The way she was

Greitens--a Safe Obsession--One with a Limited Life Span

I have not watched a news show on TV since 8 pm on 8 November 2016 and won't, for a while, but I have decided to become obsessed with Greitens. I admire him unreservedly. When he decided to become a Republican, he really became a Republican. This was not faked. He really underwent a conversion. I am waiting for the next felony charges to demonstrate just how total the conversion was.

First haircut from a barber in 25 years

I am so allergic to chemicals (not just tobacco smoke and perfumes) that if I put my head into a barber shop (as I last did, testing, several years ago) I get a day long or two day headache. My amateur barber has more than usual to do. There are no local come-to-your-house barbers on Craigslist or other sources. I called local shops and got a barber to come out to the back patio on this sunny day.

Behind me is the ORNERY PEOPLE bookshelf. Latest purchase: J. Frank Dobie's OUT OF THE OLD ROCK, where the first chapter is about Cousin George McGehee, who was a baby during the Runaway Scrape of 1836, hauled in the little cart pulled by two little oxen.

How to get CLAREL line numbers for NN onto my notes for the Library of America volume

I have written WORDS THAT NEED NOTES at the top of the pages in Walt's Hendricks House edition and have moved the lectern to my right so I can have the NN edition there, tilted. That straight-edge marker for finding line numbers is a card from the supply I bought in September 1962 for my dissertation notes. Everything is crushed into the corner for a few weeks.

Heron today

Either way, empty, after crowded Festival of Kites weekend

Writing Notes to Library of America CLAREL--And Removing Inserts in my Copy of NN Edition

I am writing notes by putting NAMES &c to be annotated at the top of Hendricks House pages and typing them up in order. For the Part One notes I did not check NN Part-Canto-Line numbers in advance. Walt numbered by tens and NN by fives, thank goodness, but I still have to have a working space where I can have NN out tilted or else tilt my neck over and over. If I could carry up the lectern I could stand in the kitchen and do the Part-Canto-Line numbers. I can't work down here because Scalini is in what was bought as my Mission Chair. At least I have a perfect straight edge for locating line numbers, one of the box I bought in 1962 for my Dissertation Notes, back when you took weeks to type up your handwritten notes before you could start writing.

One of the papers to put away (so I can keep opening the pages) is this from 1990. I had just found the D.D. letter in a folder of undated letters from unidentified correspondents in the NYPL Duyckinck papers. "I of C" refers to my discovery of the title of the 1853 book we already knew about (since 1960)--THE ISLE OF CROSS. Coincidentally, Greg posted something about The Isle of the Cross yesterday. The writer may have thought it came RIGHT after MOBY-DICK, but so what? Andrew Delbanco said I made it up and made POEMS up, and Richard Brodhead said I made POEMS up, and Elizabeth Schultz said I made both up, then Andrew Delbanco a few years later mentioned both books but where was the apology for saying I made them up? Lordy, in his uncorrected proofs he does not even thank the person he said made the books up! Well, enough delaying. Time to get out the brand new 1962 card and start checking line numbers.

Can anyone now imagine how excited I was to discover the title THE ISLE OF THE CROSS and how ecstatic Hayford, Merton M. Sealts, Jr., and Jay Leyda were when I called the first two and went up to see the third?