Happy New Year everyone. It's actually New Year's Eve at 647 PM. I didn't actually know it was

New Year's until around 4 o'clock this afternoon.

So there's, I'm not a big New Year's person.

But I'm cleaning as a sort of ritual New Year's thing,

but also because I'm listening to foreigner.

And then suddenly, as I'm cleaning, I remembered Grant Owen.

And then I thought I wanted to, before the year is out, I wanted to share Grant Owen with you once again tonight.

And I want to thank you for being such good company for a lot of years.

Thank you for listening to the show and coming along with me on it.

Okay, here is Grant Owen. I really, really love stuffed animals.

They're sort of like family.

And I was afraid today that some of them were going to get took in,

but none of them did so far, and I hope not.

That's Grant Owen. I met him in Newport, Vermont right before the pandemic hit.

He was an exhibitor at the annual Collectors Fair put on by the Old Stone Museum in Brownington.

People bring their collections to share with the public, ladybugs,

yardsticks, Pez dispensers, and Grant was there with a table covered and stuffed animals.

Right after the fair, the stay-at-home order started, but I couldn't stop thinking

about Grant Owen, sheltering in place with a room full of stuffed animals, which for him

are a big extended family. In fact, they're real.

Kids know how to turn objects into living things. It's like magic.

In a strange way, Grant Owen seemed like the perfect antidote to all the COVID-19 news.

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