harvey was at the center. They were the places people went for special meals. Where people celebrated things. They saw an incredible amount of america. Freds actualo things. It is the only one that passes in boss name on it. This is probably real gold. This is the first page of his datebook from 1867. I would like to tell you it was full of meaningful passages and i could bring him to live. He was a businessman. Their diaries our list of money they oh people and money they owe them. The is a Shopping List for week. How much he said to his deadbeat sister who could never pay her rent. It took years to figure out who the people were, why they matter in his life. That is what doing this kind of biography is about. This was the first of many letters that fred harvey wrote home. He spent an enormous amount of his life on the road. He was a Railroad Lawyer before he started the restaurant empire that you know him for. His life was letters home, scolding his wife and kids they had not sent him any letters. We now know how important it is to get mail back. Fred was obsessed with getting mail back. This the earliest letter we have of his in 1869. For those of you who dont know the story, the basic characters, this took place in kansas city, much of it in this room. This is fred harvey. This was his Business Card and leavenworth, kansas. This is his wife, sally. This is his second wife sally. He filled out a family bibles of the in the history he would only have one wife. In st. Joseph, missouri found a wedding certificate for them three years after that date in the bible. , anothero children wife had. That wife died in childbirth and sally was the wife we knew for most of freds story. David benjamin, a great unsung hero. Was a jewishn immigrant from london whose family settled in leavenworth. Father. Know his thebenjamins worthy beginning of philanthropic Jewish Centers in the community. David benjamin was fred harveys bank teller. He was dispatched to kansas city to set up the office here and he ran the harvey son rea business. Part of the reason people thought he was alive for many years after, that was his plan. For the people who ran his business every day and worthy bedrock of the Business Community for literally dead word David Benjamin and his son harvey. He married and moved to kansas city in the late 1880s. He was a quiet power in kansas city for 1520 years because the company put forth the idea fred harvey was still running everything even though at one point fred was sick and then after 1901 he was dead. He left a will that said the company had to run as if he was alive for another 10 years. Is will could not be probated the reason people always believed he was alive was because fred and ford decided that was the best way to run the business. This was the beginning of branding in america. It is a model that all Companies Use now to turn their brands into something bigger than their employees. Course, for every executive of the company there were thousands and thousands of harvey girls. We had bonnie dressed up as a harvey girl this morning. It is believed the fred harvey. Ompany hired 100,000 women they were hired here in kansas city or chicago, trained here or topeka, and then the idea was they would not hire local women to be in the restaurants. They train their own girls and send them to the various locations in western kansas and colorado three california so they could control their workforce, and the harvey rose had to sign a certificate saying they would not marry for six months after they went to their posting. They stayed for six months they got free train travel anywhere on the santa fe. This was the beginning of working women in america. They were adventurous women, they could travel by themselves. They are second and Third Generation harvey girls. Kansas city is crawling with them. Most of the fred harvey [laughter] most of the old fred harvey cities are crawling with descendents of Santa Fe Railroad and fred harvey employees who the outpouring of their enthusiasm of this has been great. Stories are being told the way they know the story, not the made up judy garland movie story. These are more pictures. And the later years, fred harvey died in 1901. The business was still based here. There was a depression. Worse than the one in the 1930s. The Santa Fe Railroad went bankrupt. The Fred Harvey Company was almost destroyed. It was saved because the Santa Fe Railroad went bankrupt and they could not afford to fire fred harvey. They cannot take over the food service themselves. They had a Second Coming after the mid1890s which was as america was coming back and reinventing itself after this terrible economic downturn. They started building big hotels along the railroad. That was the second light of the company which included the place most of you know best, the hotels of the grand canyon. This is mary coulter. She worked right upstairs, the first important female architect in the world. I found her teaching in minneapolis, brought her into do do one job to create the visuals of the indian building in albuquerque, new mexico. It became the beginning of santa fe style, taking native american art, goods that are seen in very spare homes and putting