in Phoenix

The planned parenthood down the street is one of the larger and more prominent iterations of this paradise for neither men nor women, and features lettering on the building signaling that it contains “The Alice and Roy Papp Center.” I never thought of this type of gift to the community, and yet, it makes perfect sense for my children’s children. Stay tuned for FlanaPapp Center, LLC.

The great people of Phoenix are frighteningly disdainful of their climate, saying things like “you picked a horrible time to come here” or “enjoy the unbearable heat wave, which I hate as much as that old ford truck my boyfriend has been restoring for 5 years in the front yard, which I will roll into the canal as soon as he puts the wheels back on it.” They are just in love with their interiors. My first idea about this is that the least pleasant part of eveyone’s environmental experience happens when they are boarding their cars, which they love enough never to wash or wax (patina=value!). Walking across an asphalted parking lot to find a car who’s once-shiny door handles are too hot to touch and the interior of which has just cooked your 5 year old’s car seat into a Picassan tomb, is hell for these people. Then you have the 5 minutes of agony while exchanging the air that was in the car when you left it, which is now too hot to breathe, with air that has been run past icy compressed gasses in your a/c setup. Whereas boarding a bike in the shade of the building next to which it is parked and gliding at 15 miles an hour around town, I literally don’t even break a sweat. My mouth gets dry, though.