I've been dissatisfied with 'basic Drew ramblings' as a title for a while. It was boring. And it didn't always fit. And it didn't really fit me well as a descriptive term.

So... tender hooks...

Explanation... it began this morning. After a meeting at work, a promotional copy of the book IGNATIUS RISING came into my possession. It's a biography of John Kennedy Toole, the author of CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES. I brought it home and started reading it. Three and a half hours later, I closed the back cover, quite satisfied. It was a damned good read.

It should almost more accurately described as the biography of both Toole and his mother, Thelma Ducoing Toole. Anyone even somewhat familiar with CONFEDERACY should know that his mother is an integral piece of the existence of the published novel. She was a grand character, as big as life as Ignatius Reilly, the eccentric main character of the novel. It was only her persistence after Toole's death that led to the eventual publication of a Pulitzer prize winning novel. But, you have to read the bio to really get a feeling of just what her motives were.

Regardless, there was a passage in the book that delighted me. The authors recount the first time that the director and managing editor of LSU Press drove to New Orleans to meet Mrs Toole to discuss the publication of the novel. I quote now:

"Neither visitor had ever been so deep into downtown New Orleans. It was a hot spring day, and coming up the concrete steps, Hall and Phillabaum could see through the screen door into the living room. Leaning on her walker, Thelma welcomed them into the warm, stuffy house wearing a pink snap-front cotton coffee coat, a veiled straw hat, and white gloves. Her greeting to them was carefully ennunciated, 'I have been waiting for you on tender hooks.'"

Pure New Orleans.

So, each time you come here to read about my mundane life... know that I wait for you... on tender hooks.