Every six and a half hours

Watched the most recent episode of Breaking Bad last night. Holy cow. What a story. Jesse causes Jane to backslide into addiction, she gets him hooked on heroin, her father catches them and they plan their great escape. Which, of course, includes the nearly $500,000, which is Jesse’s share from the sale of their drugs. Which Walt believes would kill Jesse if he gave the money to him. Within a week. But Jane blackmails him into delivering the cash, so what’s he to do?

Then, in one of those coincidences that seems straight out of Lost, Walt meets up with Jane’s father in a bar without either of them knowing who the other is. (Picture Sawyer and Christian Shepherd in Australia.) The dialog reinforces Walt’s paternal feelings toward Jesse, but he arrives just in time to…do nothing. Not just any “nothing.” A very serious kind of “nothing” that solves his biggest problem and sets up what is sure to be a very emotional season finale on Sunday night. Can’t wait. What a gutsy show.

I received my semi-annual earning statement from Penguin yesterday for The Road to the Dark Tower. I figure I should earn out my advance by, oh, somewhere around 2012 at the current rate. The good news, though, is that the book is still selling decently. Not bad, considering it’s been out for nearly five years. (Wow, has it been that long already?) In fact, a copy is bought on average every six and a half hours. Can’t complain about that.

I posted my review of The Rules of the Game by Leonard Downie, Jr. last night. The author is a former editor with the Washington Post and his debut novel is a by-the-numbers political thriller. I also finished reading Isis by Doug Clegg this morning and have been asked to review it. It’s gothic horror with shades of “The Monkey’s Paw” that takes a while to show its hand but, when it does, boom. Devastating. Also profusely illustrated by my buddy Glenn Chadbourne in what I consider to be his best work to date.