So your flight was supposed to leave at 5:30 on Sunday afternoon?
That’s right.
And it got delayed . . .
To 6:30. And then to 7:30. And then to 8:30. And then to 9:30. And then to midnight. “Hey, that’s pretty late,” we thought. “But at least we’ll be on the move. And they keep insisting that they’re not going to cancel it, so there’s no need to go try to get re-booked on another flight.”
So what time did it—
And then they canceled it.
Oh.
And re-booked us.
Well, that’s helpful at least—
For a flight leaving TUESDAY. That’s two days later, for those of you who aren’t down with the math. Like those of you who re-book people for Delta Airlines.
Ah. Wait, let me guess: And because of the mass cancellations, the nearby hotels were pretty much full?
Yeah, so we spent the night in a rented suburban parked in front of a 24-hour Wal-Mart.
Oooooh, so a big, roomy car, a dark parking lot, you and Contessa—
And her mother.
Ah.
Bright sides:
The room we booked at the Microtel for the next night was surprisingly comfortable.
Our extra day in the Baltimore/Annapolis area meant that I got to peruse the book selection at the Annapolis Goodwill Super Store, where I found a nice library edition of Donald Harington’s The Choiring of the Trees and a good hardback second edition of Donald Barthelme’s Great Days.
Our long stretches of sitting quietly in airports between bouts of fuming at the profoundly unhelpful employees of Delta Airlines meant that I got to devour PrettyFavorite Victor Gischler’s Suicide Squeeze, Paul Beatty’s funny and thoughtful Biggie-Smalls-Goes-(partway)-to-Washington novel Tuff, and the entirety of the new Oxford American.
I also had a crab and cheese omelet at Chick and Ruth’s Delly that weighed about five pounds and was worth every heart palpitation that followed.
Also, the suburban was surprisingly comfortable.
The real bad news: Ed Champion is ending The Bat Segundo Show. Say it ain’t so, Ed! I recently listened to the BS interview with David Hajdu, author of The Ten-Cent Plague. I’d previously had little interest in the book, figuring I knew the story of Wertham and Kefauver and the post-WW2 comic book hysteria pretty well from Bradford Wright’s Comic Book Nation and similar works. But Ed’s illuminating interview not only covered territory that I hadn’t seen mentioned in other reviews and interviews, it also pressed Hajdu hard (but politely) on some of his basic journalistic and writerly methods—something I’ve definitely not read or seen anywhere else. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Ed Champion is one of the great literary interviewers of our time: An ocean of reading the author’s work and the contexts around it is evident in nearly every question he asks. Who else bothers anymore? A world without Bat Segundo is a little bit crummier.
Thank you for reading The Oxford American magazine! We’re glad it could provide some relief during your miserable delays.
We would love to be linked on the “Professor Fury Reads” list ….
Best wishes.
Warwick Sabin
Publisher
The Oxford American magazine
Ah, Chick and Ruth’s. You haven’t lived until you’ve ingested 80 or 90 grams of saturated fat on Main Street. When I was in middle school, my favorite comic book shop, Twilight Zone, was across the street and down a few doors from Chick and Ruth’s (it was a Banana Republic last time I was there). I’m suddenly craving blue crabs buried in Old Bay.
You spending the night with yr mother-in-law should not be on this FAMILY BLOG. FOR SHAMES
I hope that this was last weekend and not the previous one when I could have put you up in a beach house 2 hours from Baltimore and fed you lobster and crab cakes from a not bad seafood takeout place. Tsk.