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Lisa Zeidner and John Allen Paulos

the breakfast table:
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Border Crossings

By John Allen Paulos
Posted Thursday, July 1, 1999, at 5:00 PM ET

Hi Lisa,

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Connecting à la Clinton or even Letterman (I was on his show for Innumeracy and his gaze was riveting and his responses very quick) is a talent. Somehow, though, I doubt that Clinton quoted whole poems from Yeats, maybe bits and favorite lines. Clinton's and Reagan's "people skills" are easy to deride, but one of the problems both Gore and Bradley seem to have is that they don't have them, at least not in the same abundance. Each of them is trying to make a virtue of this, but I'm not sure it'll work, although I must admit to automatically identifying with anyone wearing socks to the beach.

Speaking of candidates, I had an odd reaction to the story today that Bush Jr. has already raised a record $36 million. Given the attention paid recently to all the 25ish-year-olds worth $50ish-million because of some ipo.com, the amount raised didn't seem that large. (This is not to say that finance reform isn't needed.)

You write of the space between preconception and experience, but the gap may appear wider than it is. You say I'm different in person, and it's true, of course, that my head is not shaped like a 17-inch monitor. My nonverbal characteristics qualify and vivify my natterings and lessen their curmudgeonly nature. I suspect, however, that a transcript of my spoken words would be similar to my written words.

I close by commenting once more on the strange border-crossing nature of this Breakfast Table forum and of much else in the world today, from Jerry Springer's guests' self-exposures to politicians' personal revelations. As I mentioned in the inflationary-universe posting, once something private blows up into something public, it changes character, both losing and gaining something in the process. This mingling of the public and private is troubling, not a purely good thing nor a purely bad thing (not either/or but both/and, to use your non-Aristotelian logic). There are some mathematical metaphors that come to mind, but I've done enough of that here.

It's been fun, Lisa, and I look forward to seeing you and John in person for the first time in a while tonight. (I won't wear my 17-inch monitor mask.) Get the Diet Coke ready (the story about the Coke scare in Belgium recently caused me to cut down from 10 cans per day to 8), Sheila will have red wine too, and, who knows, I may forsake my lifelong teetotalism and have a sip of your grappa.

Love,
John