Ditherers All

Our prospective trip to Houston over Columbus Day Weekend is off.

While Andrew and I were in Minnesota over Labor Day Weekend, Andrew’s parents and Andrew and I had talked about traveling to Houston that particular weekend in order to see the two German Impressionism exhibitions at Houston’s Museum Of Fine Arts. We had planned to make a decision whether to travel to Houston in the two weeks following Labor Day.

We were delayed in making a decision—apparently, we are ditherers—and a decision was not reached until tonight.

Our decision is not to go to Houston.

Other than visiting the Houston Museum Of Fine Arts, we could find nothing in Houston that interested us that weekend—and we decided that it was not worth traveling to Houston from Boston and Minneapolis solely to visit an art museum, no matter how much we wanted to see the German Impressionism exhibitions.

From what we have been able to ascertain, the only review of the German Impressionism exhibitions in Houston has been the review that appeared in The Houston Chronicle. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have not covered the exhibitions, a startling oversight, and neither have any other American newspapers (even the newspapers in Austin and Dallas failed to send their art writers to Houston to write about this historic event).

When the German Impressionism exhibitions now on display in Houston were on view in Cologne earlier this year, virtually every newspaper in Europe covered the exhibitions in detail. The art press in the United States, however, is virtually ignoring the event—and Andrew insists that this is because American art writers are simply ignorant about German art.

It is possible that we may yet try to find a different weekend to make a quick trip down to Houston in order to attend the exhibitions, but that eventuality is, admittedly, very unlikely.

Unlike last year, there will be no classes on Columbus Day this year at law school, and Andrew and I would like to take advantage of the situation and go somewhere that weekend.

We are in the process—right this very minute—of looking at things to do and see that particular weekend in Cincinnati, Detroit and Pittsburgh. We chose those three cities because they are roughly midway between Boston and Minneapolis, and should have good flight connections for Andrew’s parents and for Andrew and me.

We no longer have the luxury of dithering, and must make a decision in the next 24 or 48 hours.

Andrew’s parents and Andrew and I are not the only ditherers on the planet.

There are some persons down in Oklahoma and Texas who need to decide—and decide without too much additional delay—whether this year’s Thanksgiving celebrations will be held in Oklahoma or Dallas.

Persons in Boston and Nashville need to book flights—and airlines, for some reason, are somewhat persnickety about allowing travelers to book flights when those very same travelers do not know their final destinations.