Dear Diary:
Slow
This will be brief. I have spent the day slowly, laboriously, and deliberately. The feeling that little was accomplished must yield (if only it would) to the realization that I worked all day, every minute of it, really; and, anyway, tomorrow’s Daily Office required a lot of reading. Writing the Daily Office takes no time at all, once I’ve decided on the links. Deciding on the links involves reading what’s at the other end of them.
Take a story that I decided not to write about: Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s stay — very temporary, as it turned out — of the Chrysler bankruptcy case. I decided not to write about it because there was really nothing to write about. If the Court decided to hear the appeal from those Indiana people, then there would be something to say, although perhaps not by me. But Justice Ginsburg’s stay was an automatic sort of thing, pro forma.
The difficulty is that I read the story before deciding not to write about it. Of course I read it! It was the sort of story that one really ought to read. The sale of Chrysler to Fiat may not be the most wonderful bankruptcy outcome ever, but its happening quickly is of the essence, and the opposition, however principled, was wrong-headed (as, indeed, principled gestures too often are). I read the story in my capacity as a member of the general public, and also in my capacity as chief cook and bottle-washer here at The Daily Blague. I read a lot of stories that way every day. It’s the Big Noise of 2009: All of a sudden I’m a Walter Burns wannabe.
In the evening, just for fun and larks, I fought another skirmish in the video chat wars. Don’t. Ask. The upshot was a jolly conversation via Skype that lasted as long as my friend and I wanted it to do. On the right machine, too.
Something to look forward to: David Hyde Pierce, in Accent on Youth. We’ve got tickets for tomorrow night. I plan to be easily entertained.