Tuesday, June 10, 2014

What's Wrong With Eggs and Toast

You recall how I hadn't read any Robert B. Parker books about his detective Spenser, so Ace Atkins loaned me a few... well, now I have read those AND one of Ace's books about Spenser. Today I read about Spenser eating eggs and rye toast in a diner. Then he says he should have ordered the hash instead. So! Today, also, I had lunch with John Brandon, who was in town to read from his new book. And we both ironically (?) had eggs and toast. Then, while I was waiting for John Brandon's reading, I sat in the City Grocery Bar, sipping on a Pacifico and reading the first two stories from his new collection. In the second of those, a young man rejects his mother's offer of eggs and rye toast! In other words, I read TWO DIFFERENT BOOKS BY TWO DIFFERENT AUTHORS TODAY IN WHICH THE CHARACTERS WERE UNSATISFIED BY EGGS AND RYE TOAST! I was sad because I got to the bar at 4:02 and 4:02 used to be the time when Megan and I would meet when she lived here, but I was all alone, reading a book in a bar like a real dope, even though the book was a good one. Before his reading I told John that his second story put me in mind of Salinger somehow, and John's response was an expression of benign puzzlement. I left John's reading early (it was a long one, a doubleheader) and went back to City Grocery Bar, where I ran into none other than the aforementioned Ace Atkins. We were talking about Chandler when who should walk up but Tim Youd, the artist who is typing THE SOUND AND THE FURY at Rowan Oak right now! So I introduced him to Ace and they had a good conversation about Chandler. I can't remember what else happened, I guess that was it, no, something else probably happened.