Back Again

Outline for "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold"

I'm still blogging at Trueslant, but my focus there is mostly Mexico. Here I'll continue posting other things--sometimes about Mexico, and often not.

Today's find is an interview with Gay Talese in the Paris Review. A friend told me about it weeks ago and I finally looked it up. I'm fascinated by process, and Talese is a case study in habit and precision:

INTERVIEWER Do you use notebooks when you are reporting?

TALESE I don’t use notebooks. I use shirt boards.

INTERVIEWER You mean the cardboard from dry-cleaned shirts?

TALESE Exactly. I cut the shirt board into four parts and I cut the corners into round edges, so that they can fit in my pocket. I also use full shirt boards when I’m writing my outlines. I’ve been doing this since the fifties.