When I take to the road in a big way, big things happen. For example:
1989: As I’m driving from California to Rhode Island, Chinese students gather in Tiananmen Square demonstrating for increased democratization. Tanks and troops advance; although 4 tanks are briefly stopped by a single man, the demonstrators are dispersed, shot and imprisoned.
1991: Returning from Rhode Island to LA with a stopover in New Orleans. I finally get my hands on a New York Times, but I can’t believe it’s real: Mikhail Gorbachev is “under house arrest” (kidnapped?) and there is a coup, entirely real. The coup falls apart. So does the USSR.
2007: Driving from Pittsburgh to Atlanta for AWP, in a focused, no-fun 12-hour marathon: leading litblogger Mark Sarvas announces the sale of his first novel, Harry Revised, to Bloomsbury.
Finally, some good news!
