Reading Tonight -- Nothing About The Bakken -- Or For That Matter -- Not About Very Much At All -- Good For The Archives -- January 8, 2024

6:11 p.m. PT January 8, 2025. Literally breaking now: a fifth fire break outs. Near the Hollywood sign. 

• in the Hollywood Hills being dubbed the Sunset Fire. 
• Runyon Canyon: right in the center of the Hollywood Hills
• West Hollywood, north side
• one of the more densely populated areas of Los Angeles
• an iconic spot; huge tourist destination
  

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Locator: 44644HARLEM.

Fires: my heart goes out to all the folks in California. Indescribably horrific. Four of the best years of my life were spent there. I've been back many times since. I know the area well. California is one place I could not live. I've tried it -- tried to live there -- but for indescribable reasons, I cannot / could not live there. At the end of the day, I think it comes down to this: I feel I don't deserve to live there. California is for the rich and famous. And for those who aspire to be rich and/or famous.

Winter storm Cora: meanwhile, here is Texas, we're looking forward to twelve hours with a bit of cold and some snow. Perhaps not even measurable on the south side of Dallas. We live on the north side; we're forecast to get maybe 2" of wet, heavy snow which probably won't stick around through Friday. The storm can be followed here (after this weekend, this link will disappear).

Plans: I'll be reading tonight. Helps put things in perspective. And it's a cozy thing to do on a dark and stormy night.

I'll finish Darryl Pinckney's essay on James Baldwin, in the January 16, 2025, issue of The New York Review, pp 23 - 25. James Baldwin, wiki entry, here. Early on in the essay, the author cites Gilbert Osofsky's Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto, first published in1966. I went to Amazon to order a copy. One can get the original for $5 or so, plus postage and handling. 

But I see the book was re-issued (re-printed?) in 1996. Baldwin, himself, died in 1987, in France, his adopted country. 

Connecting the dots -- the wiki entries and the essay in The New Yorker -- this should be a fascinating book. 

From Amazon:

From wiki:

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