Did stuff go wrong? Oh hell yes, as in any and all human endeavors, especially when a lot of those humans are smart, creative, high-energy people.

This one was revelatory and confirming, and slap-your-forehead funny.

The article's dated 8/8/88, when we had been working with Chris for years. (We were then finishing the house while living in it, having run out of money before there were inner doors, second-floor flooring, or a real kitchen.)

Over the years, I'd read everything I could find by or about Chris, the better to work with him. And we suspected that we existed on his radar simply as The Clients, one needing spaces to be very high because he was 6'5", the other a bit of a pain because she had too many opinions about the house.

Chris was checking in every once in a while, tying up loose ends, and in one of his phone calls late that summer he said that he'd been in his dentist's waiting room and picked up a copy of TIME, opening it to this full page. There was astonishment in his voice. "What is it that you two do?"

He hadn't bothered to find out in all those years, and it sounded like he hadn't read the TIME article either. He just reacted to the photo and the prominence of the article.

Well, you know, some of us are deeply absorbed in our own worlds and find it hard to imagine there even are others. His quest for beauty was all-consuming. And we were way on the periphery of his embattled path.

More glitches on the way. The Great Homosote Battle next.