the wonderful library of thurber writings and drawings edited by g garrison keiler. he describes in "the admiral on the wheel." when the maid stepped on my glass it is other morning it was the first time they had been broken since the late thomas a. edison's 79th birthday. i remember that day because i was working for a newspaper and i had been assigned to go to west orange that morning and interview mr. edison. i got up early and in reaching for my glasses under the bed where i always put them i found that one of my more sober and reflective scotch terriers was chewing on them. both tortoise shell temples -- the pieces over your ears -- had been eaten and she was toying with the lenses in a jaded way. it was in going over to jersey that day that i realized that the disadvantages of defective vision, bad eyesight, are at least partly compensated for by its advantages. up to that time i had been in