Chronicle of a boat foretold

I was a hard nut to crack, but this blossoming of interest in boatbuilding came from my husband. As if the "White men" coincidence is not enough, get this: During the first year that we were married, Cary started to build a boat called the Stuart Little. He didn't get very far on it, but he must have sown the seed that is now sprouting as the Nutshell Pram.

My bedtime reading right now includes a library book called "A unit of water, a unit of time: Joel White's last boat," by Douglas Whynott. Why not, indeed? If you love White men, you must read it.

A tangential coincidence: On the back cover of "A unit of water," there is a two-sentence review by Tracy Kidder. When I got home from the library, among the stack of books I had checked out with "A unit of water" was a book by Tracy Kidder. I've never even heard of him, then twice in one trip to the library, there he was, waving his arms at me.