Last year when I was looking for a room I met some very unusual types. One was a man who maintained (not implausibly) that the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire had been the indirect cause of all the catastrophes of the twentieth century. His sitting room was a shrine to Austria-Hungary. (I'm sure you can picture it.)

One woman's e-mail username was something like "peregrinefalcon." "Are you fond of falcons?" I asked. "Yes, I am. In fact, I'm a falconer." I gaped. Falconers still exist?! In New York City?! She explained that falcons are the best way to scare away small birds at the airport. I couldn't help picturing her in medieval or Renaissance garb, and to imagine her like that, with her big glove and her falcon, in the bleak landscape of an airport — it's too much.