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