Sort of out of the blue, I got a craving this weekend to go back and re-read one of my favorite scenes from Don DeLillo's "White Noise." It was the cocktail party scene where these two professors have this incredible sort of intellectual duel, sparring with obscure biographical detail about their respective academic obsessions, Hitler and Elvis. DeLillo just pulls the whole scene off so masterfully. It's so taut and dramatic, even though it's basically just two geeks arguing. I think some part of my brain must have realized that I needed to learn some things from how it was written for this upcoming scene I have to write in my book. I think I'll need to re-read the whole book now, although now that I think about it, I might re-read "Great Jones Street" first.

I thought this photo was an interesting change of pace...