The Fallers and the Quinns meet Vegas.
I come from a long line of crazy. (And frustrated race car drivers.) Anyone who knows me will say, well, that makes sense! My Irish ancestors were shipped off to Australia for crimes unknown. My German relatives ranged from common speed freaks to certifiable geniuses.
One of the most colorful of my relatives was my Dad, Franz. Or Frank, as he was also known. Franz Faller came to the U.S. from Germany when he was about twenty years of age and worked as an auto mechanic before opening his own auto repair business. It specialized in air-cooled engine autos. He became a Corvair specialist, but Ralph Nader put the kibosh on Corvairs when he came out with his book, Unsafe at Any Speed. After that, Franz worked on Porsches, VWs and BMWs. And if you wanted to piss him off and get him worked up, you just had to mention Ralph Nader’s name!
On the genius end of the spectrum, my uncle, Dad's older brother Alex, comes into the picture. He invented state of the art innovative farm equipment. As a result, the Faller name is all over the farms of Bavaria. Toward the end of his life, he worked on top-secret aviation equipment for the U.S. government, crazy but true!
He was also a lot of fun. As kids, he entertained us for hours with magic tricks that defied the imagination. How does one make a needle come out of their arm?! (I am still wondering about that one.) He was also a speed freak. He allegedly drove a Corvette down a residential side street in L.A. on one of his first visits to the U.S. to the tune of 120 mph.
So that is where I get those kinds of inclinations: I had my driver's license yanked for three months when I was in my twenties for speeding and running stop signs. Hey, at 5am, when there is a stop sign every five feet and no one around for a hundred miles, stop should stand for slight tap on pedal! And do not even get me started with the speed limits in this country. They are set for the lowest common denominator, read idiot, and should be 10 miles per hour higher than they are. I see most traffic laws as more like guidelines than rules. (Thanks, Dad!)
Franz had a magnetic personality. When he died, we were all quite saddened not only for the loss of such a stellar person but because he was such a lot of fun and a great entertainer. I inherited a lot from my Dad: a facility for languages, a love of travel, trying new things, a general disdain for authority, and a love of good food and drink. A love of people was not one of them. Generally speaking, I hate people. I neither like nor trust them. I have been taken too many times. He really loved people. He never met a stranger and would invite complete strangers over for dinner regularly. (Much to my mother's chagrin!)
His resumé ran the gamut from rear engine auto repair specialist to self-trained chef to tour guide and finally, semi-professional gambler. Franz was the consummate salesperson. He could sell iceboxes to Eskimos, as they say. He was also one of the luckiest people I have ever met. This, combined with an innate sense of when to quit, made him quite successful at being a semi-pro gambler.
Enter our long history with Vegas. When Mom and Dad met, she was a professional ice skater and often performed in Vegas with an ice show. So, Dad would go along. Mom’s brother, Mike Quinn was a craps dealer at the Dessert Inn (among other casinos) and, he taught Dad to play craps. Dad was an astute student and, craps and blackjack were his games of choice. Not only was he a skilled gambler, but he was the luckiest person I ever met when it came to gambling. He could insert a dollar into a slot machine and win a thousand, just like that. One time, I watched him turn $25 into $500 in a matter of minutes by doubling down and walking away when the cards stopped working for him. Lucky and skilled, he was a VIP at Caesar’s Palace Casino. It was great when you were along during one of his winning streaks; the best food and drink was had by all because he loved to eat and drink well. And he loved to share it with those around him.
My maternal grandmother liked to say that we were direct descendants of king Cormack of Ireland. She was also quite a character. I somehow doubted this, but the idea of coming from royalty sounded good.
My grandmother also loved to speed. She was born in Goldfield, Nevada, now a haunted ghost town (see Ghost Adventures early episodes). Her relatives were sent to Australia back in the day when it was a penal colony! We still have distant relatives who live there, down under.
Add to these a host of other unusual characters and circumstances, like show biz and the mob, and you have the ingredients for quite a story. As I like to say, you can't make this stuff up. Well, I could, but in this case, I don't have to!
Title: The Fallers and the Quinns meet Vegas, an unusual family story. Introduction.
Genre: Memoir
Age Range: Adult
Word Count: 886
Author: Lisa Graziano CSW, CSE
Why my project is a good fit: Because a good entertaining read is timeless, and everyone needs to be entertained and have a good laugh, now more than ever!
The Hook: A not so average family in southern California gets mixed up with doings in Las Vegas in the 50s and beyond. A cast of colorful characters run afoul of the mob and some big stars while living and working in Sin City.
Synopsis: Frank and Gael are from L.A. but Gael's family has ties to Las Vegas and its underworld. This is the story of how they got there, the characters involved, and their crazy and amazing adventures. It takes place in Sin City during its heyday when it was run by the mob. It is a true story, and none of the names have been changed to protect the innocent. (It helps that most of the characters involved are already dead!)
