I have been browsing once again in _The Impossible H. L. Mencken_, a fat collection of his journalism as it originally appeared. Aside from the continuing joys of escape to the follies of yesteryear, this book offers the amusing opportunity to compare some of his well-known work as it appeared in the newspapers and as he revised & expanded it for book publication. His classic obituary on Valentino is a good example -- each version has its charms. It is also interesting that the wonderful section in "The Sahara of the Bozart" in which he explains why southern blacks are racially superior to southern whites (which inspired some legislators to make speeches advocating his lynching) was not in the original.