Archives for July 18, 2016

Mrs. T and I are midway through a much-needed seaside vacation in Maine. For me that means no deadlines of any kind and no shows until Friday, when we pass through Massachusetts to see The Pirates of Penzance on our way back home. Instead we’re eating lobster rolls, taking day sails, looking at paintings and flowers, and watching the sun set. So far the weather has favored us, and if it ceases to do so, we took care to pack plenty of books. (The inn where we’re staying this week has a library, but we learned when we came here two years ago that the collection is a bit random.)

I’ve already written and filed my Wall Street Journal drama column for Friday, and the usual routine daily postings will continue to appear in this space, but I won’t be writing anything else, here or elsewhere, until next week. Leisure beckons.

Judy Collins sings Bob Dylan’s “Daddy, You’ve Been On My Mind” on Rainbow Quest, a TV series hosted by Pete Seeger. This episode was taped in 1966:

(This is the latest in a series of arts-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)

“We turn to literature not only for respite, relaxation or escape from the boredom of reality and the gnaw of suffering, but to get away from uncertainty. And certainty is in the past. There, so it seems to us, things have been settled. There we can see a whole picture. For to see something whole becomes a necessity to people like ourselves whose world has fallen to pieces. Perhaps, we think, the certainty of the past will help our minds to substantiate a faith in the kind of certainty we hope for in the future.”

V.S. Pritchett, My Good Books (courtesy of Patrick Kurp)