Good idea …

… How About a Biography of Tom Wolfe? (Hat tip, Dave Lull) i met him once. he and I had been invited to the White House by Laura Bush to talk to some school kids. Nice guy. Quite tall. I was six-one at the time and he had to be six-five.

I don’t get this …

'… Perpetual Indulgence' Versus Religious Conviction | RealClearReligion.

I have no problem with gay pride. I’m a straight guy who was rather popular with a lot of gay people. And my best gay friends told me once that, while I was reasonably good looking, one could just tell I was straight. I was also the guy in the schoolyard who stood up for the “fairies,” most of whom were not gay. I don’t like bullies. But I don’t mind fighting. (A guy came by my house, wanting to give me some shit. My wife told that he didn’t want to talk to her husband. He said why not not. And she told him that her husband was not easy to intimidate and had remarkable upper body strength.  Why not Straight Pride? I’ll tell you why. You can only be proud of what you have personally achieved. I was born straight. What’s to be proud of? It’s the way I happen to be. My dear friends, harpsichordist Temple Painter and composer Harold Boatrite, used to joke about the time I came by their house and Harold’s mattress was on the sidewalk outside their house smoking away. He had fallen asleep the night before while smoking and set his mattress on fire. Well, when our drinking sessions went on too long and I couldn’t get a train back to Germantown, I would sleep on the pull-out sofa in  the living room. Well, that’s where Harold was sleeping for the time being. So that night I slept with Temple in his huge double bed. No, we did not have sex — though I loved both him and Harold (my dear friend Katherine and I shared power of attorney for them). It did, however, become the source of an ongoing quip. “You have, Frank, slept with a known homosexual.” 

RIP …

… Ian Tyson, Canadian Folk Great Who Wrote ‘Four Strong Winds,’ Dead at 89.

I saw him, not long before I retired, when I covered the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, NV, for The Inquirer.

Another example …

… of the worst political class in our history: Debbie Stabenow blasted for dismissing surging gas prices. Except for the fact that I do not approve of capital punishment (like Auberon Waugh I think it’s wrong to kill people) I would nominate people like this for the Ceaușescu treatment.

Greg Maguire kicks off The Gathering

What do bumblebees, Antonin Dvorak and Babylon have in common?

Thanks to the inventive mind of Gregory Maguire, the answer to this question is not "Umm, I'll just go and get you a doctor now, OK?" Instead, not-so-coincidentally, the answer is "Time, Place and Story," which happens to be the theme for The Gathering this year.

Greg kicked off this year's event with a very funny and entertaining lecture entitled "Backyard Babylon." In addition to bees and Dvorak, it also brought together elements from the work of each of this year's featured authors, Greg's own writing, autobiographical anecdotes, and numerous other seemingly disparate topics in a highly informative thesis. While defining his views about the relationships between time, place and story, Greg also provided fascinating insights into the genesis of his Wicked Years series.

Greg's lecture was the exclamation point on a delightful opening evening that started with a meet and greet on the Keystone College campus and continued on to a convivial dinner shared by authors, guests and staff. After dinner, brief welcomes and introductions were followed by the invocation, highlighted by a lovely Hindu dance performed by Sujata Nair Mulloth.

All in all, it was a fantastic start to a highly-anticipated weekend. I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!