¶ Matins: James Wolcott isn’t feeling well. First he describes the symptoms. Then he evokes them, with descriptions of the bad movies that he has been watching from his sickbed.

¶ Tierce: The luxury branding crisis continues at the Ivies: “Elite Colleges Reporting Record Lows in Admission.” Catchy title, what? What they meant to say was “Record Highs in Rejection.”

¶ Nones: Grand & Brilliant Entertainment, starring (who else?) Nathan Lane: November, at Portico.

¶ Vespers: Off to Carnegie Hall this evening for Orpheus, with Felicity Lott.

Oremus…

§ Matins. I’ve seen only one or two of the titles that he mentions. He must be sick, if he’s looking at the sets, and not at Diane Keaton, in Play It Again, Sam. Lord, I came out of that movie with a hundred-proof crush. It took years to get used to the actress’s natural hair color — and I’m not crazy about blondes.

It also, I might as well mention, took years to fall in love with the real Diane Keaton, a far spikier character than Linda Christie, her first Woody Allen film role.

By the way. I’m not feeling well, either, although I’ll spare you the details. Today’s not going to be fun. I have to spend the morning backing up as much of the old computer’s hard drive as I can manage, move most of the furniture in the blue room, and try to find application CDs.

§ Tierce. What happens when the pool of potential buyers vastly outstrips the maximum possible supply of Kelly bags? Hermès sets up a waiting list, of course, and counts on attrition to keep the figures down. But college-bound kids aren’t going to change their minds about going to college, and they can’t wait three or four years, either, so what happens when the pool of qualified applicants vastly outnumbers the available slots at the best schools — most of which are quite small? Will the gifted cream of Yale’s rejects improve the brand (if not the quality) of the schools that they wind up at?

The following used not to be true, but I think that it is true now:

“I know why it matters so much, and I also don’t understand why it matters so much,” said William M. Shain, dean of admissions and financial aid at Bowdoin. “Where we went to college does not set us up for success or keep us away from it.”

§ Nones. Between us, Kathleen and I have seen Nathan Lane in Almost Everything. The new Mamet show didn’t get the greatest raves, and I’m not really keen on David Mamet to begin with, but November is a glorious burlesque, with everything but the girls. Best line: “I want a number so high that even _____ can’t ____ it .”

§ Vespers. I’d be looking forward to the concert with greater enthusiasm if it weren’t for an potentially embarrassing problem that, er, erupted yesterday. I did manage to postpone the new-computer installation for two days; I wouldn’t have been up to it this afternoon, but I expect I’ll be all right on Thursday.

Drop me a line at rjk@dailyblague.com
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