That Might Be Me

if I were a cat. My daughter sent me this picture and said that it reminded her of me.

She's right. I have to cop to it. I always straighten things on walls, even in places where I really shouldn't do it, like at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. It's a wonderful museum that bills itself as America's First Museum of Modern Art.

The Collection is in an old mansion and the day we were there, the staff was getting ready for some sort of event to be held that evening. As a result, there were musicians throughout the museum practicing for later in the day. The museum was beautiful; the music was beautiful; and the art was stunning. It's a wonderful place to see all sorts of great works by all the best modern artists and we were lucky to be there on that particular day.

However, because it is in a large old home, the museum comprises many, many separate rooms. At one point, I happened to be in one all by myself and I noticed that one of the paintings was crooked. I looked around. No one there. No cameras that I could find. So I straightened the picture. And left the room quickly in order to blend in with the other visitors. Nothing happened; no alarms went off, but I suppose it was not a great idea to tamper with great art.

Like the cat in the photo, I just couldn't help myself. Really.

One Downsmanship?

Is there such a thing?

When I fly, I always notice if and what the person sitting next to me is reading, and so I assume that others do the same. I'm just back from DC and West Virginia, and on the plane back I had a book (The Other Boleyn Girl) given to me by a friend. When she handed it to me, she said "It's kind of trashy," and it kind of is. I was in my favorite seat---the bulkhead window---and a well-dressed businessman sat down next to me. I assumed he was probably no dummy and thought: What kind of dummy will he think I am when he sees what I'm reading? So I sort of hid the book as I read it during the flight, but when my fellow traveller pulled out his book, I saw that it was one of the Anne Rice vampire stories. Ick.

I don't know why on earth I care what a total stranger thinks about my reading material, but I guess I do care; maybe it's because a million years ago I was an English major. The question is: Which one of us had the poorer taste in literature?


Unrelated Rambling:

I am not surprised when grocery store/elevator music includes the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, or Simon and/or Garfunkel. They have been around a long time and their music has sort of become mainstream. But the music playing over the sound system on my Delta flight yesterday while we were boarding and waiting to take off included "Back to Black" by Amy Winehouse. Is she already mainstream? Is background music on a plane in the same category as grocery store music? I think she is an amazing talent; I just hope she stays around for a long time so we can enjoy more of her.

The End