Monday Morning
Construction of the building to be known as The Lucida, 86th & Lex. Where have I seen that orange before?
After a hard day of reading for pleasure, I slept in this morning. When I crawled back into bed for what turned out to be the last time, at about a quarter to nine, I concentrated on the one or two tiny suggestions that I would have made to James Collins if I had had a chance to read the MS of Beginner’s Greek. I was so impressed by the power of my improvements that I woke myself up completely. Beginner’s Greek remains one of the warmest and most generous social comedies that I have ever read. I only wish that the author were more willing to put his hero, Peter Russell, through a passage as dark as the ones that make reading Jane Austen and Anthony Trollope so hair-raising. Beginner’s Greek is loaded with sympathetic characters. It just needs a tad more villainy.
Then I read the Times. The Monday morning Times, so different — so much thinner! — from the two weekend bundles. I’ll deal with those later today. Also, I’ve got to make good on my bogus rule about Christmas cards and Martin Luther King Day. I have to take a stab at it, anyway. Right now, I’m off to the barber, for a trim; and then to Agata & Valentina, for sandwich fixings. How much will you pay me not to post my shopping list?