David Sedaris (Getty Images)

It’s somewhat rare for borderline-reclusive essayist David Sedaris to decamp from his French chateau to read in public, and for tonight’s appearance on his current tour, he’s chosen a location where the crowds won’t overwhelm. He’ll be in low-season Westhampton to share his work, likely including excerpts from his last book, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, and his next one, Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls (it comes out in the spring). We’re not going to make it out—once weekend socializing has migrated back to Manhattan, Out East is just a windswept beach with metaphorical tumbleweeds and literal driftwood littering it—but we’ll be sure to ask our groundskeeper how it goes!

Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, 76 Main Street (Westhampton Beach, N.Y.), 8pm, box office can be reached at (631) 288-1500.

And so it sorta seemed like B&N was calling Mr. Sedaris a liar! Except that the day after we reported on their apparent disagreement with the 97 percent rule, B&N's spokeswoman told Media Mob that the store actually does consider Mr. Sedaris's essays nonfiction, regardless of where his new book appears on their list.

With this week's list, it's been made official: When You Are Engulfed in Flames is No. 1 in nonfiction. Sorry, Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture!

UPDATE: Carolyn Burn, the spokeswoman for B&N, passes on a statement from Tom Burke, executive vice president of e-commerce for Barnes & Noble.com. Mr. Sedaris's placement on the list sent to publishers last week was an error made by Nielsen Bookscan, not Barnes & Noble. "We provide Bookscan with sales information and Bookscan produces the lists based on this data," Mr. Burke said in his statement. "Bookscan was correcting its own mistake. Barnes & Noble considers When You are Engulfed in Flames a nonfiction title."

Apparently Barnes & Noble doesn't care what Mr. Sedaris thinks: an official chart distributed to publishers that shows sales figures for the week ending 06/23 defiantly has Mr. Sedaris's new book, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, listed under "Adult Fiction Hardcover." With 22,279 copies sold, it's number one with a bullet.

Ouch, though! Still, ouch.

UPDATE: A spokesperson for B&N called yesterday to say that though Engulfed in Flames was classified as "fiction" in the bestseller list they send to publishers, they nevertheless consider the book non-fiction. (Someone told New York the same thing.) The reason it appeared in fiction is that on their Web site, B&N considers all essay collections fiction. As Tom Burke, excutive vice president of e-commerce for Barnes & Noble.com, explains: "Our bookstores merchandise the title in the Essay section of our Literature category. Online at Barnes & Noble.com, we classify literary essays, both fiction and nonfiction, under the general category of Fiction & Literature."

Well, OK. Except, some might say that makes no sense!

For what it's worth, this week's Bookscan has Engulfed in Flames under non-fiction. The book registered 77,000 copies sold (which means the actual number is somewhat higher), making it the bestselling hardcover, in fiction and in non-fiction, of the week.

Of course you don't. It started with a provocative New Republic story by Alex Heard that asserted, among other things, that a "perfectly formed midget" guitar teacher did not think that a young Mr. Sedaris hit on him in Atlanta.

The question whether Mr. Sedaris' best-selling books belonged in the scoundrels section of the bookstore alongside James Frey and (according to some) Augusten Burroughs found its way onto Romenesko's forum and Jack Shafer's Slate column and then sort of disappeared into the relentless churn of the online media news cycle.

This week, Time's Web site offers readers a chance to pose questions to Mr. Sedaris on the occasion of the publication of his new book, When You Are Engulfed in Flames. The very first question: "Should your books be shelved in the fiction or nonfiction section of the bookstore?" (From Reilly Capps of Telluride, Colo.)

Mr. Sedaris' answer:

Well, that settles that.

Publisher's Weekly reported earlier this month that David Sedaris had changed the title of his forthcoming book of essays. Originally it was listed as All the Beauty You’ll Ever Need. Then it popped up as Indefinite Leave to Remain. Then, just a few months before its June 3^rd publication date, it became When You Are Engulfed in Flames. What happened? The publisher of Little, Brown, the house that is putting out the book, told PW that there was nothing to it: “Titles change!” he said. Well, sure! But why?

We caught up with Mr. Sedaris yesterday and asked him; he spoke to us by phone from Paris.

Turns out “All the Beauty” was never a serious title—just something Mr. Sedaris submitted because Little, Brown had to send their catalog to the printer. And “Indefinite Leave to Remain”? That came from the top of Mr. Sedaris’s new Green Card, which he’d been awaiting eagerly. His partner, Hugh Hamrick, was the one who suggested he use the phrase as the title of the book. Mr. Sedaris liked it, but learned quickly that other people didn’t. “Whenever I said the name to people they just blinked. They had no reaction to it whatsoever.”

