Talk Stories by Jamaica Kincaid Page B

weather, and it was raining), we went to a great party for J. Barney Ferguson, who was this year’s Grand Marshal for this year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Here are some of the things that made it great: It was held in a really big room, and this really big room was filled up, mostly, with big, flush-faced gentlemen, not one of them wearing a leisure suit, and all of them holding a glass of whiskey and telling each other what sounded, from the laughs, like really funny jokes; the real name of the guest of honor, J. Barney Ferguson, is James Bernard Ferguson, and he is a policeman, in homicide; we saw two priests in the room, and, except for their priests’ clothes, they were just as flush-faced and just as jovial as the other gentlemen. J. Barney Ferguson wore a gray pin-striped suit, a white shirt, and a green-and-gold striped tie. He has a good grip of a handshake and a big smile. We liked him, and so did all the other people in the room. They all went up to him, exchanged anecdotes with him, and told him jokes. He laughed a lot. Then a number of
these people lined up to have their picture taken with J. Barney Ferguson. Patrick Cunningham, Bronx County Democratic Chairman, had his picture taken with J. Barney Ferguson; the editor Dennis Flanagan had his picture taken with J. Barney Ferguson; Monsignor Jack Barry, who is a monsignor with the Police Department, had his picture taken with J. Barney Ferguson; Michael Maye, the former president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, had his picture taken with J. Barney Ferguson (Michael Maye was wearing the best loud jacket of any loud jacket we have ever seen—it was red-and-gray big plaid); William Twomey, an inspector with the City Department of Consumer Affairs, had his picture taken with J. Barney Ferguson; two people from Rumm’s, a tavern in Manhattan, had their picture taken with J. Barney Ferguson; Jerry Fitzgerald, a policeman and J. Barney Ferguson’s partner on the squad, had his picture taken with J. Barney Ferguson; Denis Carey, of the Red Blazer Pub, had his picture taken with J. Barney Ferguson; John Keenan, New York State’s Special Prosecutor, had his picture taken with J. Barney Ferguson; and John and William Ferguson, foremen with the New York City Highway Department and J. Barney Ferguson’s brothers, had their picture taken with J. Barney Ferguson. This was a five-to-seven party, and at around half past six people started to make speeches about what a great man J. Barney Ferguson really is. Then they gave him, as a token of their appreciation, a beautiful walking stick. This seemed like a good idea and a good gift, because J. Barney Ferguson has three broken bones in his back. It happened last year while he was chasing a murder suspect.
    â€” March 27, 1978

Dinosaurs
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    This is one of the nicest things to do in New York on a Sunday afternoon: Have a good late breakfast (something like a bowl of porridge, some scrambled eggs, some smoked herring, toast with raspberry jam would be just fine), and then put on some comfortable clothes and some comfortable shoes and go over to the American Museum of Natural History. If there are children in your family, by all means take them along. While you are there, don’t miss the redwood-tree exhibit in the Hall of North American Forests, the worm exhibit in the Hall of the Biology of Invertebrates, the early-man exhibit in the Hall of the Biology of Man, the Mbuti Pygmies of the Ituri Forest in the Hall of Man in Africa, and the bird-watching exhibit in the Akeley Gallery. This is just what we did on a recent Sunday afternoon. We saw all the things we liked best and then a few of the things that are interesting anyway. It was while we were looking at a few of the things that are interesting anyway that we came across, in progress, a lecture on dinosaurs.
The lecture was being given by Sidney Horenstein, a paleontologist on the museum’s staff, and was sponsored