I’ve been reading and reading lately. The cold weather lends itself to that. The Antonia Fraser biography of Marie Antoinette was heartbreaking. Her son gets taken and brainwashed, she ends up in tattered clothing in a cold jail cell, and her 8-year-old son accuses her of child abuse. I did not know about that last item. Evidently, the jailers brainwashed the dauphin to accuse his mother, the queen, and his aunt of sexual abuse. How horrid. The ending does not let up; one bad thing happens after another.

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I’m also reading an Elizabeth II biography, which is not quite as dramatic as Marie Antoinette. Some short stores in the newspaper were rather dull.

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In case you do not realize, The Washington Post is quite a watchdog. For two days, the front page ran stories on the horrible conditions at Walter Reed Hospital (patients with brain damage wandering around looking for their rooms, mold growing on the ceiling, water dripping down walls, the Army having no record of a solider’s duty in Iraq, the Army declaring solidiers not eligible for disability despite injuries sustained in the war) and so on. On the third or fourth day, the Post ran an article about how the gubment was “investigating” Walter Reed. At a Bat Mitzvah today, I met a man who works there. He talked to a General there and said Walter Reed is hopping and working on the many problems since the article. I wonder how much will get done.

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The fall issue of 32 is off to the printer.

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Next week is busy. Burlesque Poetry Hour on Monday (dinner with poet-friends beforehand) and the Auden celebration at the Folger.