Write this down, because it's eleven days from now and you guys probably don't have any better memories than I do. Actually, depending on your childhood maybe you do have better memories -- oh, never mind. WBGO is Newark Public Radio, and one of my favorites because they're a big jazz station. I'll be on WBGO Journal, interviewed by Andrew Meyer, on Friday Feb, 27 at 7:30 pm. That's 88.3 on your FM dial, if you're within broadcasting range. If not, it'll be up on wbgonews.org afterwards.

This was a good interview; we talked and talked, though I know they'll cut the thing way down for broadcast. I went out to Newark, to the studio. My publisher told me to take a cab from the train station but it was under a mile so I walked. I like to walk everywhere, to see what there is to see. Lots of NYers, it turns out, have never been to Newark, except to the airport, which doesn't count, you know it doesn't. I've walked through Newark before because they have a good museum out there with a strong Asian collection including an excellent Tibetan section. I have a fondness for cities like Newark. It reminds me of Buffalo, of Cleveland, and now that I've been there, of Detroit: hard-luck cities from the early 1900's. Beautiful buildings, decently laid-out streets, and a sense of possibility: the chance to be a wonderful, comfortable place to live, just out of reach for now, but there.