Sunday, April 29

1) Awake quite naturally just before 7 AM. Parlor coffee and devotional; now, at evening, I vaguely remember an appropriate connection between Ezekiel 16 and the daily reading from C.S. Lewis. I'll have to go back.

2) Left just before 8 AM for a brisk walk through the arboretum. If I can get from my door to the summit of Peters HIll in half an hour, I'm making good time. Gray and sprinkling weather, this was the Time of Flowering Trees. The ornamental cherry trees and the forsythia (yes, I know forsythia is not a tree) were in beautiful form.

3) Today I kept to my usual plan, which is to include both Peters and Bussey Hills, but I left via the Blackwell Footpath onto South Street so I could do some shopping at the co-op. For the first time I encountered a turkey (!) on the path! We both kept our distances.

4) I was home just before 10 AM, and actually managed to complete a column before 11 AM (granted, it was supposed to be last Wednesday's column), so the day was good.

5) A light lunch, Acts of Domesticity, a NAP for an hour, more Acts of Domesticity, and then late errands on Centre Street. The day was no longer gray!

6) Late in the day, got on ye Twyttyr and started to learn about the WH Correspondents Dinner. Wish I hadn't.

Saturday Shopping, April 28

1) In words from the late Judith Keith's Nothing to Wear, "I have two closets full of nothing to wear!" And with my gray loafers giving out in the rain last night, it was time to run through Downtown Crossing like Wilma Flintstone and Betty Rubble crying "CHARGE it! CHARGE it!"

2) Dialogue with the Sassy Lady Cashier:

SLC: "Ooh, Happy Socks! You bettah be happy when you wear those."

Me: "Yes! I'm going to a party tonight, and they asked us all to wear something floral for spring (groundbreaking)." [Hands over blue-and-white floral shirt.]

SLC: "That's niiiiiice! What you gonna wear for bottoms?"

Me: "I dunno. Maybe I just won't do anything and scandalize them all."

SLC: [pause - gives me the eye] "I wanna party with you."

3) In the shoe store, a text from my Atlanta cousins - who just happened to be in my mother's kitchen! We ended up having an uproarious phone chat (with me in a space where I would not impede anyone's shopping).

Saturday Morning, April 28

1) Coffee and social media in the study, feeling as though I'm comfortably wrapped up in cotton wool. As Lady June Carbery said in White Mischief, "I couldn't move a limb," but with an array of activities for the weekend - domestic, personal, social, professional - I need to get my act together about 90 minutes ago.

2) This morning one of my best friends reposted one of the great, comic dance club hits of the 1990s, "Diva," and in my heart I've been laughing like a drain ever since. Brought me right back to Provincetown before 2000 and the story of how he and another friend heard this blasted over the speakers of a couple twinks at Herring Cove (which Simply Isn't Done). But the words - so self-oriented, so ridiculous - had them laughing and laughing. And it just might get me through today.

2a) With the years, the line "You bettah squeeze yo' ass into them pants, girl!" has taken on added poignancy. #ohmammyyouvejustgottamakeit18andhalfinchesagain

3) J.B. West's Upstairs at the White House.

Friday Night, April 27 - Old Headshot Day

1) No idea how Old Headshot Day became a thing overnight on ye Intyrnytte, but the best I can offer is this from the early 1990s. I remember taking the bus out to the urban wilds of Chelsea for this photo shoot, bringing my tuxedo. But the photographer had this faaabulous smoking jacket - how could I not wear that?!

1a) I look at this photo now over 25 years later and cannot imagine returning to being cleanshaven.

2) After work, walked through the rain from the office to Eastyrnne Styndyrd in Kenmore Squayah to meet a friend for drinks. I am sorry to report that my favorite gray loafers, which everyone likes and which match my light gray slacks exactly, are no longer waterproof. Time to go shopping.

3) What folly meet in Kenmore Squayah on a Friday that is also a home game ye Ryd Soxxe! Had I but known . . . but of course we don't have these problems at the opera. They cleared a high top for us pretty quickly, and commenced and evening of manhattans, rigatoni, and talk about Venice.

3a) Final round down the street at ye Hawthryne, marginally less crowded, but much cushier with those deep green-gray velvelt chairs.

Wednesday Night, April 25

1) This evening at a small birthday party for a friend, two interesting experiences:

1a) Vivid memories of my first (and so far only) vacation in Hollywood long ago in 1994 with two friends, and hanging around in the hot tub at hotel where we were staying (the one that's not the Mondrian but the other one*), being joined by a man and two women, one of whom was trying to sell us some Renoir etchings.

