This is My Blog on Wordle
July 25, 2008
July 3, 2008
Habits have never come easy for me. Oh, I have my tics — when I shop for clothes, for example, I always buy multiples, right down to matching colors; and I have been known to eat the same meal at the same restaurant every night for years. But regular tasks — doctor’s appointments, car checkups, [...]
In the late 1970s while I was a graduate student at Columbia and living on the Upper West Side, I helped organize our block association on 101st Street. The invitations for our first meeting went out with my name listed as one of the hosts, and that night I stood on the stoop of Annette’s [...]
I never shall forget the indulgence with which he treated Hodge, his cat: for whom he himself used to go out and buy oysters, lest the servants having that trouble should take a dislike to the poor creature. . . . I recollect [Hodge] one day scrambling up Dr. Johnson's breast, apparently with much satisfaction, while my friend smiling and half-whistling, rubbed down his back, and pulled him by the tail; and when I observed he was a fine cat, saying 'why yes, Sir, but I have had cats whom I liked better than this;' and then as if perceiving Hodge to be out of countenance, adding, 'but he is a very fine cat, a very fine cat indeed.'