logophobia

For the day before April Fool’s Day

It was generally twilight when I talked to Bill. I’d arrive around six and it was usually in the late spring or early summer. Bill would talk for a long time. He’d told me that because of a recent stroke he was at risk of losing the thread of what he was saying and would I not interrupt when he got going. So Bill would talk for a long time and I’d willingly listen and we would agree that I depart when night fell and the unlit kitchen got too dark to see each other.

On March 29th 2011, Bill mailed to me the following note enclosing a printed copy of a Mel Bochner postcard mailed to him on March 30th 1970:

Nick: Here is a very crude reminder that I have much mail from Mel Bochner, with e.g. the mute theme that this “gag” was mailed to be delivered on April Fool’s Day, the sort of minor detail on which my mind snags, then pulls at the snag to unravel a philosophy. By the way, significantly, number 1 in a series was not followed by number 2 — another detail with implications larger than the verifiable facts.
-Bill