1b) For the first time in many a year, achieving almost instant rapport with a stranger, a remarkable woman, a relative of the host. Over birthday cake we talked about Follies, Yankee vs. Greek culture, life experiences - all at a rapid pace. I found myself charmed - and because of the angle at which I was sitting, sometimes blinded by the chandelier across the room.

2) Today's essential forgotten accessory: a raincoat. Had I known it'd be chucking down all day and night, I'd've done more for myself than carry an umbrella. Wasn't it supposed to be lovely all week?!

3) Trying to formulate a column of observations on the successful state dinner, but I just can't find some essential references in J.B. West's Upstairs at the White House, so I'll hope for better fortune tomorrow.

*In the words of the late Karen Richards, "Where were we going that night, Lloyd and I? The things you remember, and the things you don't."

Wednesday Afternoon, April 25

1) Greased my road to hell with hollandaise sauce this morning, breakfasting with someone from Interlochen at the Pahkah House. I just love me some eggs Benedict.

2) Surely there's been a Calendar Girls drag act with April Showers, May Flowers, and June Bug, with a calamitous guest appearance by Augusta Wynde, yes?

3) I want you to ask yourself how many days of the year you get to use the word "impregnable," and whether you think it's too little, too much, or just about right.

Tuesday Morning, April 24

1) So encouraged by the news of details for tonight's state dinner for the President of France. It looks like Mrs. Trump has planned something lovely, and I'm particularly impressed that she did it without a professional event planner, which has been the trend.

1a) Also a little amused that the china she chose was the Clinton china, since it's clearly the goldest.

1b) And I'm also pleased that the Washington National Opera is performing. Nothing against pop entertainers (the Eisenhowers often had Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians entertain at state dinners) but for a state dinner, I think classical music is, um, statelier.

2) I got home late after last night's webinar (which went well), only to complete a short-notice project with a deadline, and then fall like concrete into bed.

3) Alumni relations is often like therapy, and I calcluate I spent two hours 18 minutes total on the phone yesterday as therapist for four different people.

Monday Midday, April 23

1) There are two versions of last weekend, the complaining version and the non-complaining version:

• Complaining Version: After planning my entire weekend schedule around an early Saturday afternoon haircut, the barber shop calls a mere 90 minutes before cut time to cancel because the barber was overbooked. Scheduled a Sunday morning appointment with the other barber I know at that shop, and showed up promptly only to find out he was "significantly delayed" and be fobbed off on a total stranger who thinned almost my entire head with a straight razor (I hate that). And did I mention that this barber shop makes you confirm by email, text, and phone and hammers over your head that you have to pay the full cost if you cancel less than four hours yourself? This cut so substantially into my writing time that I got nothing done and left me in a foul mood for hours each day.
• Non-Complaining Version: Glorious sparkling weather for two days officially began the three weeks of the year my house looks its prettiest; the star magnolia in the front burst into flower. After spending midday Saturday in town, a heavy one-hour nap led to rearranging and reshelving four or five shelves of books before dinner with my best friend and a lot of heartfelt talk on a wide range of subjects. Sunday I went with the flow and enjoyed both the housewarming brunch of my new (childless) second-floor neighbors (lots of soccer-playing young people, mimosas,  bacon biscuits, and the very rare opportunity to see our star magnolia from above), and especially a fund-raiser musicale in a beautiful private home in Cambridge in the afternoon. Champagne, sunlight, old friends rarely seen, music that was both beautiful and new to me, and lemon poppyseed cake. What's not to love? Continued domesticity at home left no more dishes to wash but more floors to scrub. They'll have to wait, as the pages of Edward VII: The Prince of Wales and the Women He Loved was too compelling to put down.

1a) Frankly, I like the second version better.

2) A bit atwitter about a creative opportunity a friend alerted me to this morning.

3) Co-hosting a webinar with my boss tonight for next year's volunteers. Looking forward to some good questions.

Friday Night, April 20

1) Unexpected sighting of the day: an Emmy statuette in the lobby of an MIT laboratory.

2) Cutting through the bewildering number of new or updated privacy policies that seem to be popping out everywhere is the news that SmugMug has acquired Flickr from Yahoo/Verizon. Flickr was my original social media, and it went downhill first after Yahoo acquired it, and then after Marissa Mayer took over Yahoo. I was not happy when Verizon acquired Yahoo (which has now combined Yahoo and AOL into something called Oath, with an abhorrent privacy policy), so I'm cautiously optimistic about this acquisition.

