Nil by Mouth

Newsworthy

There’s certainly enough in the news these days to keep a mind occupied. Maybe there is always enough in the news to keep a mind occupied, but working at home has me listening to NPR practically all day. I immediately got into it with my tennis partner Dennis yesterday afternoon about John Ashcroft and amazed myself at the number of dates and facts that appeared in my ordinarily not-full-hearted political discussions.

There’s the Anderson verdict. Not the sexiest news on the block, but i couldn’t help but be interested by the label “corrupt persuader”. That’s what sealed the deal for the jurors apparently. Andersen lawyer Nancy Temple was found to be the temptress leading the firm into the dark cavern of dishonesty. The words themselves have a biblical ring to them, don’t they? Wouldn’t they call Eve the corrupt persuader. Yeah so-and-so may have eaten the apple, so-and-so may have shredded documents, and so-and-so may have flat out lied to the SEC, but “wah wah, she maaade me do it.”

And then the huge wildfire in Colorado. Wildfires in the summer seemed to be seasonal normality when i was living in the southwest. One day driving by mountains that were a yellowed tangle of brush, a few months later they were a scorched black. And then maybe a year later they’re green and dotted with wildflowers. I’m thinking in particular of the Malibu fires a few years back, followed closely by El Nino rains. The whole process struck me as an amazing act of Mother Nature Knows Best. Not that i know anything about it. Or the immense fear that all the people who live around there must be feeling. Adding to the heart-wrenching is that the fire was started by a forest service employee burning a letter. What a miserable start. Not that there could be anything we might call a “good” start, but really. Sad. Really sad. In one of my stupider dramatic moments I set fire to a letter from an ex in a teeny 5′ by 7′ dorm room. The room filled with thick black smoke within seconds. I was freaking out while also laughing. I was thinking how pathetic it would be for me to burn down an entire dorm in the process of mending my broken heart. Thankfully half a glass of water averted disaster.

Otherwise, off the news topic, on The Brian Leher show yesterday was a guy who put together a book on good NYC quotes by mostly famous New Yorkers. He kept firing ‘em off (and they were all good), but one that stuck with me was, “If you’re anywhere else you’re out of town”.

• Jun 18