Jay Wrote

  It Could Have Happened Like This… December, 1959. Betty and Truman on opposite ends of a lime green polyester couch at a party in The Village, nodding in angular bebop time with an eyes-closed piano player who danced a nervous shuffle in his pork-pie hat. Capote yawned: “Betty my dear, do you think that I should fly to Provence with Jackie Kennedy? Or take the train to see that bad boy in Kansas?” Behind smudged glasses, his eyes strayed as a well-muscled boy tangoed an empty tray through the crowd. Betty kicked at him with a red pointy-toed shoe. “Damn it, Truman, first fetch me another drink. Two olives, lime twist and just a rumor of vermouth.” Truman rubbed his sore ankle, rolled off the settee and careened a rolling stumble across the room. Martini in one hand, Old Crow and Lucky Strike in the other, Capote returned, swayed and hiccuped back to her: “Cannes or Kansas, Betty?” Betty sipped in the smoky party, twirled the glass between her fingers, “Kansas, Truman, Kansas. For...

  Legal Aid in greater Minnesota referred this case due to a conflict of interest. An 18 year old needed help with a threatened rejection of her application for a subsidized apartment.  The client had been thrown out of the house just before the 18th birthday and was dealing with an abusive ex-boyfriend and tremendous mental distress.   Management was suggesting the applicant pay for damages done in the mom’s apartment (same management company) and seemed to be setting up other barriers.  But still, the onsite manager seemed sympathetic.   I wrote a gentle demand letter - not wanting to trigger involvement of another lawyer.  The letter touched on: The definite end of the residency in the mother’s home (because a tenant cannot be covered by 2 subsidies at the same time); Project-based Section 8 admission standards The limited contractual responsibility of minors The limited contractual responsibility of listed residents as opposed to the person si...

A Rumor That in Danville Dowsers Drown Skeptics   May be a lost Kinsey title Slipped from his hunting coat pocket The kind of whiskey breath intelligence Shared when striking tents At the Tunbridge World’s Fair. ( Leland Kinsey: Vermont’s late poet, farmer, carpenter, logger, sugarmaker, Morgan horse trainer, printer, and teacher of birding, canoeing and astronomy. His "The Immigrant’s Contract" imagines the truth of a fateful flood that brings deep violence to the penstock, smugglers struggling over the Notch and sailing to Cuba, the burning of mummies to power pulp mills and old temptations in Tunbridge. His family farmed for 200+ years in NE Vt near where my mom grew up. )

  Our 2022 Progress Report  A tough year. This communique includes a summary of my brother David’s life.  Because with sadness and relief we learned that David died on November 16.  He was 66 and receiving hospice care for a few months.   But before that we cover an organ recital (catalog of illness and injury); cultural reviews, what feels almost like an exile in reverse, politics (more than usual), etc.   In February I had a hip replacement.  Cutting, sawing, drilling, screwing, hammering, gluing, drugging, stitching, coaching. at an out-patient surgery over about 7 hours.  I’d say that I am 95% back and heartily endorse surgery over suffering.  What else?  Arthritis in my right hand.  Failing memory.  Tinnitus. Delusions of grandeur.  All that…. Karen has been ill since February with recurrent fevers and debilitating weakness. And a skin disorder at the moment. We thought the fever mystery was resolved when ap...