Programming note: If you missed Steyn's Song of the Week earlier today on Serenade Radio because you were watching western citizens getting flayed by the Talibs outside Hamid Karzai International, our show repeats on Monday at 5.30am UK time - that's 9.30pm Sunday North American Pacific time, or about three hours from now. You can listen to the show from anywhere on the planet right here.
Meanwhile, here's the forty-third episode of our current Tale for Our Time: Burning Daylight, Jack London's tale of a Klondike wild man among the sharks of the California business world. In tonight's episode, Daylight's decision to smash his own business befuddles his competitors:
It was the unanimous conviction among business men that no sane man could possibly behave in such fashion. On the other hand, neither his prolonged steady drinking nor his affair with Dede became public, so the only conclusion attainable was that the wild financier from Alaska had gone lunatic. And Daylight had grinned and confirmed the suspicion by refusing to see the reporters.
He halted the automobile before Dede's door, and met her with his same rushing tactic... "I've done it," he announced. "You've seen the newspapers, of course. I'm plumb cleaned out, and I've just called around to find out what day you feel like starting for Glen Ellen. It'll have to be soon, for it's real expensive living in Oakland these days. My board at the hotel is only paid to the end of the week, and I can't afford to stay after that. And beginning with to-morrow I've got to use the street cars, and they sure eat up the nickels."
Jack London himself built a place in the hamlet of Glen Ellen. That's his wife Charmian at top right in the sleeping porch of his Beauty Ranch.
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear me read Part Forty-Three of Burning Daylight simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.
If you've yet to hear any of our Tales for Our Time, you can do so by joining The Mark Steyn Club. For more details, see here - and don't forget our special Gift Membership. I'll be hosting Part Forty-Four of Burning Daylight right here tomorrow evening.