The new title, the one about the flames, came from an instructional brochure Mr. Sedaris found at his hotel when he visited Hiroshima last year. “It was called ‘Best Knowledge of Disaster Damage Prevention and Favors to Ask of You.’ And it was broken up into different chapters. ‘When You Check In a Hotel,’ ‘When You Find a Fire,’ and ‘When You Are Engulfed in Flames.’ It just slayed me.”

Mr. Hamrick, meanwhile, who lives with Mr. Sedaris in Paris and London, is still lobbying for “Indefinite Leave to Remain.” As it happens, that’ll be the second title Mr. Hamrick has come up with that Mr. Sedaris has eventually rejected: the first time was with 2000’s Me Talk Pretty One Day, which was originally called “Primates on the Seine,” a phrase that came to Mr. Hamrick in a dream. Mr. Sedaris loved it, but eventually bailed on the idea.

One wonders if Mr. Hamrick is a little bit hurt by this pattern! Perhaps Mr. Sedaris would consider going back to “Indefinite Leave,” if only out of loyalty?

“It’s a little too late now,” he said. “I don’t think I can change it again. Maybe I could, but not change it back. If I found something better I could probably do it.”

Fashion's most vile trend? Apparently it's now "in" to wear fur in the summer , proof yet again that this city is not lacking in fools who will pretty much do almost anything if some fashion jackass tells them to …. Tonight, the fur flies at furrier Dennis Basso's show in the capacious halls of Cipriani, as fur fans like talk-show diva Star Jones and low-fat powder-puff princess Olivia Chantecaille look on with brainless adoration …. In a perfect world there'd be peace on earth, Triple Stuf Oreos and we'd be drunk right now. Well, one out of three ain't bad! And tonight they're working on the peace thing at the increasingly déclassé Soho House -in the White Room, no less-where the cool kids hoist a cocktail for "Peace Games." It's designed to end violence in schools. And while everyone and his uncle is watchin g The Soprano s repeatedly on demand, Sirius Radio is taking it elsewhere. The Wiseguys radio show , which premieres tonight, is like "a goombah version of Saturday Night Live ," according to Vincent (Big Pussy) Pastore , who will helm the three-hour chatfest with pals like Cha-Cha, Brooklyn Joe and Vinnie . Will they give comics who appear on the show a hard time? "Sometimes we get comics in who aren't ready," Mr. Pussy said. "We have fun with them-youknowwuddahmean, schweet-haht ?" To toast the first show, Rudy Giuliani -ironic, since he's the guy who put most of the real wiseguys in jail-and Judy Nathan chow (or ciao ?) down at Il Cortile on Mulberry Street with celebutantes like Marina Rust, Lulu DeKwiatowski and Lucie Sykes-Rellie , which means you'll hear at least one story about how "Daddy actually knew an awfully nice Italian chap who used to fix his car."

[Dennis Basso, Fall/Winter 2004, Cipriani, 110 East 42nd Street, 2:30 p.m., by invitation only; Peace Games, Soho House, 8 p.m., by invitation only; Wiseguys dinner, Il Cortile, 125 Mulberry Street, by invitation only.]

Thursday 27th

Honk if you love Christopher Plummer! Back when men were men-and not lazy, insolent guys in pricey jeans and mutton chops -youhad statesman Archibald MacLeish (not to be confused with Cary Grant, whose proper name was Archie Leach ). He was a poet, playwright, Yale man, confidant of F.D.R. , director of the War Department's Office of Facts and Figures , U.S. delegate to UNESCO following WWII, double Pulitzer Prize–winner -and more. He was also a dear chum to hottie Christopher Plummer , and tonight Mr. Von Trapp sings a lullaby to his late comrade in the form of a swell tribute, "Remembering Archie." For those who actually watch those incredibly depressing We Love the 80s VH1 shows, Pat Benatar -she of the infamous ta-ta-shaking in her "Love Is a Battlefield" video-bravely emerges from the forests of anonymity to conquer the "battlefield" that is Union Square. After playing maestro to choir minions from her alma mater (Lindenhurst), the original Avril Lavigne belts some tunes to raise skin-cancer awareness, as skater-bois and Manhattan hippies buy kale at the farmer's market. The goopy mess is sponsored by Coppertone (today is something called "National Wear Sunscreen Day") …. And take your chances with the hysterical trusto-hippie activists behind Design for Democracy , which is hocking faux Oval Office furniture by swish designers to raise money for "the cause." It all takes place at the Maritime, because nothing says "liberal democracy" like a velvet rope, bottle service and a V.I.P. room. Arrive early and bleed your heart to host committee members Julianne Moore (mainstream) and Maggie Gyllenhaal (downstream). In other news, Thursdays are the new Mondays, which are the old Fridays -so Target (or "Targetto," it's called by Westchester teens who wished they lived in the 'hood ) decided to beat the holiday-weekend masses with an assault on the South Fork , where they'll turn on the automatic sliding doors ( whirrrrrrr! ) of their "totally divine" home-and-garden shop.

