Minutia
I believe that the sorry state of the towel rack was due to its tempting position by a sitting-place. Someone sitting or standing in that cramped space would be naturally inclined to use the towel rack as a handle. And if that person were at all heavy, all the more damaging to the wall.
Cat boy is still mainly under the bed.
I know what a hoopoe is now. And I’m delighted to see that “Master and Commander” stars someone named not Jack Aubrey, as the vulgarly familiar press would have it, but John Aubrey. I sometimes forget that Jack = John. The moral is, you can’t always escape your obsessions with a sea yarn.