And that’s always exciting.

This was what my kitchen looked like last month, with the fruit trees outside in the terraced back yard pressing in at the window. Things are greener now. The cedar waxwings are taking their last bites at the red berries on the toyon before flying off to parts north. I just wish it was less windy!

I have been very conflicted and upset by the Blake Bailey scandal, so much so that I wrote a short piece about it. It’ll either appear here or somewhere else. Because it’s so topical, I decided to submit it to a couple of places. Last week I thought about it every day. I removed my review of Bailey’s biography of Philip Roth that had briefly appeared here. It just felt right to do so, especially after reading Eve Crawford Peyton’s heartbreaking essay in Slate, “I Was 12 When We Met.”

Lastly, this caught my fancy today. Billie Eilish is featured in British Vogue and the accompanying article is really good! Just coming out of her teens, she makes some excellent points about how abusively teen girls are treated in our culture. One only has to think of Matt Gaetz’s and Blake Bailey’s recently revealed exploits to see that that is true. She’s highly intelligent, funny (I loved her “Ringo, what’s up?!” at the Grammys), and a true musical talent. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s queer as well, but that will unfold or not as time goes on. I like the way she simultaneously displays her intelligence and her sexuality in the photo shoot. (Plus, corsets are sexy.)