["Remembering Archie: A Tribute to Archibald MacLeish," 92nd Street Y, 8 p.m., 212-415-5500; Pat Benatar, Union Square Park, 12:30 p.m.; Design for Democracy, the Maritime Hotel Ballroom, 366 West 17th Street, 6 p.m., 718-290-9153; Target Vernissage, 2546 Montauk Highway, Bridgehampton, 7 p.m., by invitation only.]

Friday 28th

More proof that life before noon should not exist: It's the battle of the morning-show concert series! In this corner, ABC's Good Morning America has resurrected 90's singing triad Wilson Phillips -comprised of Chynna Phillips (the pretty one), Wendy Wilson (the sorta pretty but possibly secretly kinky one) and her sister Carnie (made an entire career out of gaining and losing weight ; most definitely kinky and surely the most fun). A few blocks away, the Counting Crows' Adam Duritz stops counting the crows circling his career long enough to squawk for Katie and Co. of NBC's The Today Show . Later today, leave the office at 4:30 p.m. after realizing that the reservation for your boss' "long lunch" must have been at Nick & Toni's. Also out in the ho-ho-Hamptons -which are looking to be even more rancid than usual this year, though expect a New York Times Styles section piece any day now about how the Hamptons are "strangely quiet and peaceful" this summer- Antony Todd (Manhattan über- florist who we bet has gone on a hedge-pruning rampage or two in his day) has found a business partner in frisky swinging socialite Nina Griscom . Today, the petal pusher and his co-ho open the doors to their new, imaginatively titled "lifestyle" store, Antony Todd Nina Griscom , as the Memorial Day weekend begins and you settle down for a nice summer with TiVo.

[Wilson Phillips, Bryant Park, Upper Terrace, 42nd Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues, 7 a.m., 212-768-4242 ; Counting Crows, outside NBC Today window at World Plaza, 49th Street and Rockefeller Plaza, 7 a.m., www.nbc.com; Antony Todd Nina Griscom, 28 Job's Lane, Southampton, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., 631-204-1100.]

Saturday 29th

Schmatte attack! What's going on in fashion these days? Designers slapping butterflies and bows on grown women , cranking out flimsy camisoles that look like they had a fight with a BeDazzler and lost , and don't even get us started on this new "shorts and stilettos" combo (yes, you too can look like a Jersey City hooker!) . Fluttery clothier Catherine Malandrino does her part by opening a branch of her flirty offerings on Long Island …. Meanwhile, did you ever see The Man from Elysian Fields ? We'll save you the rental fee: Yale alum/struggling writer (Andy Garcia) unable to support family (Julianna Margulies ) turns to man-whoring , ruining his marriage. This "a little too close to home" plot does not bode well for us. ( Note to self: Ask for raise.) Anyways, today in those very same fields are the pitter-patter of well-shod feet plodding the Potatohampton Minithon . The 10K race was started 26 years ago by Dan Rattiner of Dan's Papers . We found him at the dentist post–root canal. "It's like childbirth, only twice as bad!" he said, to which women across the city can only reply, "Yeah, go ahead and think that, you wimp!" About the race: "One year we had a guy become dehydrated as he was in the lead and coming down the home stretch. He just kind of wandered off into the field and disappeared . We took him to the hospital and he was fine, of course, but he was upset he didn't win." Any celebs? "There's a well-known surgeon, Dr. Mehmet Oz , who was named one of People 's 50 Most Beautiful People …. Rick Moranis ran it some years ago." Plucky little fella. Afterward, putter over to Sag Harbor for the opening of 21 Water -another numerically themed boîte (see: 66 , Soho 323 , Table 50 , 5 Ninth, the 40/40 Club ). "Celeb" D.J.'s Cameron Douglas and Paul Sevigny scratch while you scratch your head and ask yourself what you could have been thinking when you plunked down for that summer share back in February ….

