Meghan Cox Gurdon's acclaimed column, "The Fever Swamp," found in National Review Online, brings us the misadventures of a family of six, run by the author in a cheerfully haphazard fashion: "Through no fault of our own, and without ever intending it, my husband and I live in a granite-gray, two-dimensional, check-writing, fact-filled world. Perhaps you live here, too." And in this world, children sing the favorites of generations: "If you’re happy and you know it, eat a hairclip." Then, every so often, and usually in the midst of a crisis, some happy insight arrives: "You don’t say anything. You drive, grimly, as the laff riot goes on, and in spite of yourself you feel the hard corners of your mouth soften, and you begin to smile, buoyed by their childish pleasure in sheer silliness, even if you don’t get the joke."

This first cultural event of fall 2003 follows on the heels of performances by Dr. Dana Gioia, Danielle Crittenden, Movers & Shakespeares, and Jim Bowman and Company’s "Jeeves." Please join AEI as Meghan Cox Gurdon reads what sounds like fiction--but isn’t.