The City & the Country no.72 – Feb 21 2015

One day this week I was so desperate for a quick blast of protein that I acquired this (left) from the college cafeteria. It was advertised as Lousiana Spicy Chicken. Is this the Louisiana Spicy Chicken? I asked the gentle soul behind the counter, a resigned-looking older black guy. “Thass what they say,” he replied, with subtle expressionlessness. And here it is. Inedible. But worth preserving an an image – a mummified gopher from the Cretaceous era.

Then my 71st birthday! A wonderful day, culminating in cards (one declaring me “the best husband money can buy”), one of them a pop-up tree, and a cake – healthy! made of raspberries & strawberries – and two fine gifts, monogrammed cufflinks, by golly, and a fine pulover with rolled collar, my favorite. (Last year I got the same, in grey.)

Finally some of Claire’s fine new work, including one of her ‘Library’ series for exhibition at Woodstock Library and subsequently, this summer, in her native town of Clonmel in Ireland. and a portrait of Chiara in progress.