[Catherine Malandrino store opening, 27 Newtown Lane, East Hampton, 212-529-5533, ext. 250, by invitation only; Potatohampton Minithon, Presbyterian Church, Bridgehampton, 2429 Montauk Highway, 9:30 a.m., 561-655-7464; 21 Water opening, 21 West Water Street, Sag Harbor, 10 p.m., 212-477-8090.]

Sunday 30th

Stuck in the city? Thank your lucky stars you're not out in the Hamptons with the rest of those ill-bred, sweatily ambitious suckers! Here, you got Raising Helen with Kate Hudson , who's surely got one more box-office flop in her; the Jake Gyllenhaal vehicle The Day After Tomorro w (rent Donnie Darko and fire up a fatty instead); Soul Plane (a comedy starring Tom Arnold and Method Man -now there's a cast with some range); Mandy Moore doing the evangelical turn in Saved! with co-star Macaulay Culkin (who can always write a book about his friendship with Michael Jackson if his movie career continues to flail). Meanwhile, Esquire editors belly up to the bar at Jet East ( "Is this place hot ? I'd heard this place was hot …. Oh, man-look at her …. Anyone have cell-phone reception? I need to call the nanny-and that's not all I'd like to do to her …. Hee hee hee … " ) for the magazine's summer-issue release party. Kinda makes you wish you were sittin' through Soul Plane , don't it?

[212-777-FILM for local listings; Esquire summer-issue release party, Jet East, 1181 North Sea Road, Southampton, 10 p.m., 631-283-0808 for "table reservations," a.k.a. $200 for a bottle of Absolut.]

Monday 31st

Let's be honest, Troy sucked- and our drunk friend kept yelling, "Where's the horse ?!" (right before we got kicked out). Luckily there's a historically accurate Greek recapitulation at the Met's Greek Galleries. Today the museum is opened 'specially for you, so spritz on a summery scent and cruise the halls to take in Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557) ; Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Gates, Central Park, New York ; Painters of Reality: The Legacy of Leonardo and Caravaggio in Lombardy ; Echoing Images: Couples in African Sculpture ; or August Sander: People of the Twentieth Century–A Photographic Portrait of Germany . If you can't find a summer girl/boyfriend at one of those exhibits, honey, might be time to look at those Russian Web sites ….

[Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., 212-535-7710.]

Tuesday 1st

Back in the 70's, when porn was actually sexy and when Democrats actually believed in stuff and when Linda Ronstadt was a star, she sang Cali soft rock . Then, when people stopped caring, she sang some gnu wave . Then, when people cared even less, she sang light opera . Then, when people cared even less than they didn't care before, she discovered her ethnic roots and began to sing Spanish-language ballads . Today she sings … something at the Beacon Theater as confused Phish fans continue to roam the surrounding streets looking for tickets ….

[Linda Ronstadt and the American Festival Orchestra, Beacon Theatre, 2124 Broadway, 8 p.m., 212-496-7070.]

Wednesday 2nd

Posen for the camera: Zac Posen , who poses more than the models for whom he designs, shows up at Lot 61 for tonight's "TeachersCount!" spring fling , where he and muse/sister Alexandra Posen raise money for education so kids everywhere can wear the proverbial smarty-pants. Never mind that no one at tonight's bash would ever deign to enter the teaching profession themselves. If you don't have dollars to spare, can't crash and were home-schooled anyway , Sigourney Weaver hosts a "literary salon" at one of those hip artsy collectives- wait, this just in - Sig has flaked, and the flack won't say why. So humorist David Sedaris helms it alone, reading his own work and joined by Paul (Law & Order ) Hecht and Mary Beth Hurt (the hot one in Interiors) .

[TeachersCount Spring Fling, Lot 61, 21st Street at 11th Avenue, 9 p.m., by invitation only; David Sedaris Introduces, Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, 8 p.m., 212-864-5400.]