thousands of them in the same room to create a lush and burma with the same stuff. Everybody in santa fe decorates their house that way. Mary coulter invented that. Incredibly persnickety. The cabdrivers found her hilarious. She would get in the car and scream at them to go as fast as possible. She was in several wellknown. Ccidents this is a woman who was a model of a professional woman who would say she wanted to get done in her life and inspiration to generation after generation of female designers and architects. Thepartner in crime in Second Coming was a gentleman named herman schweitzer. Harveyhis start at the company in the late 1800s. He would ride out on his horse and start getting to know the native americans, jewelry makers and drug makers. How many of you have been to santa fe or the southwest . How many of you came back with turquoise and Silver Jewelry . Or you gave it as gifts. You may be under the impression this was designed and created by native americans. It was crated by native americans but it was designed by herman schweitzer. He realized early on those tourists didnt want to take home real native American Jewelry which is big and having, heavy. He made a deal with the craftsman. He took lighter silver, smaller pieces and show them how to make their designs more tourist friendly, which is a controversial thing people still talk about today. What he also did in terms of its curator ship was they saved the craft of the artful jewelry making and the artful rug making. He has a dual role in the southwest as being the company that helps merchandise the native americans which makes some uncomfortable. A. M. They originally owned almost all the native american art in this country. We have the Nelson Atkins museum. Almost every native American Peace was owned by the Fred Harvey Company. Fred harvey was here. Every museum in the world that has native American Goods originally got those goods from the Fred Harvey Company. They used to own all the native are in the country. The relationship with the native americans could be its own book. We try to make it one more entertaining part of this book. They did so many things. They were so ambitious. They always wanted to try to do new interesting things. People know them as a Restaurant Business and hotel business. Almost an station was fred harvey station. It didnt just have restaurants. Fred harvey ran all of the stores in this building. It became a major retailer in this building. The world is a 24hour books for that would deliver to your house. Men and Womens Clothing stores, native american art stores, kids toys stores, that is what they did here. Kansas city takes credit for having the First Shopping Center. The fred harvey Union Station was opened many years before country club plaza. Kansas city did invent the shopping center, dont worry. This was kansas citys First Shopping Center in america. Kansas city was the home of fred harveys two children. This is Catherine Kitty harvey and Freddie Harvey. I will show you them grown up. Freddie harvey became a world war i pilot. When the first planes were being used for war, Freddie Harvey was the one who came with his thedron and buzz bombed country club to prove that it can be done. He was a daredevil pilot. Theas heir apparent to company. Theyed the were starstudded couple in the city for many years. This is kitty harvey, quite a character. One of the most first openly gay women in the city. It is part of the reason she ultimately was not allowed to take over the Fred Harvey Company. She was a fascinating woman involved in the cultural aspects of kansas city. She started buying are in santa fe. Byron harvey, who for kansas city is the one you should boo, the youngest brother of the five children of fred harvey, who took the company away from kansas city. Most people assume the Fred Harvey Company went down over time because of the depression, the railroads. In reality Family Businesses are mostly done in by the family. In this case after four harvey died after a flu , many people died. Basically his brother and his children fought over what would happen to the Fred Harvey Company for the next fee years. He remained in kansas city than it was spirited to chicago and the rest of the story, the second world war, while it still happened here in kansas city, the company was based in chicago. When the harvey girls movie was made, they thought it would be companynd coming of the but ended up being its eulogy. I would like to walk you through these Cool Pictures we have that no one has ever seen before of the various characters. Then i would be happy to take questions. This is the first picture we have of fred harvey from when he came to new york city in the 1850s. Became a pop all of her pot wholloper. He started in the 1860s, his was a southern sympathizer. His partner ran off with their money and join the confederate army. Fred harvey was left broke. He had a kid and another on the way. Is wife died in childbirth in his mid20s the American Dream life he had built for himself was already gone. And got involved in the Transportation Business which in this part of the country since the trains ended here involve being involved with trains, and wagon