2a) When you think about how AOL and Yahoo were the pillars of the Internet in the 1990s, and now they are limping along as subsidiaries of a corporate giant . . .

3) There are some people out there who are just losing their sh*t over the President hosting a state dinner for the President of France at Mount Vernon, saying that it sullies the legacy of Jackie Kennedy, etc. etc. etc. PEOPLE! The site must have been chosen to acknowledge the visit(s) that the Marquis de Lafayette paid there to George Washington. It's entirely appropriate to host a state dinner there.

Friday Midday, April 20

1) Coffee and the news while curled up in the study after almost ten total hours of sleep. And today continues to be a great day. Sunshine, good phone meetings, and a 50th reunion class just about to break 200 registrants.

2) As you may recall, we've been working since Christmas to reduce the amount of junk mail Mother has been getting at home. She called all excited a bit ago that today's mail only included three pieces of mail! Often it's 18 or more. I am rejoicing with her and hoping that these junk mills have finally gotten her off their lists.

3) For the last few days my internal soundtrack has been Kane's theme song.

Wednesday Morning, April 18

1) A current situation is very much like one of the fairy tales I remember reading as a child in The Provensen Book of Fairy Tales, and last night after some diligent research, I found it. It's "The Three Wishes," in which a young man is walking in the forest near nightfall and discovers a little girl crying by a blackberry bush. Her mother will beat her if she comes home with an empty basket, but now all the berries are too high and/or deep in the bushes for her to reach. The young man helpfully begins picking berries, working as quickly as he can in the fading light, scratching his hands on the brambles while the little girl not only urges him anxiously to keep going but begins eating great handfuls of the berries. The young man is rewarded for his patience (see illustration); I fear I no longer have any patience to reward.

2) There comes a time in the life of every favorite T-shirt when a small eye-shaped hole appears somewhere around the shoulders. It announces the Beginning of the End; the material is aging. As one continues to wear it, holes grow in size and number, eventually rendering the shirt Unwearable Except at the Beach and Maybe Not Even There. In the past two weeks I've noticed that hole appear in two favorite T-shirts: one from my memorable Caribbean vacation of 2001, another from Provincetown.

3) Oh no, I will not be arriving late for today's breakfast meeting!

Sunday Morning, April 15

1) I said this morning that "All I can say is thank God this is the last day of Mercury retrograde," and - while unfortunately I can always find something else to say, I am truly grateful this period is coming to an end. The last week seems strewn with unfortunate conversations, tech mishaps, avoidable misunderstandings, and one enormous politcal disagreement.

2) Managed to do something productive before 11 AM - in this case, publish a column - so the day is good.

3) Aside from Official Tax Day (this year it's really April 17) and the anniversaries of the Titanic sinking and Lincoln's assassination, I realize it's the one-year anniversary of living alone after the prolonged departure of the Last Roommate. Living alone is still the right choice for me, and I've made the second bedroom a productive work space for myself (see above).

3a) I do like the 19th-century practice of referring to bedrooms as "chambers" on architectural plans.

4) Last week I picked up a book about Citizen Kane, which has led me to a new appreciation of Bernard Hermann's "Salammbo's Aria," which Dorothy Comingore sings so badly when Kane forces her into an opera career. To my delighted surprise, lots of actually good singers have recorded it, particularly Kiri te Kanawa. And I love hearing this sung well! But if you're reading this, you know me well enough to know that what I really love is the deliberately overdoneness of the entire thing: the exaggerated brass, the sweeping strings, the superhigh notes that only the greatest singers could attempt, the overture that badly sets expectations. With a smile in my heart I join the aristocratic lady at 02:06 who is heard to say "Perfectly dreadful!" within earshot of Kane. She can't stand it, of course, but I love it.

Friday Midday, April 13 - the Last Days of Mercury Retrograde

1) Coming to the end of the last dreary week of L.B. Jeffries in a cast - um, no, sorry, that was last week - the last active week of Mercury retrograde, feeling like I've dropped all the glass balls I was juggling.

2) Lots of communications this week that might as well have begun "Hello, I'm speaking to you from the village of High Dudgeon."

3) This week was also notable for bad sleep, but last night was a heavy exception. One of the nice surprises of this week was the arrival of an impromptu houseguest last night, a friend in from Minneapolis for a recital who a) needed a place to crash for one night and b) like me, loves movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood. After dinner we put on my beloved The Rains Came with Myrna Loy, George Brent, and Tyrone Power with a turban and a tube of Egyptian No. 6. But about two thirds of the way through, I almost had to put toothpicks in my eyes to keep watching, and so did my friend. Cementing my role as a Bad Host, I abandoned him at 10:15 for my bed and slept like the dead, with only one break, until 6 this morning.

