cat on a rainy tin roof

Paul Newman, you blue-eyed devil with the heart of charity gold, may your spirit rest in sweet repose.
my dear Mother is the only other person I have seen with eyes so blue. "Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid" always in the back of my mind.

in DC tonight, with my parents.
they came to the Book Festival with me to hear Neil's mini-reading, a salty, clever bit on revenge excerpted from the Graveyard Book.


Washington Post's eloquent Mike Dirda introduced him:



see Dan Guy in the front row:




Neil signed and signed and signed some more with his broken finger and his big heart.
the line seemed to grow and grow, until finally at five pm, after all the volunteers and all the guards and anyone connected to the festival went home, Neil got up and went down the line and signed each person's outstretched soggy books. The festival was sold out of Neil's new book by 1 pm, which disappointed many a book buyer. (It will be out domestically on Tuesday...)



Next door to us, Salman Rushdie signed away. He asked my parents if he could join them at their table in the author's tent.



I suppose because they so look very approachable and non-threatening...



here is our champion line-wrangler, Tim and friend:



Danth Guyth came bearing gifts of the robotic nature, I didn't even know what he had... here is his tiny offspring showing his real feelings about the rain:




DC is full of amazing museums and public art, this little guy caught my eye on the pavement on 3rd Street:




the day was an unpredictable weatherfest, raining full tilt and bursts of sun, ending in a rainbow.
(yes, the placement of that light pole vexes me, VEXED i say)



finally, sushi at Sushi Taro in Dupont Circle, a lovely dinner.



on to New York tomorrow.