RESTLESS I WOKE UP EARLY AGAIN AND WENT OUT TO BREAKFAST at the usual place. I got blueberry pancakes. Eggs on a separate plate. Scrambled. I went home and soon still restless because of the Inauguration tomorrow and the big college football game tomorrow night and because my oldest daughter is flying to India this afternoon for work, I decided I’d go buy a book at close-by big Barnes & Noble which has a staggering amount of trade paperbacks on all sorts of tables. I usually walk to my favorite bookstore but it was too far for me to go today. I looked at many tables. No book jumped out to me though. Finally on an upper floor this one did. I’m 77. It’s my era. I’ve likely read most of the entries before. But I bought it. In a kind of a fuck you to Trump and Musk and Jon Voight. 

AT THE BIG (four floors) BARNES & NOBLE NEAR ME just now. 

 SHE’S NOT GOING TO THE INAUGURATION. You don’t have to watch.  

I TAKE WAY FEWER PHOTOS WITH MY PHONE since I quit posting things on Facebook. I used to feel a nudge to take a photo on the subway or on my walks so I could put the photo on Facebook. Nothing really wrong with that. But any phone or computer identity—this place too—is not real life. I’ve noticed that since I’m not online with Facebook which was the only place I went. No X or Instagram. I’m sure people who are on them, enjoy them. Younger people. My grandchildren. It’s not my world. I do miss the people I connected with on Facebook, if it’s really a connection. I liked seeing their names come up. I’ll say this though. Life is more real off the computer. I’m not a better person. Just freer somehow. Or more free. 

 DAVID LYNCH. R.I.P.

 

‘Deeply alarmed’: Washington Post staff request meeting with Jeff Bezos

Journalists say in letter ‘trust has been lost’ and seek in-person meeting with billionaire owner over paper’s future

https://apple.news/ATg_0S9XWTDG-eRPkt__kFQ

I KNEW IT WAS TOO COLD OUT. I knew before I went to bed it was going to be 24 degrees between 8:00-9:00 when I hold the sign downtown in front of the Dept. of Education building. But my alarm was set for 6:23 and I got up and went out with the sign. I like the faces I see every weekday there. They like to see me there, I can tell. I’m part of the landscape. Many, maybe most, of the people who work in the building have never not had me out front. So, I went. I only stayed 30 minutes though. It was cold out.