The announcement of Elizabeth Alexander as President-elect Barack Obama's inaugural poet came just as I was heading out the door for the holidays, leaving me without time to round out a profile of this popular poet.

Alexander, 46, is the author of four collections of poetry; the latest, "American Sublime," was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize. Currently on the English faculty at Yale University, she earned a doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania.

Her poem "Preliminary Sketches: Philadelphia" is in the anthology, "Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania" (Penn State University Press, $29.95).

I was able to reach fellow poet Toi Derricotte of the University of Pittsburgh for a brief comment before vacation. Derricotte is co-founder of Cave Canem, the African-American poets' organization, and she praised Alexander for her contributions to the group.

She believes that Alexander "is the right kind of poet for Barack Obama. She's very clear and intellectual in her poems, not abstract, but she makes you think about complex subjects." Derricotte added:

"Reading one of her poems is a lot like reading the newspaper. They have that sense of immediacy about them."

Reached later, Michael S. Harper, one of the nation's most esteemed poets and teachers and a 2005 Pulitzer judge, said he had put a lot of Alexander's work into anthologies he has edited and added, "She's splendid."

Alexander will be the fourth poet to read at a presidential inauguration, although, in essence, there was a fifth bard on hand for the ceremonies.

James Dickey wrote "The Strength of Fields" for Jimmy Carter's inauguration in 1977, but read the poem at a gathering the night before the ceremonial swearing in. Both were Georgia natives.

In an aside, Alexander's father, Clifford, was secretary of the Army under President Bill Clinton.

Dickey died 20 years later, ironically on the eve of President Clinton's second inaugural, when Miller Williams became the third poet to read for a swearing in. Maya Angelou read at President Clinton's first inaugural in 1993. Robert Frost was the first poet to read at an inaugural, that of President John F. Kennedy in 1961.

Casually reviewing the literature of the Great Depression when I was preparing myself for the Pittsburgh Opera's "Grapes of Wrath" production, I came across this little verse:

Mellon pulled the whistle,
Hoover rang the bell,
Wall Street gave the signal
and the country went to hell

The Mellon of course, is Pittsburgh's own Andrew, secretary of the U.S. Treasury under President Hoover, who was singled out for major blame by Franklin Roosevelt for the Depression.

The quote showed up in "Radical Images," a chapter of Malcolm Cowley's 1980 memoirs, "The Dream of the Golden Mountains." Cowley describes the retreat of the "Bonus Army" in 1932 after the World War I veterans protested the denial of their promised cash payment in Washington, D.C.

Some of the rag-tag crew were sheltered in a campground near Johnstown, near Cowley's birthplace of Belsano in Cambria County.

Ron Burkle, an investor in the Pittsburgh Penguins, is now an investor in Barnes & Noble Booksellers.

The California capitalist acquired 8.3 percent of the bookstore-chain giant, it was announced Friday.

Does that move mean there will be a B&N outlet in the new hockey arena?

Scribner, owned by Simon & Schuster, caught the proverbial bridal bouquet yesterday when it won the rights to first lady Laura Bush's autobiography.

The price was not disclosed, but with Washington, D.C., rainmaker Robert Barnett doing the dealing, it should be a multimillion-dollar payout. The publishing date is 2010. Barnett negotiated the $10-million plus arrangement for Bill Clinton's memoirs.

In justifying the big bucks being paid by a company that recently laid off 35 workers at Christmastime, the publisher said:

"As a rare witness to the private moments of one of our country's most consequential presidencies, and as a first lady who has maintained a notable level of discretion, her memoir will provide a candid and personal perspective ..." That from Susan Maldow, executive vice president and publisher of Scribner.