He lately sports a look known as Goth, the most outre aspect of which is, in his case, black nail polish. Really serious Goths, who wear black clothing and spectral makeup, are known as gloomies, or so Owen tells me. He's not one of them.

What's the time? / Nearly a quarter of three.

Though I was bat mitzvah’d, my parents always made it clear that they weren’t big proponents of organized religion either. But being Jewish was still woven into the fabric of my upbringing with rituals, family history and core values.

He had his Zeiss glasses in his hand. I focused it before it got over the trees, said he.