Like a fictitious early 20th century sailor, newly elected Scottsdale officials hardly seem to know what kind of ship they are boarding.
They could be signing on for the kind of sturdy steamer described early in “The Death Ship,” a 1926 novel by B. Traven: “a fine ship, an excellent ship, true and honest down to the bilge.”
By another flip of the coin, the Scottsdale City Council members might find themselves riding the wreck of Traven’s eponymous craft, a leaky old bucket where “everything is busted and broken.”…