To my loyal readers who prefer to click on a post with photographs of humans, let me urge you to stay a moment, and look again. Because indeed a human is hidden in the image above. He is there amongst the stacks of titles. Those are his books, you see, and his daughter, my friend Alice, has turned her dining room table into a living library in his memory. 

I remember the day I glanced at Alice's dining room and came to the easy conclusion that the space is stunning: the antique carved Spanish furniture, the gorgeously colored wallpaper, the wrought iron Rococo chandelier, the sunny window seat -- a favored perch of Alice's trio of dogs who keeps watch over the comings and goings of her large family.