Word: doormen
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Eleanor traveled the country in the months after her husband's death, she was overwhelmed by the emotion of all the people who came up to her, telling her how much they had loved her husband. Porters at the station, taxi drivers, doormen, elevator operators, passengers on the train, riders in the subway told her how much better their lives were as a result of his leadership...
Needing some symbol of their status, the residents of Park Avenue have commissioned a largely symbolic guard. The Vatican has the Swiss Guard; Park Avenue has its doormen...
...ostensible security measure, the doormen control all the elevators in the building. In theory, a doorman will recognize a tenant and send him to the appropriate floor once he shows up on the elevator camera. Thus, any criminals wily enough to get by us diligent doormen would still be unable to get up to an apartment. In practice, doormen often daydream and forget who has just returned. While I generally can keep track of everyone on the weekends (when there is only a trickle of people entering or leaving at any time), I can get lost in the incessant comings...
Likewise, it would be all too pedestrian to have mailboxes cluttering the ostentatious entrance to the building. Without such mailboxes, the post office is under no obligation to sort the mail. Each day, the mail for ninety families arrives to be sorted and delivered by the doormen on duty, cluttering the lobby while it is sorted and tying up the elevators while it is delivered...
Even with these difficulties, it is easier to get mail up to apartments than it is to get guests up to their hosts. On Park Avenue, a ubiquitous reminder of class is the sign in every lobby that informs, "All visitors must be announced." We doormen are to herald the arrival of all guests at their host's court. Normally, this is a pro forma procedure. The host knows someone is coming, awaits that person, receives a call from us when the guest arrives and instructs us to send him up. This system prevents uninvited visitors. But for every Jehovah...