Pennsylvania, end of March
 

Hello, PA members, I would love to meet you when I am in PA at the end of the month: https://www.wilkes.edu/news/2018/Mar...s_march27.aspx

Hi Aaron,

Well, you'll be reading at my (undergraduate) Alma Mater in the town where I grew up, Wilkes-Barre, PA!

Although I won't be in visiting family at the time of your reading, I wish you a successful event and an appreciative audience.

Cathy

Wrong end of PA! But if you can make it over to Pittsburgh I’d be delighted to meet you.

Hmm. Well, I made it to MD/VA/DC in the middle of March. But off to South Texas again tomorrow. One day, one day...

Cheers,
John

Catherine, I had no idea you grew up in Wilkes. I am curious to see what the place is like.

Aaron, yes, I need a reading in Pittsburgh. On it. On it.

John, yes, one day--the tour continues. I swore I would never go to Texas, but I may break my promise.

Best,

Aaron

Aaron that's Wilkes-Barre, not Wilkes. Wilkes is the University. I'm afraid you will be sorely disappointed by Wilkes-Barre. It was a booming town when coal was king, but since the Knox Mine Disaster in the fifties, it has pretty much gone to seed. The final blow was the Hurricane Agnes flood of 1972. The Wilkes campus, however, is beautiful. I hope your reading goes well.

Hi Aaron,

South Texas is a bit of a special case as Texas goes, it's a Democratic pocket like Houston or Austin. But the valley lacks big cities to visit, it's a string of small to medium-sized towns. It's also pretty hot. Palm trees.

Cheers,
John

And all who heard should see him there,
And glee their eyes upon Wilkes-Barre,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Catherine, thank you for the background on Wilkes-Barre. I am eager to see it--I like tough-looking old steel towns.

John, thank you. You are winning me over. It's time for Texas.

Allen, you just quoted some of my all-time favorite lines!

Aaron, it was a coal town, not a steel town. Then there were linen mills. Now it's so run down it's been named the fourth worst place to live in Pennsylvania.