Just a friendly reminder that if you have tickets to see Joan Didion at Benaroya Hall this Wednesday...well, you won't actually see her. The 78-year-old essayist had to cancel her Seattle Arts and Lectures appearance due to a personal conflict, and author Amy Tan (The Joy Luck Club, 2013's The Valley of Amazement) will speak in her stead. Tickets to the Didion event will be honored; and there are still tickets available.

No offense to the talented Tan, but I'm a big Didion fan and feel the need to end on one of her quotes, from the preface to 1968’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem.

“My only advantage as a reporter is that I am so physically small, so temperamentally unobtrusive, and so neurotically inarticulate that people tend to forget that my presence runs counter to their best interests. And it always does.”

The peerless essayist is still an inspiration to vertically challenged reporters worldwide. 

Amy Tan (replacing Joan Didion)
June 5, Benaroya Hall, lectures.org