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In the “Just So Stories” Rudyard Kipling tells how the dog, the horse, and the cow became friends with the first people.  But the cat refused to bargain with the first people and instead tricked the first woman into accepting him on his own terms.  By so doing he remained “The cat who walks by himself and all places are alike to me.”

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I take my camera whenever I travel (alas, less frequently that I would like).  It occurs to me that if you stay away from the monuments — the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, the Empire State Building …. — that cities and the people in them do look a lot alike.

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I don’t really believe that. The light in Paris is different from that in any other city I have seen.  The policeman with the checkered band around his cap isn’t from Chicago.  The little girl running down the steep, cobblestone street isn’t in Omaha — could be Seattle though except for the laid-stone wall.  But it’s a good line and true enough to be a nifty title for a portfolio.