On Friday, May 19, 2006
a woman approached him at a show and asked, "Should I shut you down?"

On Monday, May 15, 2006
he learned about poppies, tulips and orchids.

On Wednesday, May 10, 2006
he received a letter. It began, "Our greatest fear is not that bad things will happen to us. Our greatest fear is that we will deserve it."

On Tuesday, May 09, 2006
he dreamt of T.S. Eliot and E.E. Cummings against a Dali backdrop. E.E. Cummings sat in a melting chair, drinking a glass of port, muttering, "If it comes to this, if it comes to this," while T.S. Eliot ran around setting things on fire, and putting out the blaze with an axe.

On Monday, May 08, 2006
Herman Hesse told him, "What a person really is and experiences, how he develops and matures, grows feeble and dies, is all indescribable."

On Sunday, May 07, 2006
Thomas Aquinas sat at a wooden desk writing. The fire cast an orange glow on the stone walls. Years had gone into this work, a synthesis of Greek philosophy and Western Christian tradition. Now he finished the last sentence, paused, and set down his pen. After a moment, he laid his head on his arms. Alec Baldwin entered the room, saw him, and stopped. Aquinas sighed. "What's the matter?" Baldwin asked.

"Everything I've written is straw compared with everything I have seen." Baldwin patted him on the shoulder. "It's okay. See this scar? I got this in a fight with Mel Gibson."

On Saturday, May 06, 2006
a Chinook helicopter carried a crescent moon into orbit.

On Friday, May 05, 2006
the phone rang. It was John Adams. He told Pete that happiness comes not from fame and fortune, but from "an habitual contempt of them."