I second Terry Ballard's sentiments regarding the Mark Twain award, which
just seems to perpetuate the perception of Twain as a "mere humorist."  The
recipients are all deserving of recognition for their comedic talents, no
doubt about it, but these are, after all, mere humorists.  To put this in
proper perspective, but for Twain, how many of y'all out there would have
any recall of Artemus Ward, Petroleum V. Nasby, Josh Billings or, my
personal favorite, Orpheus C. Kerr (office-seeker)?  Think about it.

Martin Zehr
Kansas City, Missouri