Sallie Parker Sweetness and Lite

I see my distant cousin by marriage, Camilla Parker-Bowles, is seriously considering marrying the Prince of Wales. There are several downside considerations here: 1) The guy is old old old. Camilla is old too but she could get a young guy if she wanted to. 2) The guy is never going to be king. This may be an advantage romantically, but we have to face the fact that his failure to become king shows lack of character, a weakness so clearly displayed in his reaction to Prince Harry's romp in the 'Nazi' fancy-dress affair. 3) Her new mother-in-law, Lilibet, is a royal pain in the butt and shows no sign of kicking off. If Charles had more spunk, he'd arrange a convenient "accident" for the royal mum, as was arranged for ex-wife Diana and her dusky consort, Dodi. (At least we now know Charles wasn't behind that Paris tragedy. Good on yer, Chuck.) 4) Camilla's only going to be Princess Consort, HRH Princess of Cornwall or somesuch offbeat place. If I were Cam...

Now Malcolm Gladwell Says He's English New MG sighting in the FT! A pretty Ferguson ink-and-colorwash of him in a v-neck jumper and t-shirt, with a baby face and not too much hair. He's the subject of the Financial Times's weekend interview, where you are given the restaurant's menu along with the subject's opinions. This is a very different Gladwell from the one we had before. For one thing, he is no longer Canadian (as everyone else has reported). No, he's English. Or says he is. At least he was born there but his parents left for race reasons. Right, so they went to Canada? What am I missing here? Malcolm likes to eat hamburgers at the Savoy in SoHo, where he wrote most of his new book, Blink. That's a nice homey touch. But he continues to parlay the tired line about his afro, which we've seen in at least two other interviews. He says he grew his hair out as an experiment, and found that he was being stopped by cops when driving, and often pulled out...

While reviewing the draft, I see I used a boneheaded narrator for most of the first ten chapters. This was the voice I settled on. Not sure it was a good choice.

NOW THAT I HAVE SIGNED UP FOR THE Paris Marathon three months hence (April 10, ektually), my physical and mental frailities are popping out all over. In just the last three days: sprained thumb, bruised wrist, chronic TMJ pain, forgetfulness, a tooth-grinding anxiety that may account for the TMJ, the start of a toothache, and a handful of other things I have forgotten. I went to my GP for a medical certificate (required for the PM) and forgot to most of these. Well, that's the forgetfulness for you. Sallie