My Day

Woke up early today. Because some jerk called me early. Most of my friends know I'm not a morning person. It turned out to be serendipitous, since I got on the internet and discovered my old friend and editor Virginia Postrel was giving a speech on design at--where else?--the Pacific Design Center.

It's only a few miles away, but driving there, I discovered morning radio is a conservative's paradise. I pressed the scan button and heard Dennis Prager (a local conservative) speaking with two other conservatives about Terri Schiavo, Bill O'Reilly (Fox News tentpole) lacing into the ACLU and Rush Limbaugh (you know who) interviewing a dominatrix. Is it any wonder Rush gets the highest ratings?

Virginia gave a short, entertaining talk on aesthetics from an economic viewpoint, based on her book, The Substance Of Style, now available in paperback. There was food, too (which was good since I was tired and needed sugar). I walked her to the door, where she had to take a car straight to LAX to fly to her next gig in Columbus.

When I got back home I took a much-needed nap. Woke up, did some errands. Then, in the evening, after setting my VCR to tape Lost, I walked to Boardner's just off Hollywood Boulevard. I was there to hang with Nick Gillespie, editor of Reason, and some other Reasonites, including Matt Welch and Brian Doherty.

Other media people showed up, including NRO writer Cathy Seipp and Slate mainstay Mickey Kaus, who'd just had a tough day after posting five items. Nick and Cathy were both scheduled to be on the Dennis Miller CNBC show on Thursday (today). Try to catch it. They'll be talking about Terri Schiavo, no doubt.

There were also two women from NPR who didn't wish to be identified, perhaps because they told some tales out of school. (Stuff about meetings regarding what gets covered, and I don't even want to give any more detail since it might be identifiable.)

Amy Alkon, the Advice Goddess, came in a bit late. She told an interesting story about how her syndicated column was dropped from a few papers when she told a man to shave his beard and a woman to lose some weight.

I hadn't seen Nick in a while. When I talked to him, he was insisting that Harvard hasn't been on the cutting edge in any important academic movement in over 50 years--they always hire academics after their important work is behind them. This is the kind of stuff I'd actually like to see him say to Dennis Miller.

The oddest thing of all--I spent several hours in a Hollywood hangout and no one talked about the movies. Not even TV.

I just got back. Time to check who got kicked off American Idol and watch Lost.