If you went to the Jack Spade website, you'd expect to find snappy bags and leather accessories for men. And indeed you'll find those. But click on 'Happenings' and you'll find some things you simply could never have predicted to find.

The most remarkable of these is the reminiscences on video from James Laughlin (1914-1997), poet, as well as publisher of New Directions. Among its many distinctions, New Directions was the first American publisher of Nabokov. Seated with Laughlin is his old friend Brendan Gill of the New Yorker (his birth and death years happen to match Laughlin's), and the two reminisce about the authors they worked with and befriended.

It's just two old fellows talking, but in our YouTube world of cats playing the piano, we find the talk absolutely spellbinding. Watch it here.