Thanks, Ed (amongst others)

About two years ago my friend Ed dropped off a stack of relatively new books. I appreciated that. It was of mixed variety. Sometime after our president was elected, I cultivated an interest in presidential biography, otherwise a subject stream of only mild promise for myself. I can only recall reading two such studies as an adult, one concerning Lincoln for samizdat and one about Andrew Jackson, some fifteen years ago.

The leveling snowfall of Tuesday gave way to an ice storm overnight and we lost power before dawn. Upon waking it was already cold in our house. I picked up a bio of JFK by Robert Dallek from that stack which Ed had given me and read throughout the day in the myriad attempts to stay somewhat warm. We wound up spending the night with Kate and Jeff (Many thanks to the Lewisons) and though I had packed along Bolano's Amulet, I kept thinking about Jack Kennedy. I conjured a dynamic between the Kennedy clan and the Swedes in Conrad's Victory, I thought about symbolism of white linen suits in Mister Pip and Voyage and how JFK was wearing fatigues in his own pilgrimage in the Pacific. I returned home yesterday to discover the power restored, the idea that Ed and his peers worked ungodly hours in the cold to restore some magic charm which affords us such pleasure. I am waiting in the Dallek to employ my reading of The Best and The Brightest but as for now, I am grateful enough.