I Am a Man

I was sitting in the doctor's waiting room reading some more of these ARTHURIAN ROMANCES by Chretien de Troyes. Sir Calogrenant runs across this guy he describes as having "the eyes of an owl and the nose of a cat, jowls split like a wolf's, with the sharp reddish teeth of a boar," and he doesn't mean it in a nice way! But I have to say Calogrenant is the least judgmental knight I've read about so far. The next knight (Yvain) who meets this guy "crosses himself more than a hundred times" in fear and wonder, while Calogrenant's approach is casual and friendly: "Come now, tell me if you are a good creature or not?" And the guy with reddish boar teeth replies very admirably, I think: "I am a man." And then they have a nice conversation. This is my long way of telling you that ARTHURIAN ROMANCES can go on my big long list nobody cares about - not even me - of books with owls in them. THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY has had several more owls in it, at least five or six, but I didn't tell you about them because that's not my job. Hey, later in this story Yvain puts his sword right in another knight's brain. The injured knight "was confused, for never before had he received such a blow that could split his head to his brain." Yes, that can be confusing! I don't care about owls. But here's one I bought at that antique mall with the good used book stall next to Big Bad Breakfast a few days ago.