stepping on an old friend

We read newspapers for many reasons. Sometimes it's the advertisements, sometimes the obituaries. Sometimes what we want to read may even be the news. I admit that often I read the paper for ideas - an item about architecture, for instance, may ignite a series of associations that results in my finding a handle on an article I've been trying to write about education.

I don't ordinarily read the newspaper in order to stir up jealousy, but it can happen.

Once again, thanks to our dog, my eye caught a book review that I'd missed. There it was, underneath his water bowl, a glowing review of the most recent book of an old friend. And though the review might have been underneath the water bowl, soiled and torn, the review placed this same old friend in the forefront of modern Jewish historiography. Here I am, writing about what I pick up off the floor, and there he is, publishing book after book of significant historical value. Maybe I shouldn't read what I find on the floor. Ignorance is bliss.