Two Big Anniversaries This Weekend

The weekend of April 14-15 brings us two important anniversaries in American history: Lincoln's assassination in 1865 and the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. How will you observe them? By:

1) (Re)Reading Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer, by James L. Swanson?

2) (Re)Reading Lincoln's White House: The People's House in Wartime, by James B. Conroy?

3) Searching for that passage in Sarah Bernhardt's biography about the time when the Divine Sarah rescued Mary Lincoln from being swept overboard in a storm at sea?

4 (Re)Viewing All About Eve for "I"ve always denied the rumor you were in Our American Cousin the night Lincoln was shot"?

5) Singing "Nearer my God to Thee" in Sunday worship and fighting about whether the ship's musicians played the British or American version as the ship went down?

6) (Re)Viewing the laughable but infuriating Nazi propaganda film Titanic, which blames the accident on a corporate battle between Ismay and John Jacob Astor and shows the ship's sole German officer rescuing a small child as the ship sinks?

7) (Re)Viewing the Barbara Stanwyck/Clifton Web Titanic which is still a good film even if the characters are almost all fictional, because the dialogue is so good? "May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?" "As for you Mother, I love you dearly. But my address is Paris, France." "Could you be common in a slightly lower voice?" "Never send the baby to buy the beer."

8) (Re)Viewing A Night to Remember, still all these years later "the most factually accurate film about the sinking" as Eva Hart said at the 80th anniversary screening I arranged at the Coolidge in 1992, "and the others are just rrrrrrrrubbish!"

9) Attempting a couple recipes from Last Dinner on the Titanic?

10) (Re)Reading one of the many, many, many books about the sinking?

11) Leaving flowers at the dried-up fountain (now just outside the south grounds of the White House) erected by their friends in memory of Archibald Butt and Frank Millet?

12) (Re)Viewing the James Cameron Titanic, not least for Frances Fisher's performance as Kate Winslet's mother. ("Will the lifeboats be loaded according to class?")

Obviously there are quite a few ways, and I'll bet you could make up a few yourselves.

Wednesday Morning, April 11

1) Doing my taxes myself for the first time in many years - and online for the first time - has concluded successfully, but not after a certain amount of frustration. The last big hurdle to cross was locating my 2016 return in order to file online (and why on earth should that even be necessary?!) - and where on earth were they? After Adventures in Paper (see next item), I randomly searched my email inbox for communications from the Nice Tax Man Who Is Now AWOL - and whaddya know, there's my 2016 return as a pdf. Thank goodness that's resolved!

1a) Adventures in Paper (this time around the search for my 2016 tax return) led to a couple tote bags in the study closet from who knows when, with everything that had to get swept off the dining room table before company came over. Mountains of stuff to be tossed out (old magazines, junk mail), but pleasant memories with 2016 Christmas cards, correspondence, and photos from Before Digital including Kauai 1996 and the 1985 family reunion in Atlanta.

2) Tonight is the Gibson House benefit at the Chilton Club, and Etiquetteer will be on hand to emcee and draw the raffle prizes. I love getting to do this - just wish the weather was nicer today.

3) Because murder is relaxing at times of stress, rereading the bloodiest of all Dashiell Hammett's novels, Red Harvest. I think about 23 people die violently in this Continental Op story of corruption in a mining town during Prohibition.

Monday Night, April 9

Auntie Mame on the switchboard at Widdicombe, Gutterman, Applewhite, Bibberman, and Black pretty much describes me trying to file my taxes this evening:

1) Oh yes Long Distance, how are you?

2) Ohhhh, did I connect you with Mr. Gutterman instead of Mr. Applewhite?

2a) I'm sorry Mr. Bibbercombe. Bibibibibib.

3) Oh Mr. Applewhite, what ARE you doing in that hole with Mr. Gutterman?!

3a) WHAT indeed!

4) Oh, there you are Mr. Applewhite!

5) Mr. Widdicombe, there's no such place as San Francisco.

6) PLEASE!

Monday Morning, April 9

1) I feel good.

2) I have my note from the doctor.

3) I am going back to work today.

Sunday Midafternoon, April 8 - Road Race Day

1) I had a feeling cancellation of the open house would not have penetrated through the entire guest list, so after a breakfast of egg drop soup I spent the morning on light housekeeping, and I'm glad I did. About 10:30 AM there was a knock on my door: a friend, and a friend of his, both running in the race and eager to drop their gear. Delighted to welcome them both!

