16

Tuesday

In his new fly-fishing memoir, The One That Got Away, Howell Raines, recently deposed helmsman of the New York Times, recounts his seven-hour struggle with a marlin he hooked in the South Pacific in 1994. Now, Raines can ratchet the tension in a once-in-a-lifetime-fish tale just fine. But one question remains: What the hell kind of newsman can afford to charter a private boat in search of sailfish off the coast of Christmas Island? You’d think that a Timesman like Raines would settle for a long weekend in the Catskills; instead, he’s flying to Patagonia to rendezvous with a personal fishing guide and a 32-pound brown trout. While the former executive editor may have been unduly burned by Jayson Blair, his recuperation, which involved fishing for Atlantic salmon on the Kola River in Russia, is no cause for sympathy. Hear Raines discuss waters that most sportsmen-journalists will only ever read about when he appears at 7 p.m. at Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Free. (202) 364-1919. (Dave Jamieson)