Dear Forum Members:

This past Saturday night (April 24), our John Bird sat onstage with NPR's Peter Sagal, CNN political analyst Amy Holmes, and CBS Sunday Morning's Mo Rocca and participated in a panel discussion, which Sagal moderated, called "Twain's Relevance Today:  Race, Religion, Politics, and the 'Damned Human Race'."

In short, John was magnificent--quantum!  In front of an audience of 1200 college students and community members, John was the glue that held the panel together!  In what could have been a night of just laughs, but no Twain, or a night of only Twain and little current relevance or laughs, John was engaging, informative, insightful, and as funny as Mo Rocca and Peter Sagal.  It was a night that paid true tribute to the genius of MT.

When the semester ends, and I have time to post some of the highlights of the evening on the Twain Lecture Series website (www.smcm.edu/twain) , I will.  In the meantime, please congratulate John on his triumph this past Saturday night.  If the intent of what we are doing in this year of Twain is to keep the man and his works in the American consciousness, then what John and Peter, Amy, and Mo did on Saturday went a long way to that end!  

Thanks, John!

Ben