If you’d seen the news of the earthquake, as my mother did, you’d have thought we’d be buried in the rubble of collapsed buildings and the whole city would be on fire. * A walk in the woods is nothing like a nature show. If we see a deer, it’d be off in the distance of dappled light and not falling under the leap of a cougar. * There was a riot in Paris and several people were injured, but we were in a museum looking at damaged statuary and missed all the excitement.