Quelle Daum-age! Gamin personal essayist and Vassar grad Meghan Daum, 30, a kind of literary Meg Ryan (without the Dennis Quaid Russell Crowe baggage), follows a long journalistic tradition (think Walter Kirn or Lily Burana) of people who decide they are simply unable to bear the ambition and money in the big, bad city one single second longer, so they flee to crumbling farmhouses in the "simple" Midwest, from which they continue to drop the occasional woolly freelance musing in our laps . But, like most of this bunch, Ms. Daum can't resist returning to Manhattan for a nice book party. Bonus excerpt from her debut collection, My Misspent Youth: "Carpet makes me want to kill myself. Wall-to-wall carpet anywhere other than offices, airplanes, and Holiday Inn lobbies sends me careening toward a kind of despair that can only be described as" Slam! Literary "ladies' man" Thomas Beller has an imprint, Open City Books, which is publishing Ms. Daum's book and will host tonight's party in relatively carpet-free Soho. And then it's back to rural Nebraska, toots.

[69 Greene Street, fourth floor, 7 p.m., by invitation only, 696-7317.]

Thursday 22nd

Wanna be a Milla-ionaire? Goody-bag whores and who among us is not? head for Chelsea to mill about with ubiquitous party wench Milla Jovovich, who is co-hosting a "futuristic" party with Kidada Jones and Aaliyah to launch (kerboom!) a new line of fancy specs, Sama Eyewear. We hope the "futuristic" theme does not mean that Ms. Jovovich will arrive starkers in a space capsule as she did in the futuristic flick, The Fifth Element. And speaking of trembling, unclothed actresses, what's going on with Isabella (Blue Velvet) Rossellini? Well, Lancôme dumped her for Juliette Binoche, but that's O.K. Ms. Rossellini rebounded with her own makeup line, touchingly named Manifesto (who says Communism is dead?), and tonight she hooks up with Mikhail Baryshnikov in Brooklyn at a benefit for the Mark Morris Dance Group. Who's on the committee: Sandra Bernhard, Sandy Hill, Anne McNally, Isaac Mizrahi! And believe us, it's gonna cost you.

[Sama Eyewear, Drive In Studios, 443 West 18th Street, 9 p.m., 917-351-8600; Mark Morris Dance Group, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Howard Gilman Opera House, 30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, 7:30 p.m., dinner to follow, Mark Morris Dance Center, 3 Lafayette Avenue, 718-624-8400.]

So hos slurp cocktails and shop for schlock made in Swedish sweatshops! H&M, the famous discount store that wears us down, opens in Soho, finally sealing that neighborhood's inevitable fate as a splendid, gigantic Eurotrash mall!

[558 Broadway, 8 p.m., by invitation only, 358-9963.]

Friday 23rd

Accordion files: If you're like a certain Elle editor we know and you wear glam-rock pants but secretly yearn to play the accordion, today's your day, honey, as the indefatigable CUNY Grad Center hosts a symposium called "The Accordion as an Icon of Italian-American Culture." "It's a shindig, let's call it that," said professor and free-reed-instrument expert Allan Atlas. "Look, we've all seen all these cartoons where the guy is going to hell instead of heaven, and down there there's an orchestra of accordions playing and this is what he's gonna have to listen to for the next 10 million years, but here are millions and millions and millions of people who play." Does he squeeze? "I play the concertina." This shindig just gets jiggier and jiggier.

[Baisley Powell Elebash Recital Hall, 365 Fifth Avenue, symposium, 3 p.m.; concert, 7:30 p.m., 817-8215.]

Saturday 24th

Two E! channel antidotes! Face it, you're going to waste all of tomorrow glued to the E! channel watching that Super Bowl of stylists, the Academy Awards pre-show . So get some culture today, either at 1) the Small Press Book Fair, including a seminar on Edith Wharton; or 2) a "Wall to Wall" Miles Davis music marathon at Symphony Space (that's for all you self-assured hetero 40-year-old bachelors who are starting to realize with terror that maybe you're not quite the "catch" you were at 36 because, frankly, you're starting to get a little gamy and spooky, with your "hobbies" and your arcane knowledge about obscure blues musicians and your "favorite diner because they treat me really well there ." Can you say "male spinster" or minster?).

[Book fair, Small Press Center of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, 20 West 44th Street, 10 a.m., 764-7021; Wall to Wall Miles Davis, 2537 Broadway, noon, 864-5400.]

Sunday 25th

Wall-to-wall red carpet! It's Oscar time, which never fails to bring to mind our errant intern Oscar, son of Dame Edna, who went to get us a fruit smoothie one day, never to return . Maybe now that his talented drag-queen daddy writes for Vanity Fair, Oscar will turn up as a mascot at that magazine's big party in Los Angeles? And who exactly does Graydon Carter's hair for this event? Just a thought . Back in Gotham, Entertainment Weekly's grizzled but studly editor, Jim ("Dancing Queen") Seymore, herds the city's remaining B-list celebrities Angie Harmon and Jason Sehorn, Reba McEntire, Paul Schaffer, Alan Cumming and the inevitable Sopranos cast member (Aida Turturro) for the annual party at Elaine's. If you're like us, you'll stay home, eat an entire pizza and root for soulful Benicio Del Toro, who must still be washing off the drool from his Talk magazine interviewer, Holly Millea.

