Back home! I heart New York!

Had drinks at The Hawaiin Isle in Concord last night. $2.75 for a Corona. Unbelievable. That is probably the only place on the planet where I could pick up a tab for five.

I bought The Best American Nonrequired Reading, guest edited by Dave Eggers, at the airport. One piece in particular made me positively quake: Zoe Trope, "Selections from Please Don't Kill the Freshman." Here is her bio from the back of the book: "Zoe Trope is the pseudonym of a writer in the Portland area who is still in high school and protecting her privacy. Her account of her freshman year, Please Don't Kill the Freshman, will be published as a book in 2003." Still in high school? Published as a book? How does this happen? Where did I go wrong? I thought of J.T. Leroy after reading her; however she managed to accomplish in 13 pages what J.T. Leroy failed to do in two novels for me: I wanted more. I can't understand how he became such a literary darling. His books are bland and boring. She is a million times better writer than J.T. Leroy.