Long before Ron Weasley's pet rat, Scabbers, turned out to be Wormtail in disguise, I harbored the secret fear that my dog was some sort of shapeshifting human sent to spy on me, reporting my doings to some sinister entity. For that reason, I would never let her see me naked, and I always made sure I washed my hands after going to the bathroom when she was looking.

Thankfully, that delusion is shattered when she does things like lick fresh pigeon poop off the sidewalk, as she did yesterday. Yum!

*

Two days ago, Rob took me, Joe, and our friend Patty to see 42nd Street on Broadway, which was silly but enjoyable enough. Receiving top billing was Tom Wopat, a.k.a. Luke Duke, a.k.a. the guy I had a major crush on in the early 1980s (more even than Larry Wilcox, who played Jon on "CHIPs," and that is saying something). And there he was, twenty feet away, dancing, singing, and spraying saliva across the stage in a fine mist.

Another childhood dream shattered.