Allow Me to Explain

Here is something Witold Gombrowicz writes in his diary: "A man on a horse is as weird as a rat riding a rooster, a chicken riding a camel, a monkey riding a cow, or a dog riding a buffalo." Got it? All right. Now. Surely you are familiar with the 19 mighty "blog"trospectives that form the pillars of our great work for humankind. Some of them are updated frequently... I think of the one on sandwiches, the one on movies, and, especially, of our big long list of books with owls in them. Others languish. Hardly ever do I have occasion to make a new entry in "Feeding a Possum." Another one that lies there withered and forgotten, much like its author, me, is "Monkeys Riding Dogs." You may ask yourself, "Does Gombrowicz mention monkeys riding dogs?" No. But monkeys and dogs are pretty close together in that sentence. And if he had kept thinking about it, he would have made it to monkeys riding dogs. Why he distinguishes between a rooster and a chicken rather than, say, having a rat riding a parrot or an owl riding a camel, is a question for a future date.