November 2020

One of the more bizarre interview formats. Did Kerouac enjoy this? I doubt it — he looks extremely uncomfortable. But great to watch.

Update: Oh, looks like he wrote about this experience in Big Sur.

“(remembering that awful time only a year earlier when I had to rehearse my reading of prose a third time under the hot lights of the Steve Allen Show in the Burbank studio, one hundred technicians waiting for me to start reading, Steve Allen watching me expectant as he plunks the piano, I sit there on the dunce’s stool and refuse to read a word or open my mouth, “I dont have to R E H E A R S E for God’s sake Steve! ” — “But go ahead, we just wanta get the tone of your voice, just this last time, I’ll let you off the dress rehearsal” and I sit there sweating not saying a word for a whole minute as everybody watches, finally I say, “No I cant do it, ” and I go across the street to get drunk) (but surprising everybody the night of the show by doing my job of reading just fine, which surprises the producers and so they take me out with a Hollywood starlet who turns out to be a big bore trying to read me her poetry and wont talk love because in Hollywood man love is for sale)”

Black and brown people were worst hit during the first coronavirus waves in the Bay Area. But, the Chronicle reports, things seem to be balancing out:

“The trend is emerging weeks after counties began easing restrictions in many places, including reopening indoor dining and increasing capacity at gyms and places of worship. That prompted many residents to let their guard down and expand their social bubbles, county health officials said.”

That’s one theory. Here’s another:

“The participation in testing sites is declining,” [Omar Carrera, chief executive officer of the nonprofit Canal Alliance] said. “People don’t want to get tested for multiple reasons — misinformation, lack of trust. The economic burden is so big that people feel, ‘Because I have no symptoms, I don’t have the need to go get tested. Because if I get tested and I’m positive, I’m not going to be able to work for two weeks. I might even lose my job.’“

The brilliant Ed Luce on the damage Trump is doing to American democracy:

“The limits to what Mr Trump can do lie not within himself but in the reactions of other people. So far, too many elected Republicans have acquiesced with the fraudulent postal ballot line, which makes no logical sense. The Republican party gained or held seats in many of the swing states that are in question. Many Republicans celebrating their wins are thus simultaneously questioning the ballots that pushed them over the finishing line. They cannot have it both ways.”

I disagree with Ed on that last point. The Republicans have shown us, time and time again, they can very much have it both ways. That’s what makes this whole farce so very alarming.

“I’m not sure what kind of person could do it, but I like to assume that it’s somebody who just really loved native birds.”

— Laura Keown, spokeswoman for New Zealand’s Bird of the Year competition, on discovery of a rigged vote. The winner was the kiwi pukupuku. Or was it…?

“She’s done more than a story a day, on average, and stories with her byline have accounted for hundreds of millions of page views this year alone. That’s more than anyone else at The Times.”

— Ben Smith, the New York Times’s media columnist, writing about Maggie Haberman. Something tells me there’s plenty of reporting on Trump to come yet…

In Derry, N.H., a bit of hand sanitizer briefly gummed up a ballot reader on Election Day.

— via the New York Time’s election live blog, following an election day free of any significant technological hiccups, unless you count the fact we still don’t know who won.

A 10 percent chance of winning, which is what our forecast gives Trump, is roughly the same as the odds that it’s raining in downtown Los Angeles. And it does rain there.

— FiveThirtyEight gives its final polling prediction. An almost certain win for Biden, but…