Warm all over

There's much that makes writing arts criticism a terrific job, but I can't remember ever feeling as gratified about the gig as I did when I perused a reader's e-mail yesterday. She wrote to compliment me on a recent theater review in Isthmus, and to note that an actor I praised was in a show I raved about in Isthmus two years ago. It seems that in June the actor in question is marrying my correspondent's daughter, who's also an actor--and the two met while working on that very play two years ago! In which they performed a scene about a couple planning a life together!

And, my correspondent writes, I'm somehow all mixed up in this: "I'm not quite sure why I think you should know this, except that your review has been on my refrigerator since 2003 and I kind of think of you as being part of this story."

My goodness! I feel like we should all buy a house together.