From Alec to me

Alec Baldwin [1]. Whilst I’ve admired his film acting, I think he’s perfect as Jack Donaghy in the series 30 Rock [2]. So when last 28 March’s Selected Shorts podcast promo listed a reading by Baldwin [3], I couldn’t wait. A native New Yorker, he read ‘Lost and Found’ by fellow New Yorker Carston Whitehead [4]. (Listen here [5] starting at 16’ 8”; read it here [6].) Baldwin sensitively and knowingly interprets this poignant story – a meditation on walking the changing streets of New York City. ‘You are a New Yorker when what was there before is more real and solid than what is here now… you are a New Yorker the first time you say ‘That used to be Munsey's’. To put off the inevitable, we try to fix the city in place, remember it as it was…Maybe we become New Yorkers the day we realize that New York will go on without us.’ Powerful stuff, eh.

This week they’re replacing Mole Creek Post Office’s mailboxes. I don’t know why. I’m told the old boxes are only 30 years old. As I live in rural Tasmania, the mail’s a key part of my life. Hence these two posts (pun unintended) [7, 8]. I’m pleased my box number’ll stay 181. And that I’m a Mole Creeker (or Creekian) because I’ll say I remember the old boxes. Inevitably, though, one day I’ll be gone. But Mole Creek, and its post office boxes, will, just as inevitably, go on without me.