Lesser Feasts

I'm living in the part of the New Town where all the art galleries are. I don't really think of myself as an Art Guy. Painting doesn't typically engage me as readily or as deeply as music does, and I generally walk past the galleries with no more than a quick look at whatever is in the window. But then there's this guy. (There's a better image here .) Every time I walked by the Fine Arts Society, where this painting was hanging in the front window, I stopped in my tracks. I had to take some time to look. Why am I so bewitched by this portrait? I have no idea. But I have to linger. I must go in and have a proper look at some point, I think. More pressing, though, is the desire to check out all the major bookstores. This, of course, is a potentially ruinous exercise. There are a couple of excellent used bookstores in the Grassmarket (an area also noteworthy for the views of Edinburgh Castle from "the other side" and the best gelato in Edinburgh, which is at ...