A new start

Jenn and I wanted to see the inauguration near my office in Soho—but preferably not in a bar. Jenn thought of calling McNally Jackson, one of our favorite independent bookstores. It turned out that they planned to set up a big screen with a TV projector in their cafe. It was the perfect place to see the inauguration of a president who, among other things, is one of only a handful of presidents who have been really good writers. (Lincoln, Jefferson, and Teddy Roosevelt are the others that I think of first.)

Once the singing and the oath of office and the inaugural address were over, the store gave out free copies of Obama’s two books, plus the collection Change We Can Believe In. I’m old enough to remember Jerry Ford’s inaugural, when he said “our long national nightmare is over.” Those words seemed to apply even more today than they did then.