The end of the crush

Dateline: TED/United flights home from Phoenix through Denver, 11 November 2005

It's been so long since I've slept two nights in my bed at the apartment that I've almost forgotten what memory foam means.

Got it so late last night at this fabulous resort, I could only imagine the landscape as I was whisked to my cabin on a golf car at 1am, there to sign four boxes of books (PNM) for the attendees of the conference (Merrill Lynch hosting). So to bed by 2am and up at 0630.

Weird, but no one at the conference was expecting me to use PowerPoint. I have to remind my speaking agent Jenn that we need to make that clear up front with everyone.

Nice relaxed room. Good sound and screen. I got 60 after breakfast (nice also) and then take Q&A for about 15. Back in my cabin by 0900, work day done (that was weird), so I spend a lot of time on the phone with webmaster and now personal assistant Critt, working travel issues and planning.

Now that I'm done with this spate of travel, the big focus between now and end of year is starting new contract of work for Oak Ridge National Laboratory for parent company Enterra Solutions (first gig is late this month in DC) and working a major Esquire piece for the March issue that will have me engaging in some travel later this month and early next. Gotta be done with the piece before Xmas to make the March issue.

Can't wait to see how much the house has changed since last weekend, but will get in too late to check it out tonight, so that will wait for tomorrow.

But really glad to be going home. When speeches are a big part of your income, you're either traveling or not making money, so I don't mind traveling because that's making money. And you gotta make money if you're going to keep doing this. You need the Merrill Lynchs to, in effect, pay for all the military talks you do for honorariums. No bucks, no Buck Rogers, as Gus Grissom once famously said about the space program.

I definitely fear some long, go-nowhere period, but things naturally slow down for the holidays (I have just 4 gigs between now and end of year: Marines in Quantico, Army in Leavenworth, Navy in DC, and Air National Guard in DC [how very joint of me!]), and I look forward to that.

Still, already got 5 gigs lined up for 2006, and that feels good. Gotta pay for that house.

Last bit: while in Denver switching planes, I stopped by a Hudson bookstore and was glad to be told that BFA had sold out. Perusing the current events section, I came across The Best American Political Writing 2005, edited by Royce Flippin. I got excited to open it up, because I remembered that the February "Mr. President Ö" piece I wrote for Esquire was in it. So I picked up the softback copy and checked it out on the plane home.

Cool to note that Tom Junod's "What if He's Right?" piece on Bush was also in there. I felt it was a spectacular piece and was very happy to have it appear with mine in the same Feb issue. A third Esquire piece included is one by James McManus.

So I counted up the mags represented in the compendium, just to see how it came out. Here are the results:

New Republic, New Yorker: 4 each

Esquire, NYT Magazine, Atlantic Monthly: 3 each

NY Review of Books, New Yorker, Nation, Weekly Standard: 2 each

Time, Vogue, Washington Monthly, GQ, Foreign Affairs, Newsweek: 1 each.

So a pretty good showing by Esquire

Here's the daily catch:

■ Some WSJ wisdom on France

■ Mubarek-the-sequel is going to lose, one way or the other

■ Who exactly is winning in Iraq?

■ Why Rice refuses to engage Iran is just beyond me

■ Convenience and privacy: the usual trade

■ No happy endings just yet in Kashmir

■ Some NYT wisdom on the Gap and Doha