trains that took them beyond missouri and kansas. He worked in that business, learned that business, lived in st. Joseph, missouri. Leavenworth, for those of you who dont know leavenworth, it is a city that hates kansas city for its existence. Leavenworth thought it would be kansas city. When fred harvey moved in the 1860s the believe was the railroad was going to go through leavenworth and leavenworth was going to be the next st. Louis. It didnt work out that way. Kansas city became kansas city and leavenworth has been angry ever since. Fred harvey made the decision at that time he would continue to raise his family and leavenworth. But like many of the business men of leavenworth begin relocating his business elsewhere which for fragment being on the road. But we know is fred was on the road basically for 20 years. He sold freight for the railroads. Because he was traveling everywhere he sold ads for newspapers in the cities he knew he worked in. This is an example of how aggressive a businessman fred harvey was. On this day in 1868 he makes a deal with the leavenworth conservative to sell ads for them or 3000 a year which was a lot of money in 1867 for a side job. Explains he asked it would be ok p sold as for other newspapers. It would be a good thing for them. Him. Was his he was a moral man, upstanding man, the aggressive man. He believed American Business worked best when you were that aggressive. He was asking whether there could be additional synergy for what he was doing and people all over the midwest and the east admired him for this because he had something. An englishman who understood the many American Business in ways more than those already living here. What is interesting is to go back and look at the old newspapers were people writing this about thi him before he waa famous restauranteur. They were the ones who made commerce go in the cities. This is something that after fred did this for 20 years he decided he had a second midlife crisis. He decided he wanted to try something else. This is a list of maxims for businessmen which he cut out of a newspaper and pasted into his diary. Never have anything to do with an unlucky man. Be cautious and bold remake a bargain at once. These are rules that he lived his life by and he believed in giving people lists of maxims that were the way to do business right. Part of the way the company was built on these lists of way to do things right. Think it because you is the easiest way to make money. This is what fred harvey believed. He decided to start one of his 90 side businesses. Security had a huge cattle ranch in western kansas which he invested his money into. The ranch he owned the clutter farm, from which in cold blood was built. He owned most of folk and county in fact. He had a huge cattle ranch. Had lots of businesses. He wanted to get in the Restaurant Business. He opened three restaurants and did not get along with their business to generator. He did not get along with them. The business degenerated quickly. Just lists and lists. More important to have a lot of cigars they do have a lot of food. You had to telegraph home how many cigars had been smoked. If they didnt keep cigars and place you couldnt stay in the food service business. This is a historic list. I found this. This is from january 6, 1876. A list of stuff he needed to open his First Railroad lunchroom in topeka kansas on the second floor of the depot, a turning point ultimately for his company. This is the topeka depot as it appeared. The story was told once he opened it was so successful that goe trains would not beyond topeka unless he opened a restaurant down the line. This is all part of santa fe legend. Ranch,l had his kennel had these side businesses, was interested in them. It was a slowly developing business. Years later he ran them again, more cigars. He ran it for several years and then in florence, kansas, there more people in this room then there are in florence, kansas. At that time when the train came into town the population tripled. Fred harvey decided this hotel in florence, kansas, its become the great destination restaurants in the world. The great chef should be in york, london,w and florence, kansas. Shafi he most admired and told him what you always tell chefs when you want them to leave important jobs, i will pay you all the money in the world. You can do whatever you want, make this a place everybody talks about. Cameam phillips, the chef there, paid 5,000 a year, more than the head of the bank. Much of a we know about this restaurant is from coverage of it in the london newspapers. It becamew well known because this was a place for two english guys had created this a waste of American Food and international food, where people hunted and fished and brought what they caught and prepared in a Grant International style. The restaurant changed his life. He made a great deal with william phillips. The fred harvey and santa fe began their partnership. This is the oldest piece of china that exists. If you have this you can put on ebay and retire. Of what i have learned about fred harvey i have learned on ebay. While France Business was getting bigger and bigger his family saw him less and less. This is a letter