I'm not a Twain scholar either - just a Twain enthusiast. Looking over the messages from the past few days, I can't help but wonder what Twain would say if we could magically transport him to our world. May it would go something like this:

"I see that Professor Gribben has succeeded in improving my book so that people will not be offended when they read it. I will grant that the professor did this project with the best of intentions - just as the Good Lord did when he created black widow spiders, electric eels, cobras, mosquitoes and the Human Race. The professor thinks that the Human Race has evolved into something more genteel than what we had in the 19th century. If he feels that way, he should spend some time watching the news. If your modern humans must be protected from my book, who is to protect them from seeing the misadventures of Mel Gibson and Lindsey Lohan? What a world you have created here - it goes far beyond anything I could have ever predicted, but it must be protected. Congress should pass laws. People should Tweet about this. Look around you - America needs me more than ever. Today's youth can read Huck Lite and come away with the idea that slavery was a darned bad thing and we were better off without it. Maybe that's enough for a nation where 50 percent of the population believes that the world is six thousand years old in the face of all scientific knowledge to the contrary. I must go now - I'm catching up on American Idol."

Terry Ballard
Assistant Director of Technical Services for Library Systems
New York Law School, Mendik Library
185 W. Broadway
New York, NY, 10013
Telephone: 212-431-2106
Web: www.terryballard.org
Blog: librariansonedge.blogspot.com
Tweets: twitter.com/terryballard