Greetings and salubrications,

I sit here in Red River Valley (of the North) probably the flattest large inhabited place in the world. My home is Fargo, North Dakota. I lived from birth through the end of graduate school in Wisconsin, spent 5 years in North Carolina and been in Fargo since. Yesterday was a lovely autumn day with rain, temperature around 40 degrees Fahrenheit and a north wind around 30 mph (50 km), but the mosquitoes are gone. I have been a "folky" since the late 50's, so I guess that now makes me an old folky. I love to play and sing, but the opportunities here are too few. I am a self taught guitar player and my teacher was really not very good. So to paraphrase Phil Ochs, my guitar playing wouldn't suffer much if my hands were webbed. I am borderline cumpulsive about collecting folk music especially from North America in recorded and printed form. The result is I can sometimes pull obscure lyrics out of nowhere and more often have no clue what I actually have. I am another one of them gummint employees. With a degree in molecular biology from Univ Wisconsin, I now do insect DNA research for the US Dept. of Agriculture. I have occasionally stooped to the level of introducing puns into my posts, but that is probably a cry for help or a sign that I need help. The M-Cat is every bit as exciting as a three day blizzard.

rich r (Rich Roehrdanz)