Hey baby (of the years subsequent to the 1970s or thereabouts)
I wrote this week’s post on my phone on the Medium app because the Substack app will only let you read on your phone and not type on it. In this particular newsletter, I will be directing you to an amusing little musing about living in the country, which was published on Medium. That’s right:
I’m going to have to copy this draft from Medium and post it on Substack to redirect you to Medium.
Do you find this ridiculous?
(For further irony, ree the title of this publication on Substack.)
Oh, and about platforms: skip the Harry Potter Experience on 34th street. I got a pass (and you should take one) - there isn’t even a platform 9 3/4 - just a couple of Instagrammable moments and a lot of empty rooms.
Today, October begins. It is usually my favorite month of all. This year I would like to humbly request a rearrangement. I need a month of downtime where nothing is happening and it would be great if it were also hard to go outside. Would anyone mind if, instead of October, we subbed in February and then resumed October after 28 days of quiet work time?
I need to catch up on some things before I start thinking of birthdays and Halloween.
Writing News
This week, Brooklyn was swept away by flash floods. For the first time in recent memory, no trains were running on any line between Manhattan and Brooklyn — on monsoon Friday I was scheduled to co-host a Brooklyn Book Festival Bookends event at a glorious bookstore with a sparkling cast of notable writers — I was even going to read my own work! Needless to say I was excited by this. I even missed a going away dinner for some very beloved neighbors to attend the event (don’t worry I scheduled lunches with them). But the bookstore put the event onto a zoom so I guess that’s great? You can all watch the playback…eventually. This is the link but so far Books Are Magic has kept the content hidden so far.
Never fret! There is more to come. The next Pen Parentis Salon is open for online RSVPs (its going to be amazing) and I’m giving you a heads up, Amy Grech has invited me to participate in her book launch in Industry City on October 24 and I get to tell a ghost story!
If you missed last week’s news, I got published in the New York Times. They also sent the essay out to all of their subscribers and I got a fan letter on exTwitter so that was cool.
And of course there is the very short and slightly sardonic essay from Medium that I promised you. (It is my take on living in the country. It is highly complimentary of bakeries).
(If I can write an essay right now, so can you. )
Random Final Thought:
I had to drive to college tours this weekend in the pouring rain and at night. On the good side, no one died.
Early fall in the Berkshires is excellent. Even in the rain.
Stay dry and hang your hat with courage!