� � � � My first attempt at flying home from Seattle I was standing in my boarding line at SeaTac and thought I'd write a letter. I paced the terminal looking for decent paper, letter-sized from a memo, or advertisement, anything. I even resorted to casually peering into the trash cans. No dice. Feeling like this letter was apparently not only a good idea, but the best goddamned idea I'd had in ages, I resolved to tear our the front pages of a book I was carrying. Normally the mere thought of defacing a book would make my skin crawl, but in this emergency, Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation was my target. I'll admit, I was disappointed that Simon & Schuster only budgeted enough paper to allow a three-page harvest, two of which I'd torn so sloppily I was ashamed, but it would do.