Howard's Whisker

A few years ago, when my cat Howard’s vet proclaimed that Howard’s whiskers were the longest that she had ever seen, I felt as proud as a parent. For me, this was just one more example of how extraordinary and exceptional a cat that he was.

From that day forward, if I found a whisker that Howard had shed, I taped it to a door as a testament to his talent.  It was a wonderful curiosity that always made me smile.  

Howard came into our lives eleven years ago. While looking to adopt another dog, I got it into my head that it might be nice to have a couple of kittens, too. In order to coordinate with my interior design color scheme,  I wanted a gray cat and a black cat to complement  the two gold colored dogs. 

                          

Emily and her best friend Carolyn were given the honor of name selection.  They decided that the black one would be named Howard, and the gray one would be Simon.  

My mother called Howard “Dennis the Menace”.  He was always getting into mischief of one sort or another.

The years flew by and Emily went off to college at Tulane University in New Orleans.  That was an interesting choice, because her father and I had met when I had an apartment on Tulane Avenue.

Emily missed the animals and telephone conversations with her were frequently about Howard’s latest antics.  When she was home, Howard could always be found in her bed, day or night, and frequently both.

During her junior year at Tulane, Emily chose to study abroad for a semester at University College London.

This was another interesting choice because our home was on Westminster Place in St. Louis.  Who could have foreseen that she would live in the environs of Westminster Abbey one day?  

Emily had been in her London dorm room  for only a few days when she found what was clearly one of Howard’s whiskers.  It was smack-dab in the middle of her bed, on a new white sheet.  Her immediate response was to laugh, and then she taped it to the wall. 

When she told me this story, I marveled at the miracle. She hadn't packed sheets because English bed sizes were different.  Perhaps Howard had slept in her suitcase the night before she left, just as he had slept in her guitar case on occasion. How had the whisker made the transatlantic journey and not been lost? 

Here’s my theory: Howard had never traveled anywhere but to the vet’s office and occasional walks around the neighborhood. Of course, he couldn't accompany Emily on her voyage to London. As the armchair traveler that he probably was in his never-ending naps, he sent one of his whiskers instead.  Cats are known to have a particular sensitivity to the earth’s magnetic field and so are masters of direction. Was Howard trying to help Emily navigate the globe?

Whiskers also help cats determine if their body will fit into tight spaces. It’s as if Howard sent Emily the whisker to help her squeeze into a coach fare seat, 

the small confines of a college dorm room,

 a tight subway,

or crowded street. 

Though Emily had Howard’s whisker, and not Howard himself, I may be stretching things to suggest that she enjoyed the benefits of having an actual cat. But could the whisker represent an old friend and provide companionship? And as cats are known to do, could the whisker help to dispel feelings of loneliness that Emily might experience in her new situation, far from home? 

Emily’s semester abroad was coming to a close.  Her father visited in March, and I visited her in May, when she was done with her coursework and preparing to leave for two weeks in South Africa. 

Just as her father had brought her ski equipment to ski in the Alps, I brought her hiking boots to climb mountains and a wetsuit to surf off the tip of the continent.

Howard’s whisker was not done yet with its duties. It needed to help Emily to navigate to another hemisphere, and then home again.  It did.

Another inscrutable connection occurred a few days after Emily had returned home.  She took a bowl from the kitchen cabinet and exclaimed that it had the logo of University College London! It was a mismatched and random bowl that we’d had for years. Nobody knew where it came from. Most of the time it had been used to feed Howard his dinner  – until I decided he needed an official cat bowl. Then the bowl made its way back into the cabinet.  

Had the bowl predicted Emily’s study-abroad experience years in advance?  How had it traveled from a University College London dining hall to our St. Louis kitchen cabinet? How had Howard’s whisker traveled to a University College London dormitory? The whisker and the UCL bowl!  Are these curious coincidences or magical mysteries only Howard the cat can explain? Perhaps we’ll never know because Howard is always asleep!  But then again, that cannot be – because Howard is Howard and he’s only being himself – always making mischief!

