Hmm…

… The John Updike Society � NY Times Magazine essayist invokes Updike. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

“Five years after ‘Rabbit at Rest’ was published, my father also died of an unexpected heart attack. The day after that, Pete Sampras beat Andre Agassi in the finals of the U.S. Open. ‘You Are Not Alone’ by Michael Jackson was the No. 1 song on the radio. Orville Redenbacher died of a heart attack nine days later. Thirteen days after that, O. J. Simpson was proclaimed not guilty by a jury in Los Angeles. These news reports seemed to fly around my head, their frothy, excitable tone unbearably out of touch with my state of mourning.”

This seems strange to me. I can't think of a single key event in my life that I associate with the news and hits of the day. And I was in the news business. And aren't all those pop references going to make novels seem period pieces?