Target Audience: Anyone with an interest in 50s Las Vegas, its stars, and the mob. True crime/mystery readers.
Bio: Lisa Graziano is an ex-pat living in Portugal since 2019. Originally from L.A., she has a BA in music from the Dominican University of San Rafael, California. After picking up the harp as a second instrument in college (piano was her major instrument), she became a professional harpist, playing for 10 years in the LA area.
She relocated to Denver, Colorado with her husband in 1992. There she played harp, sold real estate and wine and spirits, among other things. She earned the Certified Specialist of Wine, and Spirits Educator certifications from the Society of Wine Educators while living in Denver.
She has been writing The Road to Portugal, a blog about moving to and living in Europe since 2018. She has been a contributor to The Whiskey Wash blog and has been a compulsive writer for many years.
Lisa is fluent in French and conversational in Italian and Portuguese. She continues to pursue her passions for food and drink, language, art, and music through the lens of the good life in Portugal.
Platform: I don't have a platform per se, although I did play the harp on a raised dais occasionally! My writing platform is to use my stories to amuse, entertain, and educate in an engaging way. For social media, I am on Linkedin and IG. Also, there is The Road to Portugal.com. https://theroadtoportugal.com/
Education: BA, in music, Dominican University of San Rafael, California.
Oxford Seminars, TESL 100 hour teaching certificate.
Certified Specialist of Wine, and Spirits Educator. Society of Wine
Educators.
Experience: Lisa has several lifetimes of experience rolled into one. From this, she is currently writing a memoir called Job du Jour. She has sold everything from doughnuts to encyclopedias. She has taught the harp, real estate, and wine and spirits, as well as teaching English to Italians online. She has written a book of dark poetry called Death and the Harp and continues to write the blog The Road to Portugal. She contributed to the blog The Whiskey Wash for a year while living in Colorado. Her short short, The Room with Something Extra, was published in I Never Believed in Ghosts Until... a compendium of true ghost stories. Her personality is quirky, outgoing, and engaging.
Writing Style: Narrative.
Likes and Hobbies: Food and drink, art, music, language and literature, travel, and animals. (But not traveling with animals! See The Road to Portugal.) Cooking, eating, reading, exploring Porto, and Portugal.
Hometown: Born in Encino, California. Now residing in Porto, Portugal.
Age: Old enough to know better! ;)
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
Like the mob mentality recently seen in the US, the story shows that village life can be dangerous. In the story, every year, the village chooses one person to be stoned to death to ensure crop growth and a good harvest. From this, one can construe that there can be safety in keeping one's distance from others. There is safety in anonymity, in being absent from community events. And sometimes, there is danger in the following of tradition. Witness current events!
I learned from an early age that there is danger in being different.
At school, if you don't fit in, you are made to feel like an outcast.
If you are different from those in power, you will become a target. You might as well have the slip of paper with the spot on it. Just hand it over. Stoned you will be. And not in a good way.
And the fun doesn't stop there. If you are diligent and become knowledgeable in your field, you will face the wrath of superiors who are less so. Narcissism is rampant. And, any good narcissist knows that all threats, real or perceived, must be wiped out! Or at least ostracized. Whew! The fun never stops!
My home town (read, big city) was known for its serial killers. As a result, I learned at an early age to keep out of arms reach of strangers. If someone means you harm, this is an important safety tip. They have to catch you before they can do you harm.
I learned this so well that, to this day, I will cross the street to keep my distance from others whenever possible. In the era of Covid, this habit has come in handy.
The lesson here is that if you want to live a happy, healthy, pain-free life, it is best to avoid people, for the most part. But as anyone who has lived at all knows, life is pain, and there is no escaping it. So, you might as well mix it up and take your chances. Still, keeping your distance from strangers remains an important safety tip. And navigating the world through reading is infinitely safer than actually navigating the world!
Giving Thanks
Free at last from “Thanksgiving”!
I am so thankful to have escaped BFE, USA. It took two years of research, a year of bureaucratic BS and a fair amount of cash, but we made it. (Whew!)
At last, we are free from the ‘freedom’ of the random shootings du jour, the daily violence and the violence of the weather. We are finally free from the watered-down and chemically treated food and drink, the gender, age, and racial biases and general inertia of hate that has become so prevalent. Not to mention the broken legal system and lack of any kind of practical health care. The country was great a long time ago. Now it is a shambles.
This year we will enjoy the peace of our new home country, the friendliness of its people and the wonderful food that beats the hell out of turkey and green bean casserole any day of the week.
It will be like any other Thursday, without the frenzy of the American holiday. We will eat at a nice restaurant without having to fight for reservations and enjoy ourselves without the stress and angst of the traditional American Thanksgiving. (There’s a reason that the biggest sales day of the year for liquor stores in the US is the day before Thanksgiving; better have a drink because you are going to need it!)
We are so happy that we took the leap and left the US. For that, our good health and our loved ones, we are supremely thankful. We are giving thanks for not having to have Thanksgiving!