catalogs received today: lamy, anthropologie, peter lang, pottery barn, la redoute. anne fadiman said that her husband, well aware of her compulsion to read all and any catalogues , would, whenever she had a deadline, go surreptitiously to the mailbox and clear out all the dangerous items. i feel sure that that's the kind of person i need in my life, a human mail filter who would act as the last line of defence against mail distractions.