Folks;

I'm a bit surprised nobody has mentioned the ALA meetings last week in San
Francisco, so I'll take a moment.  Great seeing so many friends, first of
all.  Second, I was impressed with the panels.  It's great to see so many
younger scholars all jazzed up about Twain, such as Kara Johnson at
Northwestern.  The papers on MT & Money, part of a forthcoming book project
(ed. Harry Wonham), were really interesting.

But the highlight was probably the renditions of "1601" & the "Science of
Onanism":  followed by a surprisingly sober discussion and analysis of the
pieces, especially in terms of their place in historical accounts of MT --
which was then followed by a MTC happy hour; which was then followed by an
amazing 9-course dinner at one of Chinatown's top restaurants.  I'm still
dreaming of the prawns, crab, and fish dishes that were serves; and I want
to acknowledge publicly John Bird and his lovely wife of 35 years, for
planning and arranging that wonderful evening.

The other moment to note is that at that dinner, Vic Fischer was publicly
acknowledged by a grateful company of folks for his outstanding service
over many years to the MT community of scholars.  Thanks for all your hard
work, Vic!!

I'd be curious to hear anyone else's thoughts on the conference, --hb

-- 
Prof. Harold K. Bush
Professor of English
3800 Lindell
Saint Louis University
St. Louis, MO  63108
314-977-3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h)
<www.slu.edu/x23809.xml>