The start of the 90s meant a move here: 2000 Penn in Washington DC, where I was a national correspondent and columnist for the Newhouse News Service under the tutelage of the marvellous editrix Deborah Howell. I wasn't enthused about DC living; the city had great beauty, yes, but it had so much urban decreptitude. This fountain never worked.

You got to meet all sorts of interesting people. Or should I say "meat"? Ha ha! These pictures were taken at the Toy Fair in New York, which I covered every year. For some reason I decided to look completely bored in every one of them, as if to show how the exitement of licensed characters was not as contagious as everyone insisted.

That was a cowboy from Moo Mesa. I think. Googling . . . yes.

But sometimes a little enthusiasm was easier to produce . . .