Using the model of President's day, perhaps November 30 could be
celebrated as "Author's Day." Lift a glass to Twain, Emerson, Poe,
Crane, and even a few newcomers like Hemingway and Steinbeck. This will
help take away the bad taste in my mouth that developed on Thanksgiving
when I saw the float for "The Princess and the Pauper," starring that
lovable iconess Barbie. Anybody else hear a scraping sound coming from
upstate New York?
In the immortal words of Chumbawamba, "We're dumbing down, dumb de dumb
dumb."

Terry Ballard
Quinnipiac University