Nero Wolfe: A Family Affair and Please Pass the Guilt

The only thing I had against him was his buttoned-down shirt collar. A man who hates loose flaps so much that he buttons down his collar should also button down his ears.

“I have told you a dozen times, sarcasm is the most futile of weapons. It doesn’t cut, it merely bounces off."

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every pet's a recorder critic

Rowan hasn't hidden or thumped at the recorder again since that first day, but a couple of days ago Japp kept cautiously sneaking up to a foot or so away from my foot and staring and sniffing the air while I was playing.

The last half a week or so Snookums hasn't reacted, but yesterday he calmly left the room and went to sleep in the kitchen, which is the furthest away he can go without entering the construction zone side. The BB, possibly because she wanted a lap or some attention and possibly because of her feelings about music, trotted over to me with a peremptory little mew, then jumped up in my lap and spent a long time turning around and making herself comfortable multiple times, in multiple positions, purring violently and demandingly the whole time while I played. Then she moved on to reaching up and grabbing my shirt, and finally to craning over and gently nipping my hands while I was playing, so for a while there I was moving around to get away from her. I was nearly in tears of laughter after this and it would have been very hard to continue practicing, so fortunately she got bored of it a little later and went off to have a snack.