Karen drove down Friday and spent the night on my living room floor. I am so accommodating to guests. We ate pizza, drank wine and planned our next day. Everything but who was driving. Karen drove, I directed and we only had one mis-step in getting to valet parking. Yes, valet parking. Karen got a Panel Pass the moment they were available and got one of the few valet parking passes available to the general public. The lesson is to plan ahead and go with Karen.
Our first panel was Edmund Morris speaking with Scott Berg. Morris has written his third book about Teddy Roosevelt. He also wrote that controversial book, Dutch, about Ronald Reagan. He is a charming speaker. His best line of the day was about Reagan. Morris met with him often at the White House. Morris calls Reagan a consummate actor who played the role of president well. When they were alone together, Reagan was a zero. Morris was shocked that he could be President without a thought in his head. But he was a better actor than I ever imagined. 
Here is my sister at lunch. We had trouble finding places to eat. Hopefully they will do better with signage next year. It was a lovely place to eat, once we found it.
Friend John and Murphy's Flaw have been playing at the FOB for years, in many iterations. They played very well. I like the new singers, now that I can hear them. They were unmiked at the coffee house were I first saw this configuration. They were out in the sun, which wasn't great. But that was a small price to play for good music.
We went to a panel about the movie Brokeback Mountain. Interesting, sometimes repetitive, not picture worthy. The next panel was called From Henry Hudson to California Dreams. All the guys pictured above teach history at SC. Kevin Starr was the star. He is a fount of information about all CA history. The other two were also knowledgeable and interesting. It was a great way to end this day.
But wait, there was more! We made our way to pick up the car from valet parking. Karen identified the woman leaning against a light pole there as Maxine Hong Kingston. I knew she was from the bay area. For some reason, I thought Karen knew her. Karen had surprised me before when she knew the secret life time achievement award winner, Ishmael Reed. Karen did go over to talk to Hong Kingston while I sat down. She returned to tell me they were waiting for the author bus. Our car came and I couldn't figure out why we were leaving Karen's friends stranded. So I asked which hotel they were staying at. It was ours, The Luxe. We took them there and it wasn't until after our chatty drive that I learned they were not old friends of Karen. Pretty funny.
We returned to California politics on Sunday morning. This one was Going Under? Broken Government. The highlights were Joe Mathews, a former Times' reporter who has written the book California Crackup, was moderate and well reasoned. He does feel that a radical revision of how CA's government works is necessary, but he was very conservative next to Chris Hedges. Chris wants riots and protests in the streets. This was a very exciting discussion. Joe is right middle and Chris is far right. But only in the picture above.
We walked over to the Cooking Stage to listen to Thomas Keller. There were very few seats out of the blazing sun. He is a very interesting and charming man. I was happy to sit in the sun for a while to listen to him. I have never been to The French Laundry, but Karen and I both realized we had visited another of his restaurants in Napa called Bouchon. He is a very good and thoughtful chef.
Democracy and It's Discontents would have been good without the moderator and the snarky little man sitting next to her. Scott Martelle and Barry Siegel are old Times reports and know how to talk in public. In fact, I would be interested to read Barry's book called Claim of Privilege about the Supreme Court's finding for the government on a civil suit against them. He has a real passion about good writing, as opposed to sarcastic revelations.
Finally, our last panel group may have been one of the best. One of my favorite reporters, Henry Weinstein, was there as was Erwin Chemerinisky and John Dean. The panel was The Living Constitution. None of them have much hope for us as long as those idiot Supremes are still on the bench. My solution was to send cake and cookies and fois gras to Thomas until he explodes. Other than their death, we will just lose our rights by a thousand cuts.
Still, we weren't depressed. It was a stimulating weekend. We finished our Sunday by going to Frying Fish in Little Tokyo. They have a conveyor belt that passes sushi to all seated around the bar. Pretty fun. We also ordered a special roll and eel from the chef in the middle. Fun. Fun weekend all around. I am so happy that I have Karen as my sister and FOB partner.
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