Speculative

As much as I despise the Clintons, I don’t see them as killers, especially Slick Willie. Jeffrey Epstein seemed a likely candidate for suicide. There may be nothing more to it than that. President Trump made a mistake in mentioning a link. There will be tons of posts about it on social media, and most won’t be kind to Billary.

Three items in today’s NY Post rose above the rancor and speculation: Despite mostly good economic news, bankruptcies in the USA are up 3.3%… In an op-ed piece, Selena Zito laments the closing of local newspapers. In the past 15 years, 1800 news organizations have shuttered. There is sadness in such events, but the world evolves, and web sources have doomed a lot of traditional businesses… From the Weird But True column: Legislative debate was halted in a town in Kenya by a loud fart. The accused denied it. Back in the day we would have responded: “First one smelt it dealt it.”

From foxnews.com: Fentanyl overdoses in San Francisco jumped by nearly 150% last year. 89 died.

The floating book shop had only one customer on this glorious day. Rose double-parked her SUV and approached the tree I was standing under. Suddenly a persistent “Boing” emanated from her vehicle. It was her cell phone ring tone. After she hung up she approached the tree and tacked a homemade ad to it. She’s looking to share her apartment. Her previous roommate, a young woman from Connecticut, moved in ten years ago. Now 37, she has married. Rose seems about 60. She noticed the display and was attracted to A Hitch in Twilight, the type of work that is dubbed, appropriately given the day’s main event, “speculative fiction” in this era. She seemed skeptical when I said I was the author. When she looked at the photo on the back she said: “Oh, yeah, it is you.” She bought it. I told her to pick out other books as a thank you. Her first choice was obvious, a huge tome on the National Pastime: We Played the Game: 65 Players Remember Baseball’s Greatest Era, 1947–1964 by Danny Peary. She said her dad played in the minors for the Yankees until WWII ended any hopes he had of a career in MLB. She opted for the unusual with her second choice: The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes — and Why by Amanda Ripley. My thanks.

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