Hey, Laoise, sorry I missed you -- and Joe and Helen, and especially my own dear friend, Speed-1, who, I am ashamed to say, must wander up and down the cyber-streets crying my name, since I don't have a second phone line yet. Speed-1 has folk-history herself, of the California-60's variety, (and, an aside to Dick Greenhaus: if we are all very nice to her she may come back and help out with editing a contribution or two in Spanish and/or Hebrew).

As it happens, the best of all possible fellows, long-suffering web-widower that he has become, began muttering darkly this evening about bringing an action against The Mudcat for Alienation of Affection. So I bethought me that since it is he that feeds and shelters me, and keeps me warm on winter nights, -- and, to add insult to injury, it's HIS computer I've been keepin' comp'ny with, I'd best be gettin' on about my well-loved, but recently neglected duties as wife. Hope my absence gave everyone else a chance to get a word in.

Like Joe, I'd rather ruminate awhile before I respond, and besides, me auld arthritic fingers type at approximately the same speed as the approach of World Peace, but I'll give it a go if anyone else would like.

With affection,

Shula