Two events in Boston! A great audience for my event with Gregory Maguire at the Boston Athenaeum. Author of “Wicked” and friend from before “Wicked,” Gregory figures in GREEK TO ME, in the definition of “rhapsode.” It was great to see him, and friends Stona and Ann, my friend Denise from North Brookfield, with her friend Anne and neighbors Pauline and Rick, and Richard and Lambros from New Hampshire, as well as a copy-editor friend from M.I.T., Linda Loewenthal, whom I first met at the Athenaeum after she gave a very kind review to BETWEEN YOU & ME. My favorite moment was during the Q&A when a woman asked which translation of Homer I preferred. From the expression on her face, I divined that I had given the wrong answer (Robert Fitzgerald). Someone tried to drag me into an argument about Emily Wilson’s translation of “polytropos” (the epithet for Odysseus) as “complicated.” In imitation of the man of many turnings, I slipped out of the trap.

Later, I met with Stefano Kotsonis, producer of “On Point,” for a conversation at a new venue called CitySpace, at 890 Commonwealth Avenue, which WBUR radio is turning into Boston’s equivalent of the 92nd Street Y. Stef has deep Greek roots and has worked as a foreign correspondent. We talked about favorite places in Greece, tastes and smells of Greece, the earthiness of the Greek people. After being a little concerned that so many of the questions at these events have been about punctuation instead of the Aegean, this time I was the one who brought up copy editing!

Sold a substantial number of books at the Athenaeum. Met my cousin Margie’s son Mark at CitySpace. (Margie lives in Colorado.) Today I will see my friend Eleni, who has flown here from Greece to visit her daughter, Kalliopi, and will carry home a four-drachma coin with the head of Athena (c. 100 BC) and a bottle of Stef’s father’s olive oil. Replete.

And the other side of the coin:

Nike!