I’ve savored Calvin Trillin’s stories — of Xmas dinner in Chinatown, of the tic-tac-toe-playing chicken, of his late wife Alice — for years, but hadn’t seen him speak until January’s 92nd Street Y event celebrating the publication of About Alice. Trillin and his interviewer, Mark Singer, are old friends, so the banter was perfectly timed, and not at all stagey. . . .
Books on tape and voice recognition software nearly made Braille obsolete, but the writing system has experienced a resurgence in recent years.
As Condoleezza Rice bemoaned the dearth of Farsi and Arabic speakers at the State Department, a NY Congressman recommended the 24+ military linguists canned for being gay.
John Banville praises Martin Amis’ House of Meetings, “a version of the great Russian novel done in miniature.” Elsewhere, Amis says he’s “very stirred up” by The Passion of the Christ.