There Often Seems To Be A Playfulness

To Relive The Relationship Between Owner And Slave We Can Consider How We Treat Our Cars And Dogs - A Dog Exercising A Somewhat Similar Leverage On Our Mercies And An Automobile Being Comparable In Value To A Slave In Those Days

A Writer's Work Is To Witness Things.

Animals Are Stylized Characters In A Kind Of Old Saga - Stylized Because Even The Most Acute Of Them Have Little Leeway As They Play Out Their Parts.

We New Yorkers See More Death And Violence Than Most Soldiers Do, Grow A Thick Chitin On Our Backs, Grimace Like A Rat And Learn To Do A Disappearing Act. Long Ago We Outgrew The Need To Be Blowhards About Our Masculinity; We Leave That To The Alaskans And Texans, Who Have More Time For It.

Country People Tend To Consider That They Have A Corner On Righteousness And To Distrust Most Manifestations Of Cleverness, While People In The City Are Leery Of Righteousness But Ascribe To Themselves All Manner Of Cleverness.