So my maternal grandfather Emmanuel Pierre Menager was something of a coyote trickster — an itinerant artist, a womanizer (an occasional bigamist), but a rather magical person when he showed up at our house. Though I suspect my parents — especially my father was less than pleased (despite the fact that Pierre was an amazing cook). Pierre always needed money — and even though they were broke graduate students, my parents always sent some. Here is a photo of my brother and me with Pierre during an early visit to California. My parents must have mailed or given him the photo. And he mailed it back with a short message — an address and an amount. (And yeah…that would be me up there rocking the pigtails at about two years old.)