11.28.15 ‘I lift my lamp beside the golden door’

ray

And so, my annual Austin sojourn ends with a flight out tomorrow morning, which I believe I read is the 8th busiest day of the year to travel out of the city. Good times.

Today I fed and petted stingrays (sturdy, soft and slightly slimy), hung out with my two young nieces, met a mermaid and learned that there are whole companies out there making a mint selling day planners and personalized stationery in this day and age.

NatSyd

I also learned the Statue of Liberty has shackles and chains on her feet to symbolize our escape from oppression. (It was a narrow one and sometimes I wonder still.) But that little TIL came courtesy of my 8-year-old niece, so maybe the Texas schools are actually conveying real knowledge.

Meanwhile, I’m largely making this post so that I have a place to store the radio show I did with Jim Freund, host of WBAI’s The Hour of the Wolf. We recorded it in the comfort of his living room (despite dogs outside and other street noise) and talked so long about post-apocalyptic novels and TV and James Bond that we ran out of time for me to read a short story. So, save that for the next visit.

If you would like to know what we talked about, you can totally impress the socks off of me by listening to the show, which aired on Nov. 26 in the very wee hours. Sit back and enjoy:

More soon!

NatRD

xo,

R