“It’s hard for me to believe that people who read very little (or not at all in some cases) should presume to write and expect people to like what they have written, but I know it’s true.”

Stephen King, On Writing

Monday was a pretty bad day. First I had to send Terry off, to return who knows when, and then, in my excitement for one of our first truly autumnal days, I unwittingly donned what soon revealed themselves to be cruel shoes. It was a small catastrophe. I’ve just redressed the backs of my heels and am headed to bed, pausing only to share with you a blog entry that actually managed to make me laugh through some of the pain. The first line is a grabber:

Ah, to be young enough that it is still possible to lose one’s shoe in a tree.

Today seemed to be the day for precocious kids on the web. This also appeared, in the Slate diary of writer-director Judd Apatow, who will always be held in esteem around these parts for having executive-produced Freaks and Geeks:

My daughter Maude was 5 when she realized that Barney had only one expression. She couldn’t stop laughing when she noticed this. She ran around the living room with this psychotic Barney smile which never changed, and then started saying, “I’m happy. I’m sad.” She laughed some more and then screamed, “Help me! I don’t know how to feel.”

Stop being so knowing and adorable, children. You’re making your elders feel prematurely obsolete.

i waved my hope around like a cheap flag

whose colors had faded

whose emblem was laughable.

Erin McKeown, “Love in 2 Parts”

Our Girl and I have been tearing around Chicago for the past two days, looking at plays, taping radio shows, and eating too well. (I’m using her computer, which is why this posting is signed with her name.) The only cloud on the horizon is that I’ll be returning to New York first thing this morning, sigh.

More later, perhaps even later today. Normal blogging will resume tomorrow. Until then, see you in Manhattan!

– Weekly salary paid to John Coltrane by Thelonious Monk in 1957 for playing tenor saxophone in Monk’s quartet: $100

– The same amount in today’s dollars, courtesy of Inflation Calculator: $679.61

(Source: Lewis Porter, JazzTimes, October 2005)

“Not all, but too many of the best writers, composers, and artists of our time begin to be acclaimed only when they no longer have anything to say and take to performing instead of stating. This is how they first become accessible to broad taste, which is lazy taste, and by the same token to the processes of publicity and consecration. As long as they were trammeled up in the urgency of getting things said they were too difficult, too ‘controversial.'”

Clement Greenberg, Hofmann

I’m off to Chicago today to visit Our Girl and see a couple of plays. I’ll be returning to New York at midday Monday. What effect my travels will have on what gets posted in this space come Monday morning remains to be seen. For that matter, OGIC and I might even blog a bit over the weekend, depending on what we get up to in Chicago. Look in on us and see for yourself!

(Did you notice all the new Top Fives, by the way?)

Friday again, and time as usual for my weekly Wall Street Journal drama-column teaser. This week I report on my recent visit to Wisconsin, where I saw performances by American Players Theatre, Madison Repertory Theatre, and the Milwaukee Repertory Theater:

What’s in Wisconsin, America’s dairyland? Cheese (naturally), beer, bratwurst, cranberries, the Green Bay Packers and thousands of glacial lakes. Also the Milwaukee Art Museum, an insufficiently celebrated institution whose spectacular new pavilion, designed by Santiago Calatrava, has already become a regional landmark. And–no, I wasn’t forgetting–lots and lots of theater companies, three of which I saw on a recent visit that left me quite impressed….

All in all, my week in Wisconsin was hugely satisfying, and I only wish I’d had time to catch a few more plays while I was there. I don’t know whether theater-loving Wisconsinites realize how lucky they’ve got it, but I can assure them that they don’t need to go to New York–or even Chicago–to see a good show.

For details, pick up a copy of today’s Journal, or go here to subscribe to the Online Journal, which will allow you to read my column in its entirety, not to mention all sorts of other cool stuff.