2) Williams Street was empty of spectators as late as 11:15 AM. In the end, dozens fewer people than usual. Someone on the street mentioned that perhaps there was another road race going on today. And anyway, it was bitterly cold for spring - bitterly cold! The bright sunshine cruelly deceived a few. I remained carefully muffled up.

3) I passed the time picking up bits of trash in the garden, and then not too long after 11:30 AM, the motorcycle cops came along, signalling the arrival of the first runners.

First!

4) The new neighbors came down to the sidewalk to join me, as one of their number was running. This was my first real chance to chat with them since they moved in Easter weekend.

My new neighbor.

Too cold for shirtless running, except for this one guy.

5) Suddenly the news went round that one runner had proposed to his girlfriend while they were running together hand in hand! "Perfect JP wedding proposal, right?" smiled one of my neighbors. I replied, "All they needed to do was be running through an herb garden."

Is this the couple that just got engaged?

6) My friends had predicted that they'd finish the race by 11:45 AM. That time, however, came and went, and it just got too cold for me to wait to see them come in. As it happened, and as usual, I missed seeing them go by. They rang the bell about 12:15 PM or so, and enjoyed a good chat while they sorted out their gear and headed off to another engagement.

7) That meant that I could settle down to the Most Savory Lunch Ever: a bowl of Pr******o chickarina soup sprinkled with oregano and with a large clove of garlic crushed into it. Heaven in a bowl. And then a NAP. I slept like the dead for almost an hour, when I woke up and realized I hadn't moved. So I rolled over and promptly went back to sleep for over half an hour. I really needed that.

In conclusion, I really missed having friends over today, but Discretion truly is the Better Part of Valor. Right now I feel pleasantly drowsy after my nap, instead of utterly destroyed (and perhaps a wee bit hung over) as I surely would be after hosting a party.

Sunday Morning, April 8

1) Up VERY early, 5:00 AM - just couldn't sleep - and immediately taken by two of this morning's devotional readings. Not necessarily as they apply to me (but Lord knows I have work to do . . . and I know it, too . . . ), but - well, here they are:

1a) Acts 8:20-23: But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money [emphasis mine]. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.

1b) From C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters: “Whichever he adopts, your main task will be the same. Let him begin by treating the Patriotism or the Pacifism as a part of his religion. Then let him, under the influence of partisan spirit [emphasis mine], come to regard it as the most important part. Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the stage at which the religion becomes merely part of the ‘Cause,’ in which Christianity is valued chiefly because of the excellent arguments it can produce in favour of the British war effort or of pacifism.”

2) The road race is this morning, and it feels odd not to be rushing about getting ready for the open house: no baking of mini-muffins, no large-scale perking of coffee, no backhoe shoveling books and papers from one room to the other. I feel bad having had to cancel, but after two weeks out of the office with the flu, it just didn't make sense a) to knock myself out on a party, and b) to serve as Typhoid Barry. I"ll enjoy the Passing Show as I always do, and if anyone shows up anyway I'll greet them happily, but it won't be quite the same.

2a) Please God, this period of illness is coming to an end! Feeling so much better, but not wanting to jinx it either.

3) Books. I love books. And as much as I love them, I fear the time has come again to cull a few.

Thursday Midday, April 5

1) Yesterday a friend used the expression "The opposite of 'trying' is not 'not trying.' The opposite of 'trying' is 'hiding.'" And yesterday I was very decidedly hiding. Whether online solitaire or Charlie Chan movies with Warner Oland (what on earth?!), or online solitaire AND Charlie Chan movies with Warner Oland, I put off all thought of the future and the present.

1a) No idea why I drifted into these Charlie Chan movies, but my goodness, the racist humor. Bill Demarest's Irish-American cop referring to Mr. Chan as Egg Foo Yung was bad enough in Charlie Chan at the Opera, but then last night I checked out Charlie Chan in Egypt and my eyebrows raised when I saw Stepin Fetchit's name in the opening credits. Oh dear. We've come a long way and we still have a ways to go.

2) Mother called last night, and in chatting about health-related issues she mentioned that her father died at age 57 of a heart attack. So I guess I'd better hurry up and write that book. #almost55 #whoareyouandtakethatscytherightoutofhere

3) With great regret have had to cancel my open house for the road race this Sunday. People have been so kind about it, and truly I am surrounded by goodwill. #blessed