Changes

The "It's for the Best" department hereby announces that the book launch of the paperback of "The Jewish King Lear," formerly scheduled for June 11 in NYC, has been postponed. Tom and Nina of the Stella Adler Studio are producing a major fundraiser in late May and will not have the time or resources to produce my event so soon afterwards. So we are shifting to September, when they hold an arts festival, of which an evening dedicated to the Yiddish theatre and my book will be a part.

I'm relieved. As perhaps you know, there's quite a lot going on right now, so a big event in New York was looming as a vast hurdle among quite a few. Now I just have to concentrate on helping my mother get better and perhaps, soon, move into a new life, and on becoming a grandmother. And on reclaiming my house, teaching, and, oh yes, writing. Not to mention living a life in this exciting city, where spring has sprung. Today, 17 degrees and stunning. I carried out the big plants that had wintered over inside, including the jasmine which is heavy and unwieldy. Perhaps I should not have done that, as the pain in my lower back and down my left leg attests.

On Friday, I went to my daughter's 31st birthday barbecue; she as usual had prepared a feast, which included the best hamburgers I've ever tasted. Her secret - caramelized onions. It was moving to see her room all set up for her soon-to-arrive, very small roommate - the change table with stacks of tiny diapers and wash cloths, the little t-shirts and receiving blankets, the bassinet and crib and wash tub, the tiny shoes and socks and sleepers - she has been given a huge amount of stuff, had only to buy a stroller. Mother is ready. Son, however, not quite.

On Saturday, Anna's housemate, my adopted daughter Holly, came over for the first of our 11 work sessions. Holly had a large debt she couldn't pay, so I offered her a deal: I'd pay her debt in return for 11 visits to help me here. Holly is energetic, hard-working and always cheerful, even when, yet again, cleaning out the basement. "Your basement, Beth," she said, "has kept me alive." Yes, I've spent a great deal of money, through the years, getting Holly's help to stem the tide of junk. Mind you, she was also in the basement, right beside me, when the fire started there. We've been through a lot, Holly and I.

The basement is really tidy now. That is, the storage side, not the apartment side where I'm living, which is a mess. She comes back next Saturday.

Today, France had its latest revolution. Only two months ago in Montpellier, I heard the Socialist candidate Francois Hollande speak, a small, hoarse man with a big round trustworthy face, and now he is the President of France. Perhaps, like Obama, he will be so constrained by the economy that not much will change. Still, what a treat, as we wade through the garbage the Tories are throwing at us here, to contemplate such a sea change in Canada. Thomas Mulcair, anyone?