Mendelsohn Cavafy tweet

This afternoon's "afternoon poem" is this masterwork of 1930 by Cavafy:

   The Mirror in the Entrance

In the entrance hallway of that sumptuous home
there was an enormous mirror, very old;
acquired at least eighty years ago.

A strikingly beautiful boy, a tailor's assistant,
(on Sunday afternoons, an amateur athlete),
was standing with a package. He handed it
to one of the household, who then went back inside
to fetch a receipt. The tailor's assistant
remained alone, and waited.
He drew near the mirror, and stood gazing at himself,
and straightening his tie. Five minutes later
they brought him the receipt. He took it and left.

But the ancient mirror, which had seen and seen again,
throughout its lifetime of so many years,
thousands of objects and faces—
but the ancient mirror now became elated,
inflated with pride, because it had received upon itself
perfect beauty, for a few minutes.

Allan Gurganus coming to Arlington Nov. 7

He'll be at the Arlington Central Library to discuss "Lost Souls", a trio of linked novellas.

Gay Bars …

—Steven Fry on

In anticipation

In anticipation of next month's read, Allan Gurganus: How I Write.

"Read your work aloud daily. Read it once a week to your friends. Provide the wine yourself."

Cavafy Sesquicentennial Celebration

Writers, actors, performers, translators and artists —

André Aciman, Michael Cunningham, Mark Doty, Olympia Dukakis, Craig Dykers, Edmund Keeley, Daniel Mendelsohn, Orhan Pamuk, Dimitris Papaioannou, and Kathleen Turner

— gather at the PEN American Center next month to bring to life one of the most original and influential Greek poets (and the only one we've ever read), Constantine P. Cavafy!

Thematic Body Parts

Still thinking back on Spanbauer's rollicking tale, I'm wondering if I overlooked a theme running through the book focused on a certain body part?

Toward the end we have severed arms, legs, and blind(-ish) eyes. We've got man-parts and lady-parts throughout the book, though handled so casually they seem disposable. Was anyone decapitated? Did Dellwood remain whole in the end?

Shed is clearly on a quest to find a family, where he came from, and where he belongs, but I never picked up on a quest to find a brain or a heart. Did anyone else?

Oct. 2 at AFSA — NOT Tenley

Short of a deus ex machina intervening to save the day, it looks like the federal government will shut down on Oct. 1, however temporarily. And that, in turn, normally means that the D.C. government—including the library system—would also shut down.

Mindful that Mayor Gray has sought to forestall an automatic closure by designating all municipal employees essential, I stopped by the Tenleytown Library on Friday to find out whether they had any guidance. The librarian I spoke with said that as far as she knows, if Uncle Sam closes, they still will, too.

Accordingly, let’s play it safe and move this Wednesday’s meeting to my office building in Foggy Bottom, where we meet on third Wednesdays: 2101 E St. NW. (AFSA headquarters).