I popped into the bakery to pick up a baguette the other day and two women ahead of me in line were chatting. I couldn’t help overhearing them. Well, technically, I probably could have shut them out, but eavesdropping is not against the law and one could even argue that it’s in the job description of writers everywhere. 

I gather one of the women was an artist of some kind (I’m guessing fabric art) and her creations were beautiful enough to elicit raves from h...