If you scroll down to the bottom of all the postings, over in the left hand corner there’s a widget counting down the time before I shuffle off to Buffalo and then, ultimately, to Cambridge. It reminds me of an old song written by the inimitable Shel Silverstein but made famous by Johnny Cash: 25 Minutes To Go. https://youtu.be/LzJhJXuPMEc

I am not, I don’t think, facing the same fate as the poor soul in the song, but there are times I feel like it as I prepare for my journey. Because, dammit all, I have to pack a freaking bag and the question is: How light can I travel? Decisions, decisions, decisions. I think I’ll not take that frilly little black thing, and the heels are out. Underwear? Sure, why not. Throw in a pair or two. Socks, an extra pair of walking shoes, a photograph or two, books, medicine cabinet, Dopp kit.

Dopp kit. Did you ever wonder why a toiletry bag is called a Dopp kit? Since this is a blog purportedly dedicated to searching out the answers to life’s persistent questions, I am going to tell you why a Dopp kit is called a Dopp kit.

From the Word Detective online, I discovered that “the Dopp Kit was first produced by Charles Doppelt, a leather goods designer who immigrated to the U.S. from Germany in the early 1900s. Although it may have been Doppelt’s nephew and employee, Jerome Harris, who actually invented the snazzy leather toiletries case, Doppelt was the boss and so the finished product bore a cropped form of his name, giving us the ‘Dopp Kit.'”

Oh Geez, now I’ve got 22 minutes to go, metaphorically speaking, so I’d best be about my business. As Sam Gamgee’s old duffer was fond of saying, “Job’s soonest finished as soonest begun.” 21 minutes to go.