Sarah Vowell is speaking tonight at Brown University promoting the paperback edition of her book The Wordy Shipmates which I am reading right now and enjoying very much. She has an original take on the whole Puritan thang and where Roger Williams fits in (or doesn’t) with the early New Englanders. (Vowell has also written a column in opposition to the changing of our official state name.) Happily her quirky radio persona does not adversely infect her writing style. She has a knack for synthesizing events, while pulling out telling details and amusing tidbits, in a way that helps illuminate the broader picture. I wonder if anyone is taking her to Prospect Terrace . . .  or the State House rotunda . . . or Williams Sonoma.

7pm to 9pm, Brown University, Thursday, MacMillan Hall, Room 117, Thayer Street

. . . for our special little fella. Dave and the rest of the Rhode Island General Assembly will have their plates full for the next few days, and just occasionally knowing exactly where the hell he is gives me comfort somehow. I like it when he’s in session. (We must however prepare for life without Kurtis Blow and Muppety stuff — it’s just a couple of days.) According to the ProJo,

Legislative leaders have scheduled hearings or floor votes for 196 individual proposals between Tuesday afternoon and Thursday night. And that number is expected to grow.

Topics range from license plates (natch) to salt water fishing, as well as the official name of the state. OMG Sarah Vowell will be in town on Thursday, get her over there!

[Additional note: All kidding aside, the much-discussed prostitution issue is also on the agenda and apparently our own Matthew Lawrence will be testifying today. I'm sure he will acquit himself most admirably and assume he will report here at some point.]

(This image may or may not be of the Rhode Island General Assembly.)

A little strange and oddly pleasant to check in with ‘The Daily Show’ and find Jon Stewart and his guest Sarah Vowell discussing Rhode Island and Roger Williams. (Go here for October 5th episode.) She is flogging the paperback edition of her recent book The Wordy Shipmates, and she is still a huge Roger Williams fan. In discussing our unique history, she eloquently restated her opposition to the changing of our name (the whole ‘plantations’ misunderstanding) which she covered last Fourth of July in a widely syndicated column. (Happily, this issue seems to have taken a backseat of late to our more pressing economic problems.) Reviewing the book for The New York Times, the always discerning Virginia Heffernan (who I wish was my cool friend that I could call up whenever I wanted and we would just talk and she would really like me) admits to finding the whole Vowell act a bit wearing, but ultimately admits,

My experience of the book: I kept being annoyed, and I kept reading.

Paperback edition now available at Books on the Square and other fine bookstores everywhere.