Everybody in New York is looking for something. Once in a while, somebody finds it.

Catering is the cottage industry of New York. All a caterer needs is a Cuisinart, some pots and pans and a couple of food magazines to start out. They get jobs, though they don't necessarily get repeats.

The many magazines, ranging from pulp to slick, that used to serve as both farm teams for writers and lures to readers, with hundreds of short stories every month, don't exist. Most of the doors for new people have been sealed.

There are too many opportunities in New York. We can't live too far away.

Back then, my air fare on Eastern Airlines to fly from Florida to where Marge was stationed in New York was $16. It was the most important flight I ever made.

I was looking in the back of The New York Times for ads for homes in New Hampshire, and there weren't any, ... but there was this scrunched-up photograph of a supposedly Palladian villa outside of Venice.