I could fill up a whole entry just telling you about the Gates, but I don't think it is worth it. I think the actual putting up of 1,700 shmatas is not really noteworthy, but was is is the fact that people came from all around the world to look at them. And some people said that was the art, that people, some say a million people, all came and looked at them. I read a nice pithy statement from Henry Stern, who was parks commissioner for years and fought the project, retired and finally it happened, and basically he said he's glad, because the park wasn't damaged, and now the public and see what he always maintained, which is that the park is beautiful enough, and is best not meddled with.

Anyway, I wasn't going to talk about the Gates and now look what you made me do. What I was going to talk about is Tolstoy, which I have been reading lately. It has eerie resonance for my life, which I never would have predicted. But he's a surprisingly modern writer, given not only the time he was writing, over a hundred years ago, but also the place, which was the rural corners of Russia.

He was also kind of a nutty character, having married, cranked out nine kids or so, then swore off his wife and became a kind of monk and opened a school for orphans. Then he gave that up and shortly died, all in about 30 years or so. Quite a guy.

Plus, of course he managed to write some of the most enduring works of literature in the western canon. I don't mean to overlook that point.

So what esle to tell? I blew through town, hung a few curtains, put up some delft tiles, went to some meetings, ran around a bit, did some more running around and before you know it, it's time to come home. This trip, more than any I can recall, I was really on the move a lot, pretty much always going from someplace to another. Which kind of wears you down if you keep it up long enough. Plus the wife wakes up at 5 am, which kind of makes the days long, when you stay up past midnight. So I was dragging a bit from lack of resting. But it was good to see my wife. My beauty, who I never see. Oh, speaking of the wife, based on her plan, we had a full day with her semi adoptive ward, who we took to dance class, and hot cocoa, slices of pizza, rides on the Toys R Us ferris wheel, watched stupid kid safe movie which she, the kid, knew about 70% of the dialog to by heart, etc. The child is seven, and sweet as can be, though she is edging toward mini diva hood and refused to wear a scarf, on account of fashion credibility. What are you going to do with kids these days, apart from making them eat latkes with patches of still uncooked egg in them? I wouldn't do that, by the way, but some people think that's the way to raise a kid. Full of salmonella. Not me.