Back in May, the Atlantic published a story by Gary Shteyngart about his experiences on the Icon of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world. I read it with interest – 28 years ago I wrote about my week on what was then the largest cruise ship in the world, the Carnival Destiny – and annoyance, in part because a lot of the piece was about the author and his discomfort. This annoyance led me to write an essay looking at writing about cruises over the decades, and how it has become more solipsistic: https://theamericanscholar.org/writer-on-board/
I’ve been dipping into Joan Reardon’s Poet of the Appetites: The Life and Loves of M.F.K. Fisher, specifically the section about her time in Aix-en-Provence. She rented a room in a kind of boarding house where, during the meals, the other women would question her ability to write with any understanding about French cuisine. They called her, derisively, la californienne.
September 1st marked the 85th anniversary of the German invasion of Poland that began World War II. I was in Warsaw on August 1st, when the city commemorated the 80th anniversary of the start of the Warsaw Uprising. The Old Town was alive with musicians singing old war songs and actors reenacting street battles. At five o’clock, the official start time of the uprising, a huge crowd filled the square in front of the Royal Castle. After a moment of silence, sirens wailed and flares were lit. Then everyone sang the national anthem: “Poland is not yet lost,” it begins, “as long as we are living.”
There is a moment in Jonathan Raban’s memoir Father and Son – which describes his recovery from a stroke – in which his physical therapist announces that she’s going on a cruise. Ever the literary man, Raban gives her David Foster Wallace’s essay “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again,” somehow not realizing that it is like giving Deliverance to someone planning a camping trip.
Shelby Rogers played her last U.S. Open match last night, losing to Jessica Pegula 4-6, 3-6. She became one of my favorite players a few years ago at the Open when she beat then #1 Ash Barty and in the post-match interview was asked how she had done it. She said something about taking it point by point and then apologized, saying “That’s such a cliché.”
About a year later I was sitting in the lobby of the Warsaw Marriott, waiting to meet someone, and I noticed a blond woman with a tennis bag over her shoulder checking in. As she headed to the elevator, I noticed it was Shelby Rogers. I followed her and introduced myself, and then told her how impressed I had been by her sensitivity to language. I explained that I was writer. I asked her what she was doing in Warsaw, and she said she was on her way to a tournament in Latvia, and that her coach was Polish. I told her my wife was Polish (so we sort of had something in common). Then I let her get on her elevator.
In a year when the Miami Marlins are bad and the Tampa Bay Rays mediocre, it was a thrill to see the boys of Lake Mary come from behind yesterday and defeat Chinese Taipei in the Little League World Series. They became the first Florida team in history to claim the title of Little League champions.