Desert Star

There are dozens of short, unremarkable cul-de-sacs in Palm Springs. Quiet lanes, lined with lush manicured lawns in front of expensive desert homes with huge picture windows, flooding them with light and sunny suburban optimism.

But there's a dark spot on El Deora Court. If there's a bad side of this town, the dilapidated ranch style home at #77 is the kernel from which it grew.

The brown, overgrown front yard and rusting heap of old Cadillac in the driveway had always irritated the neighbors, while the permanently drawn curtains caused their tongues to wag, but today all hell had broken loose. Now the single, short block that is El Deora Court is packed, bumper to bumper with police vehicles and news trucks, as dozens of the city's finest remove box after box of evidence from #77 . . .

77 El Deora
Oblique Americana: a verbis ad verbera