I have two items of Perfect From Now On publicity to announce, both of which involve Massachusetts. Yes, Massachusetts, easily the most difficult state name to spell, and arguably the third most difficult major U.S. place name to spell, coming in just behind Cincinnati, with its hateful double ns and single t, and Albuquerque, because of that first u. But I’m not holding degree of spelling difficulty against any of these fine areas.

Item No. 1: This Sunday night, October 7, at 9pm ET, I will be the second guest on Inquiry, a long-running program on the New England NPR affiliate WICN. (Listen to the station’s live feed here.) Inquiry is hosted by friendly music fiend Mark Lynch, whose questions made me sweat and laugh in equal amounts. The result is my best interview yet. I’m learning, people.

(For the impatient, my segment airs at 9:30pm. For the lazy, the interview will be archived here beginning in November. And for the tech savvy, the show may be downloaded as a podcast on the NPR website here.)

Item No. 2: On Tuesday, October 23, at 7pm, I will appear at the Concord Festival of Authors as a panelist at the controversial event “The Influences of Bob Dylan.” No, I’m not kidding. There will be fireworks, most likely of the proverbial kind, but maybe Concord is in a super-festive mood?

WHY I’M ANGRY TODAY
A woman in the apartment above me sneezes so violently that it sounds like she’s being poked with a hot branding iron.