from his collection. His daughter writes mother cried all day because you were not home. It was hard being fred harvey us children. They rarely saw his dad. He was riding the rails everywhere. The Montezuma Hotel was a monumental undertaking but it hurt his health and change his family dynamic. After that he was a restaurant mogul. Everybody in the country knew him and the railroad at expanding further west. He quit his other businesses. A a name knew him as and a datebook. In the 1880s they began the harvey girls. Were invented for a different reason that anybody had explained, because of racism in the southwest. The African American waiters who had been working for harvey were in danger in new mexico because that stuff in blazing saddles, that was all true. That thee reports waiters were carrying guns while they were serving people in las vegas and further west. The company decided to make those employees work in the back of the house and hire women from the midwest to come out and populate these restaurants. Many of these pictures have never been seen before. This is the kind of heath those, a league of their own, that is. He way the harvey girls were the phenomenon last from the 1880s to the 1940s. Generations of american women who decided they would have this amazing harvey girl experience. The woman on the right, her date books are known. I got them because i heard her granddaughter live in the kansas city area and a copy name of the church that she buried her mother and left a message on the church open she would find me and she called me. She had her grandmothers datebook and pictures. The history in this area so important. More harvey girls. Millions of harvey chefs. They trained many chefs and ranchers and managers around the country for decades. It was a huge business. It expanded the california eventually. Married, settled here. This is one of the many Historic Events i got to write about. 1889, the day of the oklahoma land rush. It left from the fred harvey restaurant in the santa fe depot. They probably had 8000 people who called in because i pronounced it wrong. Apologize. Im correct in saying the fred harvey waitresses were watching these people in the streets waiting for the call to go in and take over the lead in oklahoma. It is one of many events the fred harvey people were front and center for. Just an enormous a part of American History took place in and around the centers of town. He dig into the dining car business. Originally there were trackside restaurants because there were no downing cars in the west. This is the first on a car menu between chicago and kansas city which is the controversial route which led to santa fe getting into a battle of the other old railroads. One of the things that was fascinating to get access to was these are fred telegraph books. These are the ones written now that are kind of obvious. These are the ones that are more fascinating he. Fascinating. He went overseas every year. He had a lot physical elements. The diagnosis was we now consider laughable, something called american nervousness. [laughter] tis, a disease of the rich. The cure for americanitis was considered to be leave america. They talk about who you could bring with you if your family members were annoying. They should not come with you. This is the cure. Fred went away a lot. He was in england a lot. They had to do some us to predict the needs of their owner. Hadever fred and away they to create ciphers for anything that could have gone wrong. There was a word for everything bad and good that could happen. They could send telegraphs in england. They are a psychological portrait of a man in his company. This is a list. The first phase first page. All the Different Things that could happen wrong and mrs. Harveys health. Abuse, home as soon as possible. The word adopt, sick, unable to sit up. It goes on and on with the things that could be wrong with her. A fever, how bad it is, everything that could happen in business. This manager lost five dollars. This manager lost 10. By doing this they learn something essential. If you think are the good things and have at things that happened before you are a better Business Community for it and that is what the company was able to be. I will walk you through some more of what we have here. , foris fred later in life during his comeuppance in kansas city. This is the last picture taken of fred. They moved into these Larger Mission style hotels. Teddy roosevelt and the rough riders had their reunion in las vegas, new mexico. That is how they were announced to the world. This is for harvey on the edge of the grand canyon. There is a huge debate about where the hotel should be located. They wanted over the edge. Teddy roosevelt did not. This is the indian building in the beginning of the santa fe style. Movie stars wanted to be photographed here because it was on the road to hollywood. Those were the indians they knew for cap lane indian movies. They had big events at these places. Teddy roosevelt came in 1903 and gave his environmental speech. He wanted to make sure the santa fe didnt build their Fred Harvey Hotel over the lift. If you read the whole speech that is how his environmental package