This is over 800 pages. That's too big to just plow through. I'm reading five pages every night. I'm up to where they wrote the Constitution and then the First Amendment. Jill Lepore makes it live.

The Times reviewed Ann Petry's two novels today. One was written in 1946; the other in 1953. It's an impressive review and an impressively-written review. You can get it online if you didn't already buy the hardcopy paper. This part about Petry's life. Jesus, you say to yourself. 'Her family was one of four black households in small-town Connecticut and faced routine harassment. She was ordered to leave a public beach as a child, and pelted with stones as she walked to school, where white teachers refused to instruct her.'

The just-came-out-today New York Magazine cover of 'Mayor Pete' who announced yesterday that he's running. I'm interested in the phenomenon of Pete. He's most of the talk right now. All the print and all the radio and all the TV love him. The other candidates must envy it. Does he present too perfectly maybe? Maybe. Could it get annoying? It could. I'm still a Bernie guy. We'll see what happens.