Marc--

As you know yourself, 20 cigarettes per day is no feat.  But the
diminutive suffix "ette" makes all the difference.   A five-minute
Marlboro bears no comparison to the size of stogey, cheap or dear, that
graces Twain's hand in many pictures.  Those are long, slow smokes.

I raised my query to smoke out the source of Andy Hoffman's data before he
embarks on his upcoming book tour.  His answer confirms what I had
suspected.  Twain's admission of having cut down his smoking to 4 from 40
chimes with the sort of alliterative ring that would deter most readers
from taking it as a reliable fact.

I see now that his companion report on about SLC's interest in
astronomy has raised some doubt.  He has clearly done his research, but
I'm curious about the conclusions he draws from his sources.  Who's doing
the inventing in the book titled _Inventing Mark Twain_?

I await with interest the Forum's review of Andy's book.


--Larry Howe