In the papers....

These faces were in the Sunday papers:

One is a magazine editor.

One is a CEO.

Another wants to be a prime minister.

One is a recently deceased rock star.

One was the last remaining typewriter repairman in Seattle.

And one is a symphony conductor.

Can you guess which is which?

Also in the papers was this interesting viewpoint, “Recently Returned Books,” by Elisa Gabbert. A few of her thoughts:

”My favorite spot in my local library…is a shelf near the Borrower Services desk bearing a laminated sign that reads RECENTLY RETURNED….I’ve come to think of this shelf as an escape from hype, a kind of anti-curation. When I pick the books up, a part of me expects them to be warm, like a just-vacated seat. They often still contain the life detritus of the last person to open them: makeshift bookmarks, boarding passes or receipts; oil stains or flecks of melted chocolate…It’s like getting to look at someone’s night stand, but whose? The shelf is everyone’s night stand, an average of night stands….”

And finally, Maria at Brainpickings recently revisited  The Writing Life (public library) by Annie Dillard — a wonderful addition to the collected wisdom of beloved writers. Have you signed up for Brainpickings newsletters yet? You won’t be disappointed.

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order—willed, faked, and so brought into being; it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living. Each day is the same, so you remember the series afterward as a blurred and powerful pattern.”

PS: Top to bottom, left to right: Michael Tilson Thomas, Conductor, Carnegie Hall; Abigail Johnson, CEO, Fidelity Investments; Boris Johnson, former mayor of London, Nikki Vargas, Editor of a female-travel magazine, Rached Talia, French North African rock star; Bob Montgomery, typewriter repairman, recently died at age 96.