Some days Robert feels that right now he is living for this moment each day.  He’s chosen a life during these last four years that is scary and uncertain. And there is no stability in sight. This is the time each day that he gets profound joy. There is no way that Cadie and Rory can appreciate what they do for him each day.  Maybe someday they will know it.

Robert has always been dubious of David Foster Wallace.  He tried to read Infinite Jest when it came out about 100 years ago, but after 150 pages of reading paragraphs he did not understand, and of dreading the idea of slugging through hundreds of more pages of them, he gave up.  Immediately after this, he began to think of the book and the writer as simply over his head. Lots of books and writers in that category.

After the writer died, it seemed to Robert, his name entered the public vocabulary and it began to stand for someone who smart people think of as smart.  Wallace seemed to generate fame after he killed himself. Somewhere in the back of our minds, we all think that suicide is evidence of genius.  Which it is not. Because of this, Robert’s estimation of the writer became worse.

Anyway, this last Christmas Robert’s father in-law gave Mira a collection of Wallace’s essays. Robert has warmed up to the writer, a little bit.

Wallace’s essay, “Deciderization 2007 – A Special Report,” is the introduction to the The Best American Essays of 2007 published annually by Houghten Mifflin. Wallace was that year’s invited “editor.”  Of course, the uber “series editor” of the project since 1986 has been Robert Atwan.  Wallace spills the beans in his introduction by explaining that he is really a sub-decider.  That Atwan chooses the total universe of 100 top essays and then allows the invited editor to choose his/her favorites from that short-list. Wallace then says:

“I have never met Mr. Atwan, but I – probably like most fans of BAE– envision him as by now scarcely more than a vestigial support system for an eye-brain assembly, maybe like 5’8″ and 100 lbs., living full-time in some kind of high-tech medical chair that automatically gimbals around at various angles to help prevent skin ulcers, nourishment and wastes ferried by tubes, surrounded by full-spectrum lamps and stacks of magazines and journals, a special emergency beeper Velcroed to his arm in case he falls out of the chair, etc.”

Like many funny things, it is funny because it is true.

Springtime . . . ’tis the season of red punch and Chick-O-Sticks . . .

Despite the misgivings of and foot dragging by Robert Jr., the unavoidable has come to pass.
Get ready for Little League Season #1.

Go Giants!

Every five years Robert’s home town gets in the news.  Always for something completely lame.

Q. What is more lame than living with your mother in Temple City?  A. Being a Newsweek reporter.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/07/us-bitcoin-inventor-idUSBREA252D820140307

Man called Bitcoin’s father denies ties, leads LA car chase

By Aron Ranen and Brandon Lowrey

1 of 4. Satoshi Nakamoto is surrounded by reporters as he leaves his home in Temple City, California, March 6, 2014.

Credit: Reuters/David McNew

(Reuters) – A Japanese American man thought to be the reclusive multi-millionaire father of Bitcoin emerged from a modest Southern California home and denied involvement with the digital currency before leading reporters on a freeway car chase to the local headquarters of the Associated Press.

Satoshi Nakamoto, a name known to legions of bitcoin traders, practitioners and boosters around the world, appeared to lose his anonymity on Thursday after Newsweek published a story that said he lived in Temple City, California, just east of Los Angeles.

Newsweek included a photograph and described a short interview, in which Nakamoto said he was no longer associated with Bitcoin and that it had been turned over to other people. The magazine concluded that the man was the same Nakamoto who founded Bitcoin.

Robert is on campus today.

Today was the funeral service for Eddie Lee, longtime good friend of Robert’s parents. Eddie is survived by Mary, his wonderful wife of 53 years, and by their daughter Ann Marie.