Parisian Phoenix Publishing

I have lived and worked in the Easton area for the last 25+ years. Between that and the fact that my only child will turn 20 in 2024 reminds me almost daily of how old I am getting.

One of the people I met in my early days of Easton life– and coincidentally at the same time when that baby was born– was Joe Frinzi, when we both worked at The National Building which turned out to be a hopping place. The Easton Bureau of The Morning Call was on the first floor, and the daily newspaper had leased offices on the fourth floor for the staff of their weekly operations in Northampton County, Chronicle Newspapers (in our office that included me for Phillipsburg, N.J.; one full-time and part-time reporter each for Easton, Bethlehem and Slate Belt; one part-time sports reporter; two editors; one full-time photographer and one office assistant.

Joe, at the time, was a film critic for a local good news weekly/arts newspaper, The Easton Irregular. I’ve run into him frequently in subsequent years, often at art or literary events, including last spring’s Lehigh Valley Space Fest (more info about that here) and last month’s (you can probably guess) Easton Book Festival. He’s on the far right in the photo, wearing his trademark hat.

Joe invited me to catch up and indicated that a certain feline companion of his might be itching to meet me. Now, Kafka the Kat is a well-known face in the downtown Easton community and he even has a published memoir, My Life with a Human. That book is available via Amazon, here.

Upon our meeting, Kafka gave me an aloof but interested stare as he stretched and rose from his box. He sauntered over and sniffed my fingers, but quickly turned his attention to my business journal, where our household resident and also foster cats love to sit and make their presence known when I am working.

This easily opened the way for me at ask Kafka if he might considering contributing to the Parisian Phoenix Cat Book, a project that has gotten waylaid in our rapid release patterns of 2022 and 2023. Kafka has suggested that if I maintain my worthiness and keep my nose clean he may be swayed to do a little something should that project revive in 2024.

And we all know that a cat is the best task master.

(And Joe and I had a great time together, too. We exchanged some books and promised to speak again soon.)