With Kory Stamper, author of WORD BY WORD, at the Woodland, 60 Woodland Road, Maplewood, N.J.. at 12 noon. This was a tiny festival in a sweet town that I have often railroaded through on the way to Princeton. Kory was a wonderful interlocutor. I resisted heckling the people who left before we were finished talking. They must think “This isn’t for me.” When I see someone dozing, I always try to say something that will prick her a bit, and sometimes it works. After all, it’s on me to be interesting.

In the front row was a woman named Judith who teaches philosophy at Seton Hall. She tracked me down afterward at St. James’s Gate, the town’s main Irish pub, to get her book signed. Thanks to Paula Rothstein for coming to Maplewood and hanging out with me after lunch.

I escaped without a tote bag.