A Literary Dispatch from Inauguration Central

GalleyCat editor Jason Boog went to Washington, D.C., earlier this week and brought back some excellent inauguration coverage, but we wanted to call attention to another literary presence in the city, too. You may remember how, way back before the election, we wrote about Ayelet Waldman‘s fundraising drive for Obama. Well, she and her family (including husband Michael Chabon) flew out to celebrate the success of their efforts. After a day of parties and receptions, while their children went with friends to secure a viewing post for the parade, Chabon and Waldman headed out to the main event—and were among the lucky ticket holders who got into the show before the “purple tunnel of doom” fiasco.

“I must admit to being mildly (or not so mildly) furious about some folks who spent a lot of time trashing Barack in the press sitting close enough to read the spine of the Lincoln Bible,” Waldman emailed, “and others who sweat blood for two years spending the inauguration ceremony crammed into a tunnel by overwhelmed DC Police, but we were lucky, and we’re grateful, and my revenge… will be to never donate to certain politicians ever again. (Ha! See how it feels when you don’t get that $100 dollar check from me).”

Still, she says, it was a wonderful experience, and worth every bump in the road along the way: “Honestly, folks, have you ever been so happy?” her email concludes. “I will never forget the sight of two people standing side by side: a middle-aged black woman in a fine-looking hat, and a scruffy hipster who’d spent the last year volunteering for the campaign. They were both crying.”

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