I've always enjoyed the early Stephen King novels and for some reason I'd never gotten around to "'salem's Lot." I picked up a copy in a local thrift shop, a first edition paperback with a chipped cover and an inscription from Austin, Tex. Makes me wonder how a book can travel across three decades and 1,500 miles to my fingers. It had sat there on the rack by the thrift-shop counter for a couple of months, and I didn't buy it because I have so many other books I don't have time to read. Now… Continue

June 5

I managed to pose with the lucky face of Hannibal at Mardi Gras World in New Orleans, though I am not sure which of us look most deranged. For the record, I'm not all that fond of liver.



The city experience was bizarre--from the Disneyland quality of the French Quarter to the psychotic bums on the ferry landings, it definitely was rich and ripe and crowded. I don't know how Bourbon Street looked before the hurricanes, but I felt like taking a hot shower after walking… Continue