On the cheap

The younger daughter is on Spring break and she was expressing wishes to travel, or Go Someplace. Like Las Vegas or New York. I told her that if she could bestir herself to be ready by noon, I would take her out. And so we stumbled off to the Baltimore Museum of Art, which is supposed to be free, but the featured show cost 8 dollars each.  That's not really prominent on their advertising. I felt that it was a cruel bait and switch. And the place is heavily staffed by anemic looking hippies in black suits and badges who clear their throats when you get too close to an art. So we didn't sneak in through the back of the fee-for-exhibit, but went to the permanent collections. Today my favorite was a modern gilded plinth made of white marble whose edges were so blunted that with the gold leaf it looked like a giant cosmetic case. I tried to look more closely at its surface but set off an alarm. There were new acquisitions as well as some of my old friends and I enjoyed describing my take on them to the tot. We phoned an order to a take-out on the way home rather than sit at a linen covered table at the museum's upscale cafe...