A month or two ago, Lauren and I were having coffee with Dan Crowe, the editor of Butterfly, in Café Rico just outside the main gate of our building on Westbourne Grove. It was a nice, sunny day. Our neighbors, Lesley and Brian, another American couple stranded in London, came out of the gate. We hailed them to our table. Dan and Brian started talking, and they soon found a point of contact: Brian was about to have a book published, and Dan wanted him to write his own review, a regular feature in Butterfly. Brian agreed, but never actually delivered. Dan sent me an electronic-mail message yesterday morning and asked me for Brian’s address and phone number. However, he had forgotten Brian’s name, and so he referred to him as “the man with the teeth.” I am laughing as I am writing this down. Ever since yesterday, when I first read Dan’s message, I have been bursting into laughter whenever I would remember “the man with the teeth.” The description is just perfect. Dan has a way with words. Anyone who has ever met Brian would find the description just perfect.

Addendum (January 13, 2000)

Anyone who has ever fucked Brian’s wife would find this description even funnier, of course. There must be quite a bunch of us out there, for Lesley is rather eager to satisfy her kinky husband’s sexual desires.