Cousin Chris, who lives next door to...

Cousin Chris, who lives next door to us, is 84, as dry and wizened as a raisin. Papery-dry palms. Chuckle like brown autumn leaves rubbing edges in a Santa Ana. We’ve never seen him shed a tear. Doesn’t hold with Arrid or any of them things. Doesn’t need to. Has his own Desert Shield somehow, he says (dryly). We call him Cousin Crisp, of course.

Over the years, his world has shriveled, too, down to a hard, dry little egocentric nub. But then for the miracle. Someone mentioned the world’s tropical rain forests, and Cousin Crisp said a naturalist, Arnold Newman, was going to speak on them one evening at the Midnight Special Bookstore in Santa Monica and that he was going to go.

“You are?” we all asked. Except some of us said, “YOU are?”

“What happens in the Brazil rain forests determines what happens in Los Angeles!” Cousin Crisp said with authority. “Weather-wise and everything else. What happens in the rain forests determines what happens in your medicine cabinet, in fact. Half our medicines come from places like that!”

You could have hit each of us over the head with a drumstick.

Newman will speak Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the bookstore, which is at 1350 Third Street Promenade. Information is available at (213) 640-7025.