Re-planing

Boarding for the first time in a while, plus my weekly shareables: The passing of a colleague, new work from friends, and the best of Kristofferson

By the time you read this it’s likely that I will be on my flight to beautiful Saint Paul*, Minnesota, for the lovely honor of being one of the speakers at this year’s Opus and Olives, the big fundraising event for the Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library.

*By the way: Is it Saint Paul or St. Paul? I have always written it, and seen it in my head, as St. Paul. But I am noticing that all the material I am getting from Opus and Olives refers to it as Saint Paul. Minnesotans, help me out here. Is this a big deal, like never calling San Francisco “Frisco?”

This will be my first time on a flight in more than four years. The last time was a whole different world, in February 2020, just a few weeks before the pandemic. For DOGLAND I criss-crossed the country in my Honda Accord. That’s how I prefer to travel. But Minnesota is a long way away, and right after that I’m going to Austin for a couple of private events, and the only thing that made sense was to fly.

I don’t like to fly.

I’m not scared of flying. I just get stressed at all the things before the plane takes off. Will traffic be backed up at the airport? (In Charlotte, the answer is almost always yes.) Will there be long lines at security? How far is it to the gate? Is the flight on time? Is it overbooked? Do I need to go to the bathroom? I probably need to go to the bathroom.

I know people who make a sport of rolling up to the gate just as the plane starts boarding. Not me, brother. We’re leaving the house two and a half hours early. I need some serious downtime before they start calling those groups.

Most of this, I think, comes from being a large person in an environment that is not kind to large people. My main goal, once I’m on the plane and seated, is to stay out of everybody’s way.

But then … the plane lifts off, and I doze a little bit, and a couple hours later I look out the window and see a brand new place, from a perspective that, not that long ago in human history, would have been impossible.

Sometimes the stress is worth it.

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10 things I wanted to share this week:

1. This week’s guest on SouthBound was Patrick Davis, host of the new public TV show SOUTHERN SONGWRITERS WITH PATRICK DAVIS. We talked about his South Carolina roots, the life of a working songwriter, and the genius of Kris Kristofferson. (More on Kris at the end of the countdown.)

2. My weekly for WFAE was about how the helpers arrived in the North Carolina mountains, no matter what they had to ride to get there.

3. Speaking of Helene: dispatches from my friend Ben Montgomery, in Tampa, and my friend Lisa Rab, in Brevard, NC. (Ben went through Milton, too; he and his are OK.) (Creative Loafing Tampa and Overdue)

4. RIP my dear friend and Charlotte Observer legend Dannye Powell. She was the established local columnist when I started alongside her in 1997. She taught me so much. She had deadline grit and a poet's heart.

5. My friend Andrea Pitzer practically defines the word “eclectic.” She has written books on Nabokov, a doomed Dutch sailing expedition, and a history of concentration camps. She broke the story that Bob Dylan cribbed his Nobel Prize speech. She has worked as a portrait painter and a record-store manager and karate teacher. And now she’s got a newsletter, DEGENERATE ART. I mean … you have to see what she comes up with next, right?

6. How pro wrestling shaped—and helps define—Mark Robinson. (The Assembly)

7. The talented author Kelly McMasters on why she writes her obituary every year. (NYT)

8. There was so much written about the great Kris Kristofferson after his death, but Sally Jenkins’ piece in the Washington Post rang the deepest bells for me.

9. Speaking of Kristofferson: a few months ago I posted his duet with Rita Coolidge on “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” which might be the sexiest three minutes ever filmed. But I also deeply love Gladys Knight’s version, which is sexy—and heartbreaking—in its own way.
   

10. But the Kristofferson cover I love best is Al Green’s “For the Good Times.” That Willie Mitchel / Hi Records groove has never sounded better.
    

    Have a great week, everybody.

—TT