Inspire

I was inspired to write this project as a blog by Tea, who said I "do too have something to say" and by KT, who enthusiastically said she would read it if I wrote a blog. Also by the wonderful Boegle, whose own blog helped me realize that I don't have to write on one subject.

I was also inspired by the ladies and staff at Letty Owings Center; by the aforementioned Ms. Johnson; and by the late great Herb Caen. I wanted to be a columnist like him when I was in grammar and high school. I didn't care so much for the gossip (though I recognized more than a few names, as I attended a fancy grammar school), but I loved the NamePhreaks, the overhears, the puns (of course), and his rhapsodies on the beauty of my home and his adopted home town.

I learned the phrase "nouveau riche" from him and got to use it in an essay on The Great Gatsby in eleventh grade. Mr. Silva wrote in the margin of my paper, "Been reading Herb Caen?"

Mr. Caen, my dot's off to you, wherever you are.