“So if you’re walking down the street sometime/And spot some hollow ancient eyes/Please don’t just pass ’em by and stare/ As if you didn’t care, say, ‘Hello in there, hello.’ ”

Just writing to say “hello” to you all, my fine friends and to share some lyrics from John Prine who was my friend in that way that people whose words you love feel like your friends. I could write this whole newsletter out of his lyrics, because they live in me.

My favorite line from a John Prine song is the one about blowing up your TV because when I was little my parents didn’t have a TV, and then when my grandma died we inherited one. But in rural Arkansas the one or two channels that came in were all fuzzy so I spent a few years just banging on that box trying to make it work. And that whole time my dad threatened to throw out the TV, even though there was never anything to watch on it. The result of all of this is that I can’t tell you about any TV shows or movies from the entire decade of the 80s. Kids in high school used to make fun of me by asking me, “Hey, do you know this MOVIE/TV SHOW/MTV VIDEO?” and then they would die laughing as I looked about confused.

Signing off with a bit of sun in my eyes and a last few lyrics

“Go to the country, build you a home/Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches”

Love,

Alice