I hope you reconsider, Bruce, because your scholarship has been very valuable to me, personally, and (I'm sure) to all of us. I'll still be able to reach you through that other listserve you led me to join (and to which I have yet to make a contribution, although I read it every day), but the rest of the concerned 'Catters will be deprived as a result of your departure. But you must admit that even that very academic listserve group enjoys some friendly banter now and then.

Still, I realize how important this community has become to me in the less that six months I've been here. Perhaps if I were surrounded in "real life" by good friends with whom I could discuss issues of great concern to me, and also share musical experiences and ideas, I would not find the Mudcat Cafe as essential to me as it is.

My wife, who is vision-impaired, gets most of her news from television, and a little from what I can read to her from daily papers and news magazines. When we got home from a lecture the other night, she immediately turned on either CNN, CNBC or MSNBC. I went upstairs and tuned into the Mudcat. She laughed and hollered up the stairs, "You're an addict!" I agreed, and replied, "So are you!"

That made me realize that I was actually lonely for the kind of chat I find here. I find that I also share much of what goes on here with Caroline. We live in a very conservative real-life community; I work at home and have almost no contact with others who live here. We smile and say hello to folks at the grocery store, but our social life is limited to our many folk music friends, and they are scattered around the country. Mudcat has filled a void in my life, and for that I am very grateful.

Sandy