Fun among the phonies

IT AMUSES AN OLD CODGER LIKE ME to see youngsters spend three weeks visiting three towns in the whole of mighty Russia, and come back with everything neatly parcelled and tied up. At that age I was equally bumptious, of course, but the older I get the less cocksure I am of anything. As dear old B. used to say (Shaw not Russell): ‘It takes eighty years to acquire wisdom—and then it's too late to apply it.’ Pity; because at sixty‐five I feel I'm just beginning to cut my wisdom teeth; and nobody particularly wants me.