Wilfrid

That's one I looked at. Will get around to him.

Latest blockbuster, well worth seeing even if you don't know your Horus from your Atum. Indeed, you could get lost reading the learned explanations about the countless Egyptian gods, especially as they are prodigious shapeshifters with changing names and the ability to manifest as animals. Sometimes. I gave up on that and enjoyed these objects as objects, many of them imposing, beautiful and improbably old. There's a wine flask that apparently dates back 4 or 5,000 years and it has a slight chip in its rim. I'm lucky if a wine glass lasts 4 or 5 months. There's a cow's head in alabaster. It has lost its ears, but its quite lovely. And the LOL moment: a god "presenting and protecting" some king. He clearly has his arms around the king, but the king is missing his head and legs. Poor performance by the god. One other thing: the show is laid out in a clear and logical order and well lit. Unlike Man Ray or the Dandy show.

Significant post from Marco Canora also reposted by Dave Santos, so worth taking seriously. https://www.instagram.com/stories/marcocanora/3741161493636215549?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igsh=YmJucml5YjZ3Z3F2

Did not know that one!

Moody Blues, aged 82. I sometimes wondered about whether they were my kind of band, but this concert was terrific (many other clips on YT, but this highlights Lodge's vocals). ETA: sorry, should be John with an h.

Noted. No New York Society Library tote bag for you.

New York restaurateur, aged 93. I ate breakfast at the Theater District Brooklyn Diner just a few days ago. Ah, the Redeye Grill. It was still new when I moved into an apartment 7 minutes walk away. And it stayed open very, very late (it no longer does). In my carefree early months in the city, I exploited the fact that there were many late night events at places like The Oak Room, Eighty Eights, Dutch Weisman's and Don't Tell Mama. Redeye Grill was where I'd eat a late supper, and it was good back then (I tried it years later and it was less good). I happened to be looking at my old diaries for a separate reason, and I see I first ate there on April 29, 1997. Battered shrimp with coconut cream, mango and orange; grilled mahi mahi; chocolate pecan pie and ice cream.

Ouch. A friend gifted me a New Yorker tote bag last week. He knew I'd been a subscriber for a million years* and didn't have one. *Okay, 28.

After Dorothea strangles her husband and elopes with Fred? 😂

Kindle tells me I am a third of the way through Middlemarch. It feels like its much slower than Karamazov; even when nothing is happening in the latter, the prose gallops. When Mitya starts a crazy, repetitive, deranged rant, you can skim it at speed. Eliot could not be more different. Her long, multi-clause sentences are precise, balanced, melodious and often very funny. Rather than skim, the temptation is to re-read them. I'll be done before Christmas.

I have picked his books up a number of times and put them down again. Anyone read him?

How wonderful to see the Smothers Brothers pop up in Talk of the Town this week with comments from Dick. Time spent scrolling YouTube for Smothers Brothers clips is never wasted; so funny and good guys.

I did not delve.

And snacks!

I ran through it with my daughter and she did good, but she was never going to know what Cafe Wha? was. Or anything about the Knicks. She was able to tell me the name of the Liberty's mascot, sadly not a question.

I guessed hot duck. I couldn't guess how many languages are spoken in Jackson Heights. Or indeed anything about the Knicks. Only one I feel bad about is not knowing Hell's Hundred Acres.

Apologies if quiz is behind a paywall. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/10/06/nyregion/07futureNYC-quiz.html

Email from Delta this morning: "What you can look forward to on your flight." Opened it, hoping it would say air traffic control. No, something about snacks.

We won. Best rock recording. Not sure where, Granada maybe? https://www.instagram.com/stories/hindsband/3737691650416762210?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igsh=b2ZjOW9nYnRyeWQ=

Friend from the UK passing through town wanted a big breakfast near Times Sq. We ended up in Brooklyn Diner with a menu that boasted every kind of carb. I found a harmless cheese omelette, ignored the potatoes and my friend ate my toast.

Went today. Curious one. It's an interesting and in-depth examination of a period of wacky/experimental art, post-serious abstraction, more-or-less pop adjacent. But I didn't come away thinking I'd seen anything which knocked me out. Lots of artists I had never heard of. Not that I am given to pedantry but quite a few works seemed to have little connection with surrealism as such.

I knew about the clubs but that's all. The key thing about Florent was that it served blood sausage. I am sure Latino and Filipino places also did, but way back then I would have had no idea.

Sad. And Florent houses, I think, a pop-up gallery.

Hinds don't play Madrid until next February 🤷‍♂️

What are superyachts but the seagoing equivalents of expensive steaks? Questions to ponder.