Scotch hopper

Having established the existence

of this figure last year on this

date, I welcome the freedom to 

recall elements of our play, so

often - as befitted our sharing

of an academic class and the in-

terests it cultivated - conduct-

ed in the surrogacy of words.

A figure of volatile spirit and

irresistible radiance, he manif-

ested the deepest obliviousness

to clothes; and became infamous

for navigating among us in the

broodingestly inapposite shade

of outer coat, which I dubbed

his coat of storms. The laugh

with which he accepted this

tease, the first time he heard

it, led all of us to doubt its

irony; but it was the lever,

the laugh was, that let us see

him better. And this was not

the case with most of us. His

was our acquaintance with that

kind of laughter.

We did play, and gratefully

with words. We would eat fid-

dleferns at the Four Seasons

together, for their coiled wit,

and oysters, too, as everyone

does. On my marriage, his gift 

to me was the entire Oxford 

English Dictionary, pieces

we'd known and hadn't known,

to be there when I need them.

scotch hoppers. A play in

which boys hop over lines

or scotches on the ground.

Samuel Johnson

Dictionary of the

  English Language

op. cit.