Dear Forum:  This has been a weekend of bad news.  First I learn that Kent,
apparently like others in California, doesn't have the decency to step into
a phone booth to change but does it in front of God and all creation.  It
saddens me to think that Shelley is going to have to live among such
degenerates. Second I learn that there are museums devoted to Sam Clemens
that tell something other than the truth.  I am shocked!   We would have
none of that here in Hannibal!
    I'm going down to the museum right now with a genuine note from Mark
Twain's mother I bought off EBay saying Mark can't go to school today
because he has to paint the fence.  I'm sure they'll want to scotchtape an
exhibit together for the boyhood home.  This wasn't written with a
typewriter either, but with a good old-fashioned ballpoint pen.
    It says:
    "Mark can't come to school today.  He has to paint the big old wood
fence outside the house at the museum.
      His mother,  Mrs. Twain."
    I'm sure they'll be selling copies of it at the three gift shops real
soon.  (Classy museums have lots of retail outlets) You guys come buy them,
especially you Mark Twain scholars.  I might sell the original if our dealer
friends will start offering enough -- I will wait to hear from Kevin and
Robert.
    Terrell (tired of being disillusioned) Dempsey