Heathrow Again

Funny, on the heels of describing the excellent Heathrow rest room facilities, and musing on my daughter returning to University College London for graduate school, I came across this youtube that put a smile on my face and brought tears to my eyes.  Yes, I can be very sentimental about the power of music in an environment where it is least expected and all the more needed! One more reason why I need to return to voice lessons so that I can sing that aria when the time is right. 

http://biertijd.com/mediaplayer/?itemid=23835

London is filled with these sorts of musical experiences, which is one of the reasons that I love that city so much!  Well...that and the richness in visual art; the beautiful architecture; the dry sense of humor of so many Londoners; the food (which is good now, thank God); the history; the culture; the fashion; the spontaneity; the "happenings" such as this one on youtube...one could go on and on and on; I never tire of London!

Postcards from London

Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is with great pleasure that I visited my daughter in the great city of London, where she has been a student at University College London since January. I may as well have been on another planet; it is such a marvel of sights, sounds, and sensations, amidst a swarm of humanity. There is never enough time and too many things to do, not to mention one never has enough money! Fortunately, I have visited London before and experienced a good sampling of the various delights and diversions.

Yours truly and my daughter, Emily.

This is an excellent example of how cohesively London blends the old with the new. Beautifully! There is a sensitivity shown on the architect's part in terms of material, color, design and fenestration. I think the new architecture has a lot of individuality, but doesn't compete with its Siamese twin neighbor. What could be hvac, (or havoc) look like flying buttresses! There is a lot of glass, and there is a verticality to the design which echoes Gothic cathedrals.

The Tube: a civilized way for ladies and gentlemen to traverse the city.

Not for those inclined to claustrophobia, the tube is a great adventure into the bowels of London town. Clean, rapid, and economical, they are the most efficient mode of transportation. Now "Mind the gap" when you enter and exit a train, lest you lose a heel!

The pulse of the city is intense yet invigorating. Oh, the humanity! Pop into a pub, however, and be transported back into past centuries. Put back a Pimm's or cider with a plate of chips...oh, the simple pleasures of living in the moment! Time stops, or seems to, until you go back outside!

Time can stop again if you come across a park. The weather cooperated with downright balmy temperatures for several days while I was there. Londoners didn't miss a beat in plopping down in the many parks to read, nap, or lunch.

Night time: there are so many shows to see, so little time! Note the building heights...not a canyon of skyscrapers here and the sky is actually black, too. So much about London is about how a world class city respects its inhabitants by being infinitely livable and civilized. I am already planning my next trip back; one shouldn't stay away too long from the mother country!

London Bridge

So I'll be off to London tomorrow to visit my daughter, who is studying at UCL. We will have adventures together in this great city: visiting art museums, antique malls, and auctions. We'll enjoy the theatre, shopping, and try to do more than time permits. I'll be looking for new art and interior design inspirations in this great old city and bring it all back to share with you.

Winter: Fog Blog

I love the color gray. I have used it often in kitchens, bathrooms, and bedrooms. It is a calm and peaceful color; ever ready to invoke a subtle, sophisticated and steady influence on the cacophony of our lives. I have been asked to do an apartment in Chicago and spent time there this past week. Floor to ceiling windows on the the 10th floor presented a vista of gray, overcast skies. Somehow, intuitively, my client and I decided on a soft gray for the kitchen walls. Being on the far end of the apartment, yet in view of the windows, it seemed the right visual balance for a typical gray Chicago day. The apartment will be alive with plenty of bright colors, so the grey will act as a neutralizing force.

When I returned to St. Louis, a thick blanket of fog had descended. Again, it is the quiet, the muting of color, that I find so magical about fog. The nuances are infinite, as one's vision makes constant adjustments to focus.

Perhaps because I weary of the bombardment of color, I welcome the respite of gray to collect my thoughts. I also like the way that a familiar place can be altered so as to be unrecognizable. It makes the ordinary extraordinary. But be careful: one can easily lose one's way in a thick fog!

St. Louis Country Club

My daughter is now at University College London. She has been there a few weeks and has seen the sun on only two days. Fortunately, she loves the color gray! When I first went to England, I felt I understood why the English enjoy all those riotous colorful floral chintzes.  They need the color to offset the gray!