By and Of Mencken

Saturday March 10, 2007

Got up around 7:30—typical for me now—and decided to take a short drive before spending a day on Carolyn’s boring pharmaceutical website project. Not a complaint about Carolyn: it’s just the nature of these pharma projects. Grew into a long drive and I only put in an hour on the site, late in day.

Destination was Germantown, to simply drive through that little village a second time. Did so, and then continued westward until I hit Highway 9, just taking in the scenery. Then struck northward. Long story short, continued on to Chatham, where I got breakfast at the little bakery in the fork of the main street, then east and north and so on until I was only 8 miles from Albany. Then southward down Highway 9, through Hudson, making little shopping stops along the way, and finally home about noon.

Was a cold day when the wind blew hard, but bearable even then. The week’s deep chill is subsiding.

Attractive woman (proprietress or at least a manager) at the bakery. Wears hair in a ponytail. Looks to be around 45, but beautiful hair, thin figure.

At home just napped and watched TV until around 5, when I put in an hour on Carolyn’s job.

Now resuming that job again—will probably take up the whole day.

This morning finished My Life as Author and Editor, Mencken’s unfinished memoir about his adult era. Been my bathroom reading since about January. Very interesting book and was enjoyable to live Mencken’s robust life vicariously again (as I’ve done in his other memoirs and in the biography I read). Book is especially remarkable in that he dictated it. Not sure I believe that claim or that I read it right. It’s of almost the same quality, almost to the sentence, of his written stuff. Wonder if he edited it afterward. If he could compose that well on his feet, no wonder he wrote so much excellent prose. Not that it really takes the wonder out of it. Just makes you see that his gift was more like turning on a hose than fetching the stuff one bucket at a time.~ VIJournalDiary