Washington City Paper: Contents for Apr. 1

Death of a Salesman
Julius Adelman waited years for his customers to pay off their refrigerators, dish sets, and linens. His son Steve waited much longer for his father’s alleged killers to face justice.

Cover Story

Steve Adelman needed only to hear the crunch of station-wagon metal to know that his father, Julius, had made it home.

The huge Ford would arrive at its Randallstown, Md., home ass first, backing onto the blacktop. At the driveway’s lip, the suspension would fail under the weight of the unsold merchandise piled in the back-back seats. The wagon would bottom out, its license plate skidding along the concrete, producing a stubborn, high-pitched riff.

Steve, the middle of Julius’ three adopted sons, always heard the scraping. His bedroom faced the driveway. By the time he turned 10, the wagon’s nightly whine had became his cue to go outside and help his old man unload the wagon’s contents into the back yard’s big white shed.

Where Julius Adelman had been and whom he had seen were complete mysteries to Steve. A traveling salesman who sold “everything but shoes,” Julius worked a home-delivery route that took him into the most crime-ridden sections of the District. For 40 years, he played the discount wizard, selling an off-brand rainbow of goods to people suffering from bad credit or a soft spot for a charmer.

Julius would greet his son dressed in the clothes he sold—flannel shirt and polyester pants—with a White Owl cigar stuck between his lips. They had a system of how things went into the shed:

•rolls of carpet first;

•then televisions, microwaves, free-standing and boxed fans, and other appliances;

•and, last, from the wagon’s well, shirts, dish sets, utensils, and drapes.... Continued

Issue of Apr. 1 - 7, 2005

News and Features

Death of a Salesman
Julius Adelman waited years for his customers to pay off their refrigerators, dish sets, and linens. His son Steve waited much longer for his father’s alleged killers to face justice.
Cover Story By Jason Cherkis
Hall Monitor
Selected readings from D.C. Public Schools incident reports*
The City By Mike Kanin
Off the Mark
Bit by bit, D.C. loses its official survey control.
The City By Jeff Horwitz
Price Pick of the Week
Celebrating the District’s Real-Estate Boom
Seller's Market By Constantine Caloudas
Crash Course
The Mail By Tom McAnear
The Lady Doth Protest Too Much
The Mail By James W. Bailey

Columns

More Guts Than Glories
Cheap Seats By Dave McKenna
Living Auction
City Desk By Constantine Caloudas
Forgive Us Our Trespassers
City Desk By Constantine Caloudas
GRAHAM DOES IT AGAIN
Loose Lips By James Jones

Eats

Scents and Sensibility
Young & Hungry By Todd Kliman

Movies

Divided Unions
Film Review By Mark Jenkins
The Noir to End All Noirs
Film Review By Tricia Olszewski
Race Around the World
Talking Pictures By Mark Jenkins

Music

Theater

The Sea Inside
Theater Review By Bob Mondello
Water Works
Theater Review By Trey Graham

Arts and Events

Composed Yourself
Artifacts By Mark Jenkins
Quiet Revolutionary
Artifacts By Louis Jacobson
Memory Pictures
Art Review By Jeffry Cudlin
Working Through the Pain
Erik Sandberg has gone from painting the bloody, impaled, and morally bankrupt to “something that would make people laugh and smile”: dancing corpses.
Arts By John Metcalfe
OBJECT LESSON
Show & Tell By Chris Shott