With Starbucks a close second, my adopted retail home may be Hudson News. I have no idea if Hudson exists outside of train stations and airports. It isn’t a glamorous hang-out choice but thank goodness for Hudson! It nourishes my Blistex/Listerine Pocketpaks/nailclipper (any brand although I find myself most often buying Revlon just because it is there) fixation. My triumvirate of pocket items. Immediately upon discovery I begin a downward spiral of withdrawal symptoms progressing from irritation to frustration to paranoia to self-mutilation. I do not exaggerate about that last part. One of the occupational hazards about being a violinist who plays hours each day is the build-up of callouses on the left-hand fingertips. After a week or so these callouses become so thick that it becomes more difficult for me to feel the string, causing me to press harder down on the fingerboard with those fingers. Pressing harder is bad. So once a week I end up carefully peeling the top layer of these callouses with a nailclipper. If there is no nailclipper the job is done by hand and…it’s akin to doing micro-surgery with a saw. Sorry for the grotesque image. The music may be beautiful but the vehicle for that music doesn’t have to be.

Over the years Hudson has given me Advil, Halls, Tums, Imodium, the beverage of the day, M&Ms, Sudoku, neck pillows, every major newspaper, Sports Illustrated, Baseball Weekly, Tom Clancy. No serious reading on airplanes.

A nailclipper is missing from my pocket. Time for a pre-boarding shopping trip.