Correction: I am a total idiot. The Early Show (April 9) does not air at 11:00 a.m.; 11:00 is not that early. In NY, it airs at 7:00 a.m.; looks like you need to check your local CBS affiliate for airtime in your area. Sorry for the mistake.

What I want to know is why hotel rooms have these little itty bitty coffee makers that make ONE (1) cup of coffee. Does anyone drink one cup of coffee? And if indeed no one does, as I suspect is the case, then shouldn't there be some sort of coffee-delivering/obtaining area nearby? Like, you know, in the restaurant? Which does not open until 6:30a.m.? And even if there is, there is the problem of leaving your room in your pajamas with your hair standing on end and finding your way to this coffee-del//obt. area, is there not? I will see someone about it.

So the best people I've met on tour so far were two young gentleman I met yesterday afternoon while I was sitting in VBAR (coffeeshop in the West Village), working on my laptop while sitting by an open window. These two, aged approx. 5, stopped by outside the window to chat, and they asked me who I was, and I said I was a lady in a coffeeshop, and this seemed reasonable enough to them, and we had a fairly extensive conversation about their Power Rangers, and then discussed the alphabet, and they said they were working on the letters 'm' and 'n' in school, and I agreed that indeed these were hard letters to master, and then their father came by and he and I talked for a moment about whether, due to their small stature, the two young gentleman counted as one large person, or whether, due to the size of their personalities, they counted as four each. We settled on the latter.

Today is a typical tour day: working on the readings & reviewing the lecture this morning, then the interview on "Writers on Writing," Bay Area NPR affiliate KUCI-FM, then a photo shoot with the Washington Post, which I learned about yesterday at dinner, because I got a message on my phone confirming the photo shoot, and another confirming the interview, for the same time. This was sorted out, and now the photo shoot will happen after the interview, which seems for the best.

It's confirmed: The New York Times Book Review will review Madness. I'll let you know when it's running. Send good-review vibes in the direction of their offices. Yipes!

Guess what! It's 6:30 a.m., and there is coffee in the vicinity, and I have to hunt it down. Have a great day--will shoot you another report tomorrow.

Peace,
M