First Entry

It's a cool damp day in Seattle, my favorite place, my favorite town.  "The hippest town on the planet," so said an actor friend of mine during a 9-state tour several years ago.  During the '90s, maybe it was.  These days it's a fairly comfortable place to live, at least for a progressive like me, in a nation that seems disturbingly polarized by political partisanship.  Former President Bill Clinton was in town yesterday.  Over 1500 people stood in line to have their books signed at the Costco in Issaquah.  Some even waited in line over night.  I plan on getting My Life eventually, though I'm going to get it through my online audiobook club, Audible.  If you have a DSL connection and a CD burner, you really owe yourself the pleasure of checking out www.audible.com. Currently, I'm listening to Hearts In Atlantis, by Stephen King.  It's a terrific book, combining a coming of age story ala To Kill a Mockingbird with the appearance of a mysterious stranger with strange abilities and strange deficits, ala The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.  The first section of the book is lyric and beautiful.  I have not seen the film version, but it's in my queue on Netflicks.  The second part of the book takes the point of view of a college student addicted to game of Hearts.  Well can I identify, having been addicted to Dungeons & Dragons during my junior year of college.  Before you pass judgment though, I don't play anymore--except occasionally.  That's not to say I have anything against the game--but it is an enormous time drain which I can ill afford.  But I remember being completely obsessed back in 1980, to the point I dreamt about it.   Good book.