When the cat’s away, the mouse will play, they say. Or perhaps, in this case, when the mouse goes away, it will develop strange and compulsive habits that the cat would find entirely too amusing for words.

In his time in swanky Dayton, Ohio (arts capital of Montgomery County), Rob has developed a fascination for something called “Dawson’s Creek,” which is broadcast twice a day here. It is not so much a television show as a series of self-involved monologues strung together. I had to laugh at the melodrama . . . until I looked over and saw Rob so enraptured with it that I decided to laugh at him instead.

Who says I’m not a supportive boyfriend?