Essays on encountering illegal border-crossers in south Texas, searching for the perfect, the Platonic nature handbook, the joys of flying small planes and the effect of the Grand Canyon airliner collision on a young would-be flyer, learning ancient Greek at the Downtown Y and gym-watching in general, taking a mind's-eye tour of Paris's terrace cafes and their literary associations after the 2015 terrorist attack there, and a dozen other topics.