Just came across this in a Paterson, NJ newspaper while researching other matters this morning. Ah, the human carnival!

My grandmother hanging with Eleanor Roosevelt in 1952. I had forgotten about ER's height--according to the infallible Internet, she was just an inch under six feet.

What do you want to know?.

Have never found a better way of avoiding traffic on the Long Island Expressway. Even better--it runs on distilled water.

RT @TheTLS: This issue of the TLS features Jonathan Keates on the Durrells, @George_Berridge on wine; @lily__herd on Michael Clune; Evan Jo….

Mahler on the composition of the Fourth Symphony. I love his sense of being a perpetual beginner, starting from scratch each time around:

Genius negotiator Steve Witkoff talking (to Tucker Carlson) about Vladimir Putin's empathy. Something of a comic masterpiece. Should be read with "You've Got a Friend" playing in the background.

RT @EnglishSymphony: Our 45th Anniversary Season kicks off on 19 September as we perform Sibelius and Rachmaninoff @CheltenhamTH . https://t….

RT @mideastXmidwest: Berlin is a city filled with "memory culture," but it's more and more difficult for denizens to grasp the present, whe….

Sibelius aside, another highlight was this large public sauna, with jolly Finns in bathing suits on the deck. The steam tunneled its way straight through my nasal passages and poached the underside of my brain. The antidote was a dip in the adjacent, freezing Gulf of Finland.

Among the greatest things about a trip to Finland is visiting Ainola, Sibelius's house outside of Helsinki. The place is fairly modest, the thrill enormous. Here is the composer's grave, his piano, his rotating flotilla of six ashtrays, and me sitting outside, humming "Tapiola":

This one's new to me:

The entire list is here:.

Am much obliged to Lit Hub for including my RWE bio in their new list of impending paperbacks (in my case, the paperback pub date is in four days):

RT @allenmendenhall: A fruitcake rather than an egghead | Norman Lebrecht | The Critic Magazine

RT @9mmballpoint: I visited the Smithsonian after the inauguration specifically to take pictures of anything that seemed like it might get….

RT @RobertAllenPoet: Alexander Pope

Active shooter four blocks from my house. I hear lots of sirens and helicopters outside, am hoping this nightmarish situation is resolve soon.

RT @LuizSantosMusic: Portrait of Igor Stravinsky. 1920.Picasso. #art #painting #arts #finearts. #luizsantosarts

Joseph Rezek and I appear to be related.

Am putting the final touches on my new novel, "There Was Bad Traffic: Godot Tells His Own Story At Last.".