John, it's good to know that I'm not the only living soul who's read Bruce Buckley's dissertation. I knew that would come in handy some day! What you say about it squares well with my recollection -another plus!

As you can tell, I'm fascinated by the whole John Henry story and by your new research and discoveries. At this point, I'm going to try to dig up a copy of your article (you didn't say it was online, did you?)before I comment further. There may be a point here where "coincidence" begins to ring hollow and the burden of proof falls on us skeptics, but I'm not at all sure it's been reached yet. ; )