began, trying to get the santa fe to move back. The Harvey Company was the only Company Licensed a bottle cocacola. These are the second generations of harvey girls. This is Kansas City Union station which opened and change everything fro for the Fred Harvey Company. Chicago, again became another and they moved into cleveland and los angeles as well. I want to you what happened to the Fred Harvey Company. I will only tell you that the family drama between friday, kitty, was one that had all of kansas city and offer many years. For many years. Freddy harvey move the company into the plane business. Airma s one of the first airborne meals. I have one more picture to show you, Albert Einstein at the grand canyon. One of millions of pictures of celebrities taken at the grand canyon. He didnt understand the indians that worked for fred harvey. See in the you can corner, they whispered to him who is this guy . What does he do . He invented the theory of relatively. They said ok, we will call him the great relative. Herenk im going to stop even a you can tell i have endless enthusiasm for this story. I encourage you to learn as much about fred harvey, as he is part of kansas citys great heritage. It is an unknown story that i think people can appreciate. I thank you for your time and im happy to take questions. [applause] you are stunned into silence. Somebody is coming to the microphone. Im curious about the material you have been able to gather. Whether it can most from the Harvey Family and the fact that they had all this and the pictures is quite remarkable. You have done a fabulous job putting it together. Stephen thank you. He Harvey Family didnt know what they had. They were broken up after the business was sold out under the last generation of the harveys that worked for it. Stop. Ach had some of fred it was separated as they were separated. For many years the harvey heritage was hurtful to them because they had been forced out of the business they thought they were going to be the next generation of. By the time i came to them in 2004, some of that was gone. They were older and more in a position to share what they had. Most it know what they had. When i went to his house and look through the stuff in his i dont think he realized they were fred harveys date books. They were just old books. Some of the letters we found jammed into strong boxes, no one has seen them since they regained out of his office when he died. The thing i got to do was to catalog them. They also let me take them home. Many historians get to work with stuff and archives. It is ready to have the person youre writing a biography about, have their stuff in their house. Ive had their stuff in my house for the last five years. I give back to the family last week. Able give it they will give it. Oversure they will fight which archives get it. Was the peak year of harvey houses . They dont talk about it there. Stephen they dont influence because florence was one of the early ones that was huge and went out of business quickly. In kansas in the 1880s and 1890s there were harvey houses in arkansas city, coolidge, dodge, emporia, florence, kinsley, lincoln, lyons, ottawa,er, mcpherson, syracuse, topeka, wellington, wichita. Are there any parts left . Stephen sure. What is happening now is those places where the depots were not knocked down people are reclaiming them. There is federal money to do that. In dodge city the old harvey house is a dinner theater funded by the federal government because they save the train station. There are buildings all over kansas, some in missouri, all through texas, in california, arizona, new mexico being reclaimed. There are three running as harvey restaurants and hotels we did have a similar experience,afond in santa fe, la pasata the last trackside hotel where you can walk up the train and sit down and have a meal, and all those hotels at the grand canyon on the south rim are the original fred harvey run hotels. Bright angel, down at the bottom of the grant canyon. Mary coulter designed them. Fred harvey ran those. They run the same today as they did them. The company owns the fred harvey name and the fred harvey properties. Any other questions . Ok. Thank you ray much for your attention. It is great to meet all of you. I would be happy to sign some books. [applause] on history bookshelf, here from the countrys bestknown American History writers of the past decade. To watch these programs anytime visit our website, cspan. Org history. Julian bond died in august. On sunday, American History tv features an oral history with mr. Bond where he remembers growing up in the segregated south. His involvement with the nonviolent coordinating committee, and his political career. This is one of several oral histories with Africanamerican Community leaders we feature in the coming weeks. Sunday, october 25 at 10 00 eastern on American History tv, cspan 3. Alvandiroham looks at president nixons relationship with the shaw of shah of iran. [applause] thank you for being here. Thank you roham for coming for this talk. Irish everyone to read this book if you want to understand the u. S. Iranian relationship today. Let me first ask you, what inspired you to write this . Roham