Some of the things in my life have been with me for a long time. This struck me when I was using an old metal colander in the kitchen. It’s bent and battered, and the handles are slightly rusty. I could buy a brilliant new stainless steel colander for about $40. But the old one works perfectly, and I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have it. Several of my favorite cooking implements are similarly ancient: an old iron skillet that you can only lift when wearing a back brace, some chipped enameled saucepans, and a couple of blunt chef’s knives. I’m surrounded by things so familiar that they seem to have been here forever. My desk is a treasure trove of historic pens and pencils, rulers, dried up ink bottles, spectacles prescribed for a much younger man, and business cards dating back to the 1960s. I keep a 1939 vintage manual typewriter in case of power cuts, and an old filing cabinet that is built like an armored truck, and will obviously last until the next millennium. The cabinets