More news today

This is Merwin and me about 1970, our first visit to Vaughan after she and her family moved from Glen Head to a gorgeous half-mansion in California. We took our son Lincoln with us, then about 10.

Dear Friends and Family,

Yesterday was a busy day. I didn't have time to mope around. Laury came over to take another walk with me, but my plans for a session with her on Macbeth did not work, because I was too tired, and I needed to rest for Michelle's arrival at 3:30. It was a joy to be with our dear granddaughter, to hear her woes and sorrows as well as her ideas about any number of things. As planned, we made salad dressing, which turned out better than almost any other time I have made it. Also potato chips, which turned out to be just excellent cooked potatoes in small pieces. They were not chips. Michelle reminded me that when I had made them at their house during Passover I used a boxy steel grater and cut chips using the big opening and laid each chip on an oiled cookie sheet, with no overlaps, and then baked them till them were brown and crisp. Oh, well, another time for that.

Dave went shopping for us today. He does well, but he misunderstood "small" eggplant and got one about 2" tall. It doesn't matter; I will use it anyway.

Laury asked our colleague Harry to write a blurb, as requested by our publisher, for our Measure for Measure edition. This is what he wrote:

Kliman and Magnus make reading Measure for Measure an adventure by emphasizing, rather than trying to resolve, its notorious difficulties. Instead of proposing one “reading” to foreclose other readings, they equip readers to probe and relish the play’s interpretive richness by referencing actual productions and performance issues. It’s an intellectually rigorous but stimulating strategy that both empowers readers and releases their imaginations.

Isn't that nice? We are proud of our edition.

Now that the semester is almost over, I've been trying to get in touch with people who have been busy with their work—among them Dawn, Rick, Sophie (our three "children"); Sophie has come up for a breath of air, and proposes a Sunday dinner out if they can get a sitter, or a visit by us to them. We'll do one or the other on Sunday.

Son Harvey sent me a draft of a piece he's written by invitation; I enjoy editing for him. He does wonderful work, taking a leap from speculation to understanding. It's been graduation weekend at Yale. and he and Sandy had the great pleasure of having Starry and her family staying with them for the full weekend of activities. Starry and Walter's son Jordy graduated today: it seems remarkable. It was such a short time ago that he arrived at Yale. Soon he will be off to UCLA for a PhD in an esoteric (to me) branch of math. Ours is a multigenerational friendship. Starry is the daughter of my friend Sandy, who died much too young.

Off now to watch the Lehrer report! What a world!

Love to all,
Bernice