Maggie's Farm

Some years ago, I went to a Sargent exhibition in Denver. This exhibition contained a number of his landscapes and water colors. Sargent was a superb water colorist. As I was standing near one of his water colors of Venice, I noticed a familiar-looking man at my elbow, intently studying this work. It was Tony Bennett.

Later, one of the guards told me that Tony Bennett had been to the exhibition several times to study Sargent's water color technique.

I was very fortunate to see my favorite Sargent painting at this exhibition. An interior in Venice.

http://www.henryjames.org.uk/notes/sargent_int_ven.htm

BTW, Roger Kimball (yes that guy from the New Criterion) has an excellent discussion of this painting - The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit - in his art criticism book "The Rape of the Masters." He devotes an entire chapter to it.

Dear Buddy: two questions

#1 A number of years ago, I was reading the Letters to the Editor in the WSJ, print edition. There was a letter from Buddy Larsen, located in XXXXX Texas. Was that THE Buddy Larsen we all know and love?

#2 Did you get a new dog? My two girls are now over a year old. They have ripped wall paper off walls, chewed chair rungs, gnawed on kitchen cupboards and appliances, chewed sheet rock off walls, claimed my red linen wingback chairs in the kitchen (which are now covered in black lab hair, mud and drool). But, you know.....I can't imagine life without these two she-debils who are happily snoring at my feet as I type.

Buddy: congrats on the new grandchild!!! What joy!!!

Having had various black labs for almost 30 years, I do know the drill with new mothers. Heck, I was once one myself.

However, as you know having had four children, you are so careful with the first, and by the time that tag-ender comes along and is crawling on the floor, covered with black fur, and eating out of the dog dish, you think to yourself as the little one is gumming dog crunchies, "well, that's protein - and an great substitute for teething biscuits." And that boy is 17, healthy, 6'3" and still growing. Musta been the dog food.

When I had my first two, barely 18 months apart, it took me several frustrating hours to get us fed, dressed and ready to go. I remember being particularly harried one morning, already late for an appointment, and had just strapped my six-month-old baby in a little baby seat in preparation to take him out to the car. Suddenly, I looked over and he'd spit up all over his clean, darling baby outfit. And just as suddenly, my black lab licked the kid clean. Labs are so cool like that.

Yup, grandpa, afraid you're gonna have to spring for the new carpet and some dog gates until your daughter realizes that your dogs will be the best baby entertainers and baby cleaner-uppers that God has created. Nothing sweeter in life that watching a baby feed a dog Cheerios.

You don't fool me for one minute. By the time the summer rolls around, your house will be awash with high chairs, play pens, wind-up swings, toddler coupes, and every baby toy known to man. Oh, and new carpeting. ;-)

BD: I agree with you about food bowl possessiveness. I would never allow a child near a food bowl of either of my two young Labs.

My other Lab of fifteen years ago was such a gentle soul. My kids could take food out of her mouth, dress her up in doll clothes, and adorn her with funny hats. She wasn't much of a bird hunter, even though she was pure bred Kellogg. However, could that dog retrieve hamsters!!! The kids had hamsters which would regularly escape and she would find them all. She did gum a few baby hamsters to death, but it wasn't intentional. We didn't realize she had them in her mouth and, therefore, didn't say the give command fast enough.

I'll tell ya, if there was ever a season on hamsters, I had THE dog.