I Saw John Updike Last Night and the Red Sox Won!

Last night, I saw John Updike in Portsmouth, NH. Yes, THE John Updike – winner of 2 Pulitzer Prizes for fiction.

My evening started out by leaving work just as the Phillies made a run in the 9th inning to tie the score with the Boston Red Sox – ugh! And it’s double ugh because as one point, we were ahead 0-6. So, as I got into my car, I turned to the game. 10th inning – nothing. 11th inning – nothing. Top of the 12th inning, Philly scores one run. Darn! In order for us to keep in the game, we have to score at least one at the bottom of the 12th. So, I’m on the highway, listening to the bottom of the 12th, we have a couple of guys on base and bam – we drive home a run!! I make a screeching sound – kind of like Howard Deanish, but I’m in the car alone, so it’s ok. I also raise my arm with my hand in a fist - shaking it about as a “way to go” sign. And I see that the driver of the car in front of me does the same exact thing at the same time. He looked in his rearview and we knew we were both listening to the game. I passed him and we both had big stupid open-mouth smiles on our faces and our arms were raised (actually, only one arm - I did have to continue to steer). Anyhow, David Ortiz, aka Big Papi is on the mound. Does Philly pitch to him or intentionally walk him as they did in the last inning (Note: Papi won the previous game against Philly with a walk-off home run). Philly decides to pitch to him, otherwise bases would be loaded and Manny Ramirez is up next. So, it’s a tie score, bottom of the 12th, 2 outs and what does Papi do? He drives in the winning run!!! My night was off to a good start!!

So, I got to Portsmouth (which I love!) and ate at the Portsmouth Brewery which I was able to catch some of the highlights of the game. I had a veggie burger. It was pretty uneventful. I was by myself since Dick is on a business trip. Whenever I got out to eat by myself, I always feel sorry for the waiter/waitress who gets me since my bill isn’t very big – so I end up leaving a good size tip (on a percentage basis). But, 35 or 40% of not much is still not much. Oh well, at least they’re getting more than the usual 20% which would be pretty puny on a veggie burger and diet coke.

So, I notice that it was about 6:45 and John Updike was appearing at 7:30 at The Music Hall, so I finished up so that I had time to drop into River Run Book Store . This is one of my favorite little independently-owned book stores (which was closing early so that all its employees could attend the John Updike interview/book reading – especially since the book store was one of the show’s sponsors). I entered and of course had to buy Which Brings Me To You since it is on my wishlist, Bearette24 liked it and it was autographed by the author with the inscription “Love Hard” (some of the books were inscribed “Read Naked” – but that was scary, so I picked the “Love Hard”). Also, I try to support the local independent bookstores whenever I can. You pay full price for all the books, but its worth it for the experience of these delightful places (did I just say “delightful”? Jeesh!)

So, I get to the Music Hall, sit down and notice it’s packed. I think it was sold out, but there was an empty chair here and there. Tickets were quite reasonable - $12. I must embarrassingly admit that prior to last week, I had not read anything by John Updike. I started reading his new book, Terrorist, which is what he is currently promoting. I’m about 1/3 of the way through and am enjoying it. This event was sponsored by several organizations including the River Run Bookstore and NH Public Radio. John Updike was pretty interesting. He started off saying that he felt honored standing there in the footsteps of Mark Twain and Dan Brown. Everyone laughed as he was being a little sarcastic (Dan Brown had an even at the same music hall a few months back). He read from his book and then answered questions from the moderator and the audience questions that were on note cards. He had a lot of pithy comments on writing such as “Fiction is a product of ignorance as much as knowing.” – but there was so much wisdom from his mouth that it’s hard to remember it all verbatim. He really had the audience’s attention. And I picked up a signed first edition of Terrorist. BTW, his signature is rather small and messy - not what I expected from him.

All in all it was a very enjoyable evening.