<< you're asking me will my love grow -- i don't know >>

here is a picture of Abbey Road Studios in London, which is where the Beatles recorded -- the white building in the centre.

in the foreground is the famous intersection whose photograph, on the cover of the album Abbey Road, started the rumour that Paul McCartney had been killed in a car accident at five o'clock the morning of Wednesday, November 9, 1966, replaced by an actor to allow the band's legend to continue. indeed, if you play the White Album backwards a voice does clearly say, between tracks ten and eleven on disc one, Paul is dead, man, miss him, _miss _him, MISS HIM. we are to believe that this is by chance.

i am staying in London just one night and i have a plane to catch early tomorrow so i cannot do too much here, but i did want to go see this studio, sign my name on the wall in orange sharpie, and do my bit to keep the intersection of Abbey and Acacia Roads at the top of the list of the world's Most-Photographed Intersections.

the Beatles named their twelfth album after this street, Abbey Road. it was to be their last album and they knew it. but the heartbreak space is often also the crystal clear sparkling space, and you can make a compelling case that Abbey Road is the Beatles' finest album, and it is no coincidence that it features the song that is called the finest love song of all time, Something.

the Beatles knew what they were creating. the album's working title was Everest.

for its cover picture, the band -- a band the likes of which the world still has not seen -- were going to fly to the Himalayas to have their picture taken in front of the world's tallest mountain. but when the songs were done and recorded none of them had that kind of energy. instead they had their picture taken right outside. they would have come out the front door which you can see here, walked the twenty feet to the street crossing, and done it right there. it would have taken ten minutes. they took three pictures : Paul took off his sandles for the third. and instead of calling the album Everest, they called it Abbey Road.

in life there is greatness not only on mountain tops but also at ground level, not only halfway around the globe but also just across the street. tomorrow i leave for Turkey.

i walked back to Picadilley Square down Lissom Grove, moving through wet and headlit streets. London is colder than i imagined. i bought some hot chestnuts from a vendor who was roasting them right there on the sidewalk and they helped to warm my fingers. they were chewy and soft, not crunchy. why did i expect them to be crunchy? and, by extension, who am i, why do i believe what i believe, and what is the deal with airline peanuts. tomorrow i will land in Turkey to stay with my friend Mehmet. it is one short flight away. it feels like it is just across the street.