October 11: Hour Was Passed, Wisest Resolution, the Announcement

Scrooge lay in this state until the chimes had gone three quarters more, when he remembered, on a sudden, that the Ghost had warned him of a visitation when the bell tolled one.  He resolved to lie awake until the hour was passed; and, considering that he could no mre go to sleep than go to Heaven, this was perhaps the wisest resolution in his power.

So, there Scrooge sits in his bed, waiting for the first of the Christmas Ghosts to appear.  He sits and listens to his clock chime the times.  It's a long wait for the old guy, but he's determined to prove to himself that Marley's visit was simply the result of some bad gruel.

I, myself, am playing the waiting game this morning, along with Scrooge.  You see, this morning, in approximately 36 minutes, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature is going to be announced in Stockholm at the Swedish Academy.  I have it from a good source that I will win this year.  (Of course, my good source was my four-year-old son who told me, "Daddy, you win.  Can I play your iPad now?")  Thus, I am sitting here with no less than two other computers plugged into the Nobel Prize site, waiting for the live Webcast from the Swedish Academy to start.  I'm expecting it to commence any moment.  According to the countdown clock, there are less than 29 minutes left until the announcement.

I'm thinking that I will take the rest of the day off work and teaching when I win at 7 a.m.  The media will be outrageous, and my phone will simply ring off the hook.  I won't have time to do anything else but talk to reporters and bask in the admiration and jealousy of other writers.  Sorry Cormac McCarthy and Philip Roth and Alice Munro.  It's my Nobel year.

The live Webcast just booted up, which means that in 20 minutes or so, Peter Englund, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, will be calling to congratulate me, and then he will walk through the white doors into the great hall and release my name to the world.  It will be a great day for world literature.

Well, I must go and await my call from Sweden.

Saint Marty will see you on the other side of the Nobel Prize announcement.

I'm waiting for your call, Mr. Englund