NB: A listener wrote in to offer another perspective on the titular story in this episode: “per your recent podcast—there were some key errors in the telling, not that those on the receiving end, including one who deserves far more acclaim than he ever got, and who certainly deserves more than being a punchline. I know Ernie bore no deliberate malice, but anyone who might gently push back has no opportunity to do so, and in A—’s case, never will. I find the notion that the reading was a front for a series of drug deals frankly offensive, even if none was intended. It was not A—’s fault that the guy who was supposed to open the library completely forgot and only bothered to check his messages a day or two later. A— was also completely gutted, and it intensified a path of sustained substance abuse, part of a series of relapses that ultimately claimed his life. He had some good years, though, and he organized some quite successful readings in previous years that the 2015 reading was supp…
