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WEDNESDAY

Ernest Hemingway once praised F. Scott Fitzgerald for possessing a talent “as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly’s wings.” When it comes to unveiling wildly funny (and often deeply poignant) personal prose, that same purity of production can be found in the work of writer and frequent NPR commentator David Sedaris. With effortless grace, Sedaris unleashes flurries of well-chosen words and universally relatable scenes without breaking a sweat. The title tale of his new collection, Naked, offers classic examples of Sedaris’ endless charms; it details the sheepish author’s autobiographical adventures at a less-than-glamorous nudist colony: “In May [the colony] held a golf-cart rally, several theme campfires, a chili cook-off, and something called ‘Wild West horseback riding’….Test eye shadow on all the rabbits you want. Strap electrodes to the skulls of rhesus monkeys and shock them into a stupor, but it is inhumane to place a nudist on horseback the day after a chili cook-off. (‘Was he always an Appaloosa?’)” Sedaris reads and signs at 7 p.m. at Olsson’s, 1200 F St. NW. FREE. (202) 347-3686. (Sean Daly)