You’re lucky. Enjoy how special it is.

from the new york times:

Coyote sightings around the city — six in the last two weeks — have sent New Yorkers into a tizzy. … But parks officials say there’s nothing really to be done. …

Last month, officials told Lisa W. Foderaro, who covers parks for the Times, “They are here, and here to stay. They are occupying a niche not held by any other predator, and they perform services like controlling rodent populations.” …

The [coyote] sightings should be seen as rare urban encounters, officials said.

A parks official told Ms. Foderaro, “The message we want to get out is: ‘You’re lucky. Enjoy how special it is.’ ”

i’ll miss it, desperately

a poignant interview with david letterman: “David Letterman Reflects on 33 Years in Late-Night Television”:

Q. As your last show approaches, have there been times when you’ve thought: I’m leaving too soon?

A. Yeah, I’m awash in melancholia. Over the weekend, I was talking to my son, and I said, “Harry, we’ve done like over 6,000 shows.” And he said, [high-pitched child’s voice] “That’s creepy.” And I thought, well, in a way, he’s right. It is creepy. Every big change in my life was full of trepidation. When I left Indiana and moved to California. When Regina and I decided to have a baby — enormous anxiety and trepidation. Those are the two biggest things in my life, and they worked out beyond my wildest dreams. I’m pretending the same thing will happen now. I’ll miss it, desperately. One of two things: There will be reasonable, adult acceptance of transition. Or I will turn to a life of crime.

i can relate to not being good at just rolling with the highs and lows:

You’ve often talked about Johnny Carson as a mentor and a creative hero. Do you feel you’ve lived up to his standard?

Whenever I see clips from his old show, I’m reminded of what I always knew about him, which is that the highs and lows on that show are just about like that: [moves his hand in a straight line] There are funny moments, but he doesn’t lose control. If things aren’t going well, that’s fine, too. There’s a consistency about his presence that is very satisfying. I never felt that way. I always felt like [panting heavily] “We’ve got to do this, and we’ve got to do that.” Carson, whether he knew it or not, was doing exactly what TV is supposed to be. Just let it go. Because it’s 11:30, and people are just looking for a pleasant experience. And I wish I could do that.

and i love the idea of dave doing something like jane pauley:

Even though you won’t be on CBS at 11:35 p.m. anymore, do you think you might come back in another form fairly quickly?

It just depends on the number of bridges I’ve burned. I don’t know how long this has been going on, but Jane Pauley is now on the CBS “Sunday Morning” show. Perfect fit. So I thought, by God, good for Jane. That’s a lovely thing for her to have now. So maybe one day, something of that level will happen to me.

why didn’t you understand this?

from another fresh air interview i listened to yesterday (you can listen to a lot of podcasts on a 7 hour drive) (7 to be exact) — toni morrison. what she says about regret really resonated — i somehow have been feeling those “tiny, little messes” more acutely this year.

GROSS: …Why do you think later in life you started focusing on everything you thought you perhaps did wrong?

MORRISON: I guess I’m depressed. (Laughter) I don’t know. I can’t explain it. Part of it is the irritability of being 84, and part of it is being not as physically strong as I once was. And part of it is my misunderstanding, I think, of what’s going on in the world. And so writing, for me, is the big protection. But when I’m not creating or focusing on something I can imagine or invent, I think I go back over my life — I don’t recommend this by the way (laughter) — and you pick up, oh, what did you do that for? Why didn’t you understand this — not just with children, as a parent, but with other people, with friends. So it’s a long period of — it’s not profound regret. It’s just a wiping-up of tiny, little messes that you didn’t recognize as a mess when they were going on.

good things

• heart-shaped hot tamales in the other office
• beautiful pinkish plants that look luminescent at sunset
• bobby charles
• wildflowers

i don’t think so

(courtesy of broadway.com)

listened to this great fresh air interview with larry david on the drive home last night:

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

SUSIE ESSMAN: Larry was a comic. Larry started as a stand-up comic. And I knew him from Catch A Rising Star. We probably met in 1985-1986. And he was a legendary — he’s what we call a comedian’s comedian, meaning that he would get on stage and the comedians would stand in the back of the room. “Larry’s on” — we’d all come running into the room to watch him ’cause you knew something brilliant and original was going to happen. But the audience half the time stared at him like they had no idea what the hell he was talking about. And he was very, very touchy. You know, sometimes if, like, the whole audience is laughing, and you had a stomach ache and had a bad look on your face — that would be it. He’d storm off the stage, you know? Or one time I remember I introduced him and — you know, “Ladies and gentlemen, Larry David.” And he came on the stage and he just looked at the audience and he just went, “Never mind.” And he just walked off. …

(END SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

DAVIES: And that’s Susie Essman talking about our guest Larry David in his early days in stand-up. So does she have it right?

DAVID: She’s — yeah (laughter) that was pretty accurate, yeah.

DAVIES: Do you remember the time you came in, looked at the audience and walked off?

DAVID: Yes, I do. I didn’t say never mind. I think I said, I don’t think so.

DAVIES: (Laughter) And why? I mean, what — what was it about the audience?

DAVID: I didn’t like the looks of them.

this is gonna be funny and romantic in ten years

we worked with artist sarah cain back in 2010 (and she dates marc maron?!). anyway this made me laugh — from a short interview by ann friedman:

In the earliest years of your career, how did you get by?
I did weird jobs. For a time I worked at an organic farm two days a week just for trade in produce. I had a really amazing older couple that let me live in their schoolhouse rent-free. It was really living on the edge. My ex got this squat in Brooklyn and I remember we took a mattress out of the dumpster, and he was like, this is gonna be funny and romantic in ten years. But it isn’t. It’s so gross to me still!

also this also is hilarious: “A Comprehensive List Of Everything Karl Lagerfeld Hates”

someone left this square review for us (me)

SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENT

should i drink a red bull everyday for good health/mood/outlook

verdict so far: YES

(see above; plus also a baby cuddled with me OF ITS OWN VOLITION)

cool clothes for cool ladies

can’t remember where i found this, think it’s tibi

this has been hovering on my desktop for way too long

I MEAN