From: Monica R. Edinger <edinger>
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2003 13:16:27 -0500

Funny books worked as great coping mechanisms for my class last year when dealing with the after effects of 9/11; stuff like incessant bomb threats, anthrax, and the heightened alert now underway again. As soon as I finished reading aloud one a request was made for another.

I realized how hard it was for those not here to understand what life in post 9/11 NYC was like when, at the height of the anthrax scare, a package came for me at school without a return address and our concerned security director called the police. Shortly thereafter, an officer took me out of my classroom (causing my students to fret about another bomb threat) and grilled me. I said it looked like there was a book inside and perhaps it was from an author aquaintance from the city of the postmark. He wanted me to call which I didn't want to do at all. "Hi author, I'm here with a policeman who wants to know if you sent me a book or if it is from a terrorist." Finally, he let me go back to my classroom and later I was told that it was indeed a book from the author and that I should let him/her know what happened. My first awkward email only convinced the author that we were nuts (and I suppose we were, but only because we were so scared), but after a few more all was smoothed out.

Then, during the last orange alert, I went to visit a friend upstate. Looking forward to a break, I stepped off the train only to have a Fox News reporter and camera crew accost me, wanting to interview me about the security in New York. I declined; I wanted to hide, just for a few days.

And right now I'm eagerly awaiting the publication of Lost in a Good Book, Jasper Fforde's sequel to The Eyre Affair. Hiding out in Thursday Next's next adventure feels like a great way to deal with things for me right now!

Monica

Monica Edinger The Dalton School New York NY edinger at dalton.org monicaedinger at yahoo.com
Received on Wed 19 Mar 2003 12:16:27 PM CST