Hi, Meghan:
I’ll explicitly second the point about Nirvana Unplugged and Steely Dan. And I’ll give you the last word on Zionism and the MSNBC photo contest, not to mention disappointment and despair. To make up for earlier long-windedness, I’ll be mercifully brief in my final remarks. Here goes.
The most interesting Times obit since Monday appears today, and it’s of Henry Wade, the former Dallas County D.A. who was the Wade in Roe v. Wade. He also prosecuted Jack Ruby, was called a “bumpkin” by Ruby’s lawyer, and in turn took to intentionally mispronouncing the name of lawyer, Melvin Belli, as “belly.” Haw.
On the subject of The New Yorker, I just got around to reading the profile of Bob Kerrey (not available online, it seems) in the current issue, and it’s pretty good. In one odd throwaway passage, the writer notes that during one of her interviews with Kerrey, he was tearing pictures out of the paper to make a collage and said “he was planning to try to make a collage each day, and that he found the exercise ‘therapeutic.’ ” Eh?
On the subject of the Mardi Gras cleanup here in New Orleans, it was still ongoing as of yesterday, says the Times-Picayune, which reports having spotted, among other things, “a puddle of Hurricane-tinted vomit” in the French Quarter. (Again, no link is currently apparent on the paper’s site.)
On the subjects of promotion and diaristic writing, I would like to promote the excellent “Diary” entries this week, starting on Monday, by my friend and former colleague Hugo Lindgren. Having declared my bias, I nonetheless insist that they are well worth reading.
On the subject of weather, it is 78 degrees here and a bit sticky.
And of course: Happy birthday, also, to Eddie Money. He is 52.
Good luck promoting the book. Take good care of Loretta, and keep her out of the MSNBC photo gallery. Bye now.
rw