Fellow Twaniacs -- I am compelled to respond on two points. Hitchens gets an awful lot of mileage from his image as a hardworking contrarian; he was one of the few people to publicly question the worship of both Princess Diana and Mother Teresa. But his tossing about of, to me at least, Cooperian-sized words from a brain that's not as large as he fancies it to be indicates he's like a boy with a BB gun. If it's remotely sacred, he's going to take aim and shoot. He wants to be rewarded for trying, even if he misses. And who the blazes is Hitchens to make up the rules for what a biography ought to be? I read his stuff devotedly and more often than not agree with him, but in this case he just gives new depth to the term "twee Brit chowderhead." The nifty thing is, though, I suspect Sam would have loved to have gone head-to-head with Hitchens. He'd have made coleslaw, at least, out of him, if not turkey hash. Belated happy 168th to Sam'l! (I put my flag out Sunday, and my nice but rather nosy neighbor said, "It's not a holiday!" To which I countered, it's Mark Twain's birthday, so it ought to be.) Kathy O'Connell Record-Journal Meriden, Conn.