Strangest moment in quite a while. Rushing around today. Piano guy
came. Yes, he thought the piano was worth restoring and it would be
three thousand dollars for this and three thousand dollars for that
and... But what would it take to put keys in place and to quieten
the action and allow us to hear the sound? Seven hundred dollars.
That is what we're doing.
Off to PNCA to return the computer I bought from them--nasty noise
coming from the hard drive. The computer fellow--chief vice
president for digital-deanliness or something of that ilk--wasn't
"in" today. This month among the higher ups: unter-dean goes on
honeymoon, uber-dean goes to Australia, the only student advisor goes
on vacation, the guy in charge of thesis students is in France. I
believe we have a new concept--distance administrating.
I left the computer with one of the lower folk and will deal with it
on Monday.
Upstairs to print out poems and the novel. What a lot of paper. How
wonderful it is to see things printed quickly.
Downstairs to farewell party for one of the lower folk, who has been
around longer than most.
An urgent word with a colleague who was worried about something, and
then more words with a former student who was visiting.
So it was in a preoccupied state of mind, with a two inch stack of
paper under my arm, that I got into my car, started the engine,
turned the radio on. Then it happened. I found I was talking to
myself. "Surely," I thought, "the day isn't that strange. That
seems to be me, in the radio."
Yes, I had entirely forgotten that the Lewis and Clark thing was
being broadcast. But what are the chances that I would switch on the
radio at the exact moment when they were playing my small part?
I thus cannot tell you how it sounded. All I remember is that they
had added a rather bizarre clicking sound to the voiceover,
suggesting that it was recorded "in the field." I listened to the
rest of the broadcast. They seem to have thought that history needs
to be jazzed up, made weird around the edges. I feel that I ought to
like at least the endeavor. But I don't. Now I have to think of
something to write to these people so that I can go another round
with them and maybe produce something I like.
So this is star-dom?
David Ritchie Portland, Oregon.
------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
