Charlie spent much of the day at a doctor’s appointment, which meant he returned in a morbid mood. Shelly came back to the office to complain after she and Charlie quarreled. Last week, Shelly express-mailed some photos of Heinlein from Carmel. They were to be used in this issue and needed to be fixed up. As Shelly told me, I had taken them down to Sorber’s and arranged for them to be farmed out to various photographers. Charlie was furious when he found out, and demanded they all be returned. I think what enraged him was Shelly doing something on her own.

“…and I’m sorry but…” Shelly said to me, her face red with anger as she stood next to my desk in the back office. No sorries to Charlie from that one.

Damp and gray in the hills today, wet with one of those rains you can only see if you look carefully. It’s evening now and still raining. Tim and I had a nice dinner at The Good Earth, Tim reading bits of High Weirdness by Mail out loud to me.

More of Charlie’s management style. I’m convinced he hired mainly women because a man would sooner or later have taken a swing at him.

HIGH WEIRDNESS BY MAIL was one of the greatest reference books ever compiled, a fascinating, funny compendium of pre-internet nonsense available by snail mail. (The author, Church of the Subgenius founder Ivan Stang, strongly suggested anyone who signed up to the bizarre mailing lists it referenced do so using a PO box.) I wish I still had that copy, but when Tim and I split up, he got custody.