I finally sorted myself out and realize that Kevin is our administrator. But I appreciate you telling us what you know he goes through. I earnestly hope we can help improve his experience. To start: I apologize for my "bullying" remark. Maybe it is my age, but I had a school marmish reaction sometimes wanting to say "Boys, boys...." This has forced me to a bout of introspection which brings me to this realization.: I found fault with fault finders. I've hated haters. I'm prejudiced against prejudiced people. I'm bigoted about bigots. I've noticed this before that I can commit the act I might condemn. My apology is sincere. I hope I've learned something about my own behaviour and will do better. (My favorite saying is "Nobody's Perfect" and I apparently live to prove the point.) My interest in Mark Twain started while I was at St.John's College, the so-called Great Books school in Annapolis, Maryland. I parfticipated in a demonstration seminar for some group in Washington, DC, with students from each of the four years. The book we read and discussed was Huckleberry Finn and I remember being shocked that it could ever be considered a children's book. My favorite part, of course, was his choice to do wrong and not turn Jim in. I agreed thjat it was a Great Book, of course. I'm in my anecdotage, so forgive me if I wander on my way to my point; which is that I thought about the St.John's program built around seminars twice a week on the books we read. We addressed each other formally: Mr. & Miss & Ms. I can't remember any occasion when we criticized another instead of the ideas expressed. Differences of opinion or insights were freely expressed and offense was never taken. I'm speaking of the obvious, already mentioned by others . If we just tried very hard to never resort to personal attacks, we could continue to enjoy the wonderful exchanges I've seen so often here. I grieve at each resignation because I'm just getting to know you all. I'm working at sorting you out and don't hope to completely succeed. The embarasing part is that I sometimes own a book you've written. Sigh. Forgive me for any future gaffes. What I've learned is that we have a very interesting group of people here, and I look forward in hearing more that any of you have to say. (I'll confess, I have loved the personal revelations in the last few days.) I think of Mark Twain as the most interesting figure we've ever had in this country.. I even rate him above Ben Franklin, my second candidate for tht position. But for variety of experience, travel, career, interests, losses, writings, opinions, attachments, you can't beat our Mark Twain. One more thing. I plan to write from my account at home from now on so that noone will mistakenly think I TEACH at CSUS. I'm a student, primarily so that I can use their library. Hoping to become a more active part of your community, Arianne Laidlaw On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 4:05 PM, Ken Rasmussen <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > I greatly appreciate the spirit of Arianne's remarks, but I should make it > clear that I am NOT the Forum's list administrator. That thankless job > belongs to my dear friend Kevin Bochynski, who has long been one of the > most > selfless and generous people whom I've ever known. Without his patient and > unremunerated toil, the Mark Twain Forum would have died years ago.