More stars

We were thrown out of our dinner restaurant Tuesday night by a party containing John Cusack (whom I did not see with my own eyes, but others swear he was there) and Peter Riegert (star of Local Hero and Crossing Delancey, whom I did see). The maitre d' was actually hostilely muttering in our direction about people who'd promised to be finished by nine but were still hanging around not-being-A-listers at nine-thirty. Snicker. What a town.

Today it rained, instead of being hot and muggy; everyone we met apologised for this, although it's much better weather for tourists in a lot of ways. Steven did all his electronics-shopping (well, maybe not all - sigh!) and I went in to Knopf and met the team there, then went to lunch with 'my' editors. Then we came home and tended to our jetlag a little, before going out to dinner at a Turkish restaurant and for a walk towards the East River as a roundabout way home. Halloween decorations everywhere. Squash and pumpkins piled up in lobbies and shop windows, skeletons strung from ceilings...they're really serious about this holiday here.

Question: Why are none of these doormen writing novels? It's the perfect job for that! But no, they're just sitting next to the pumpkin displays, watching the world go by and wishing they were somewhere else. Maybe they wait until the early hours of the morning, when there is less world going by. I hate to think of all that wasted writing time.