Umm, gee thanks -- I wonder which character out of a Dickens novel I fit (this is in the nature of a pre-emptive strike before I get nuked) -- besides Miss Havisham (time I cleaned out those closets) or the Convict in Great Expectations (get that file, kid!!!)? On bad days: the dithering cad Eugene Rayburn (anyone who has missed the first two episodes of Our Mutual Friend on American PBS has missed something -- the last episode of the series, like the last episode of the book, is a big disappointment), on worse days: Bradley Headstone (the lost murderer).

Actually the truth is, my life is incredibly mundane, and like a lot of people on the Net, I thrive on the space for a little reflection and distance that is provided by this format. As someone once said, we ought to get the chance to edit our lives as we go. I am pretty boring to meet in public (I have many, many witnesses to this!)

Anyway, I have been very lucky, and I know it. One of the best luck days was when I read James Joyce -- it happened at the right moment, and gave me something a lot of people don't get -- the experience over a number of years of wrestling with someone else's world view, someone of genius who I loved. It is what I tell my best students: find someone out there whose writings or art or music you love, and learn everything you can about it, and get into that person. Jane Austen or Bill Monroe or Pablo Picasso. Whatever. There is nothing better, I think. Tagging along, immersing yourself in a great mind: and we get to do that with books, art, music. Think of how amazing that is -- and how seldom we take the opportunity. I do it much less than I did -- but can you imagine how much one would spend to sit down for a day with John Milton? Open up Paradise Lost -- 99c on a remainder table yesterday morning in the BOOKBLAST store on the way to work -- and there he is.
Another good luck day was when I stumbled on the Mudcat. Another good luck day was when I met blooming Bonnie. Another good luck day will be when I meet you, annap. And another Good Luck DAY IS THIS SUNDAY IN TORONTO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!