March 30, 2009

Drove to Statesville to speak at the library. I thought I had arrived far earlier than I had, and strolled the empty downtown, and had coffee and chili at D’Laney’s Irish bar. Scruffy male ambience, three or four different games on the rank of TVs, men shouting observations about the teams to one another. I liked it. I’d mis-remembered showtime, and was almost late, but was saved by my intention to be just early enough not to cause anxiety. I think the presentation went well, and the responses from the group were unusually precise and interesting. One woman kept going back to her point that the book lacked “plausibility” often enough that I realized she meant something else she couldn’t quite articulate.