A Walk in the Park

It's too cold to walk in the park right now, but don't you remember the park? The park where Dr. Theresa and I walk? And there's a trash bin of books there? I mean, a "little free library"? Well, a little while back, we were walking in the park and I found a Julian Barnes novel called ENGLAND, ENGLAND. I don't know why, but I thought he was an odd author to find lying there abandoned in the park like that. This book doesn't have an owl in it, at least not yet, but it does have Jerry Lewis in it. I should note that Julian Barnes works a subtle (?) variation on the hoary idea that the French love Jerry Lewis, which is pretty nervy coming from a guy who wrote a novel called FLAUBERT'S PARROT (which had an owl in it), but the execution was deft and casual, so I decided not to cry about it. FULL DISCLOSURE: I say it's too cold to walk in the park, but Ace and I walked around the neighborhood today.