O Rare Sam Johnson (with apologies to Ben)

I'm a bit behind on some of the news (what with the whole Karl Rove / Alberto Gonzales thing going on), so today I learned that earlier this month some nutjob took a hammer to Joshua Reynolds's portrait of Dr. Johnson at the National Portrait Gallery (you can read The Guardian's story here, and Peter Stothard of the TLS 'blogs about it here).


The portrait, apparently, can be repaired.

I've no comments to add, no laments to shriek. I'm simply saddened.

Added: I've just discovered a notice about Dr. Johnson's cat, Hodge, here. I didn't realize the man's pet was a celebrity, but there you go.