The Fifth Course

The mandolin is the perfect travel instrument. My mandolin, in a hard shell case, has fit in the overhead compartments of every puddle-jumper into which I have had the pleasure of folding myself. Occasionally a zealous gate agent will attempt to tag my case for gate-check for the short flights. When that happens I have been able to put off the green-tagger by saying, “It’ll fit,” or “This needs to come with me -if you need to check something take the backpack.”

The size also allows ...