navigationFree! Haruki Murakami: What I talk about when I talk about running
4th grade, Bushnell Way School in Los Angeles, long time ago. Photo.
The girl in the white outfit, black hair in the second row is Diane Keaton, then known as Diane Hall.
A friend writes: The last time I was at Barnes and Noble, I noticed that Diane Keaton had a new book about her younger brother. I browsed through it and it confirmed that Diane and I went to 4th grade together. Alas, it was only that one year, my first in the neighborhood and her last. The book mentions the blue house, gives its address and she even mentions the tetherball in the back yard. We are both in this picture
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Don here. I was in another class, one semester ahead. Two buddies in Diane’s class said she was interested in me. I sorta knew that but we were both too shy to have a conversation.
Erik Larson: The Splendid and the Vile : a saga of Churchill, family, and defiance during the blitz
Leo Damrosch: The Club : Johnson, Boswell, and the friends who shaped an age
Brian Doyle: One long river of song : notes on wonder
Alan Furst: A hero of France : a novel
Susan Orlean: The Orchid Thief
Susan Orlean: The Library Book
Paul Theroux: On the Plain of Snakes : a Mexican journey
Angela Duckworth: Grit : the power of passion and perseverance
Leo Damrosch: Jonathan Swift : his life and his world
Hans Rosling: Factfulness : ten reasons we’re wrong about the world–and why things are better than you think
Craig Leener, a great friend in Southern California, is interviewed on NPR.
His books are available on Amazon, $9.99 for the paper, $4.99 on Kindle. I read the first book three times.
Quick story. Vince McGrath, a fellow runner, and I organized the first Beast race, a 4.86 mile, 2000 foot climb to the peak of a prominent mountain in Santa Clarita, CA. At the top, on a (rare) clear day, you could see Catalina.
Leener, a local sportswriter, not a runner, and two other journalists hiked the Beast and publicized the event. Thereafter, on the second Saturday in December, the event attracted a lot of runners. We charged a fee and provided a cool Beast shirt. Every cent collected went to the local Food Pantry, over $5,000. We could do that because Leener leaned on his entrepreneurial brother to contribute the shirts. I still wear my last one on runs alongside the Willamette River.