Post something nice about Russia.

[DFW]

113. Good times are SO fleeting.

Katrina had invited me to her 150th anniversary party of the founding of The Nation. It was in September, 2015, and I'm normally NEVER in North America in September. She knows that, so she never expected me to accept. But that particular year, a very close friend's daughter was getting married in mid-September, so we stayed around three weeks longer than normal than our usual August return to Europe, and on "the" day, I actually WAS in DC. You would not BELIEVE who was there. Besides Katrina herself, there was, as you can see in the photo, Cecile and Jerry. Also Elizabeth Warren, E J Dionne, Rev. William Barber, Rep. Raúl Grijalva, and a LOT of others. I think I was invited as the token mortal among the group. The rest of them were some pretty stellar people, Cecile certainly being among them.

Obama was still president then, and we all expected Hillary to succeed him, so there was a special warmth at the gathering. It's a good thing we had no inkling of what would happen to the country just a year and half later.