[Entertainment Weekly, 1703 Second Avenue, 6 p.m., by invitation only, we're not even invited and we used to work there, so pursue crash strategy at your own risk, 522-5600.]

Monday 26th

Our life just hasn't been the same since Comedy Central canceled Strangers with Candy, so we called Amy Sedaris (see new gamin image!) to find out what the heck happened. "Well, hello!" she said from her Greenwich Village one-bedroom. "It got canceled because it didn't have the ratings that South Park had." But she's been keeping busy: "I'm trying to name this stuffed animal I just got. I collect Steiff toys, and it's a little rabbit Steiff. It stands up and it's got a little skirt on. I have a Steiff puppet named Dr. Penny Nickels, and I wanted to name the other puppet after money if it were a guy, [I'd] name it Buck so I'm thinking of Coquille, which is a scallop-shaped French coin." How's her live rabbit? "She's kinda put on some weight, because she loves alfalfa and it's kind of fattening . I just decorated for Easter last night. Got all her stuff out. Just things I've had for years: old metal rabbits, rabbits made out of paper, Easter lights, little old eggs that light up and a big rabbit cut-out." How's her cheese-ball business doing? "It's not thriving. Gourmet Garage wanted me to sell them there, but I never had time. I'd have to hire a bunch of Mexicans, you know what I mean? Which isn't a bad idea." We asked about the new play, The Book of Liz, she's doing with brother, humorist David Sedaris. "It's about this woman and she works in Paris, her name is Sister Elizabeth she's not a nun or anything, she works in Paris and makes cheese balls and then one day she decides to leave. She goes and works at this restaurant, and it's filled with alcoholics and just like a cult. And so it's about her journey. And all I can think of is it's like a journey for me, too. We have a costume designer for the first time; she's making beautiful things. I'm always like, 'I wish I could sew,' and then people are always like, 'I wish I could cook!' And I say, 'All you gotta do is get high!'" Tonight is opening night. Bring Ms. Sedaris a cupcake: She turns 40 next week.

[Greenwich House Theater, 27 Barrow Street, 8 p.m., 239-6200.]

Cocktail shaker vs. Calypso! Bar owner Sebastian Junger reads from his new work, Lion in Winter, a report on Ahmad Shah Massoud (the guerrilla military commander fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan) at his bar, Half King. Bring Meghan Daum? Meanwhile, ageless wonder Harry Belafonte hits a benefit for the Center for Cuban Studies.

[Sebastian Junger, Half King, 505 West 23rd Street, 7 p.m., 462-4300; Harry Belafonte, Avery Fisher Hall, 7:30 p.m., 721-6500.]

Tuesday 27th

90's revival watch! Are we still living in Prozac city? It seems that just before the current economic dip, a flock of Elizabeth Wurtzel era depressed Gen-Xer's somehow overcame their phobias, their malaise, their angst and their overwhelming sense of the fragility of all that lives, and managed to sign up hardball agents and cut sharp book deals for themselves . Strapping blonde Nell Casey takes time from her day job as book editor at Self to moderate a panel at the Housing Works Used Bookstore Cafe inspired by her anthology, Unholy Ghost: Writers on Depression. The panel will consist of her sister, Maud Casey, author of a novel, The Shape of Things to Come (their pop is novelist John Casey). Also on the panel will be Joshua Wolf Shenk, a freelance writer and author of a forthcoming book, The Melancholy of Abraham Lincoln. What, no Meghan Daum? Bring industrial-strength St. John's Wort.

[126 Crosby Street, 6:30 p.m., 334-3324.]

Wednesday 28th

Boxer brief: We're simply too exhausted and disheartened all right, depressed to supply details of the big Bonnie Fuller bash at the Natural History Museum today; tune in next week for details of the Glamour editor's soiree! Instead, use today to stock up on your boyfriend's natty unmentionables . Yes, it's the conspiratorial-feeling, city-wide Calvin Klein underwear sale . Men across the land sit taller next week.

[At Bloomingdale's, Macy's, Lord & Taylor c'mon, you know where those places are!]