In Love with France, At Home In Italy

There were five contenders. The first two highlight the men of letters who are included in the book. The other three focus on the letter-writer, herself.     This could have been the cover of Letters to Men of Letters (without the "available from Amazon"):   Or this:      Or this, which I call the messy-head woman photo:     Or this with the elegant jacket:     But my Magic Flying Shirt protested and won.     

Although friends came to Yale from California and Orvieto for my talk, many who wanted to be there could not, so I promised them and myself that I would write a written version that would allow them to feel as if they had been there. Most Yale Fellows presentations are in the evening, but I was asked to participate in a bit of an experiment by giving my talk over lunch. Although it was recorded by a well-intentioned student videographer, that recording contains some funny flaws that make it clear that the person behind the camera should not quit her day job. Despite the clattering of dishware and odd lightning and sound issues, I am very glad to have that video recording. But as a technodunce who prefers to rely on the written word, I’m going to record a written version of it here.     As attendees trickled in to what ended up being a full house, I had playing in the background Fats Wallers’ inimitable catchy version of “I’m gonna sit right down and write myself a letter, and ...