June 19, 2024

From Gerald R. Lucas

Juneteenth

To celebrate the Juneteenth holiday, the HRC is closed today. That’s fine, as I had midterm grades to submit. It’s also serendipitous, as we have some tropical weather threatening and a good chance of rain and general nastiness all day.

A random drawing by Norman Mailer from the archive.

I slept a bit later today, as I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep. I thought I was done with these bouts of insomnia, but I guess they’re starting again. For some reason, I began stressing about my fall teaching schedule. It’s always something stupid.

On my way back from our fellows’ gathering, I picked up a “White Widow” sub at Cheba Hut. It was darn good—much better than the place I tried last week, Thundercloud Subs, which I felt was just a step up from Subway. The bread, which was a bit sweet and too hard, did not have enough sandwich stuff. Cheba Hut had bread like Jersey Mike’s, and the sub was pretty satisfying after a long walk back. I feel a bit guilty for having a sub on Tuesday, but with all the walking I’ve been doing, it’s probably fine. According to my Health app, I walked 5.2 miles yesterday. That seems pretty typical these days.

I’m still working on Norman Mailer’s Short Fiction bibliography. I think my trying to include all reprints is what’s taking so long. I’ve decided just to list the first printing, so I can get the darn thing finished. Along with that, I have been catching and correcting some small errors on the Wikipedia Norman Mailer bibliography. It’s funny how those creep in.