Carolyn: Three children, writing reviews? I'm as impressed with that as I am with fact you presented a paper at the Mark Twain Conference. I've heard glowing descriptions of how good Elmira can be and saw pictures which were delightful. I hope I get to attend one of these conferences and meet some of the people we read here, including you! I find myself definitely stimulated by much of the conversation here, to the extent that I think about it even when I'm away from the computer. So far I'm lacking the energy to say all that I'd like. I can say that I regret not joining this site long, long ago! But I came upon an email I wrote to a far=away friend last year which you'll probably understand perfectly. Specifically the joy part. I quote: subject My Thesis 6/13/07 My friends, the Dabaghians, came over last night. I had a kitchen sink soup (I could never reduplicate it cuz I can't even remember all I threw into it, except that it was my first venture into BARLEY.) They brought bread and dessert. We usually watch a video but last night, for some reason, we just talked. They hadn't been able to get some of the things I've sent out, like "Women in Art." so they saw it here. I started talking about my new search skills (which Maryellen already knew. Nobody told me!) She mentioned that among her various interesting searches was the time she ran into Leo's PHd dissertation. She remarked that there were lots of digitalizing things afoot, including getting dissertations and various papers on line. This moved me to google the name I had when I got my MA: Jeanne Adamson. Two pages of hits. On first page I saw reference in Peace Corps places that Arianne Laidlaw had been Jeanne Adamson. At the very top of the second page....be still my heart....was " Mark Twain's Nemisis: His brother Henry." B y Jeanne Adamson. THAT'S ME!!!! And indeed, there it was, with 24 preview pages available (which of course I've clipmarked) and all it would take was $32 for me to download the whole thing. Which I won't do, because obviously I already have a hard copy. I was so excited I ranged from happy, to joyous to J E R B (remember? Joy, ecstasy, Rapture and Bliss? I don't go there so often anymore.) I gave Maryellen a big hug but that wasn't enough. So I did a jig. No kidding. I thought of snoopy and did a dance for joy. It was so exciting!!! Today when I told my friend Loretta she remarked that makes me an internationally published author. heh heh. But what is creepy is that the company who is doing the digitalizing declares its copywrite over the material! Does that seem right? Seems odd to me. All excited about it, as I said, I clipmarked the 24 available pages and reread them. Maryellen read the first paragraph with me and I was embarassed. The first paragraph consisted of one unbelievably long single sentence. Could use a rewrite. What I found by reading those pages was how much I've forgotten and I found it interesting! But I also realized it would have been better to say more in the introduction about where I'd go with the topic. Never mind. I had found all my notes AND the thesis sometime last week as I've been pouring over my file cabinets to find my most recent Mark Twain files. (Still unfound. VERY frustrating. Where could they be?) The thesis was around 190 pages so I haven't reread it in years, but I'll bet I will. It was much longer than it need be for a Master's Thesis, but I was on a roll. My advisor at the time wrote on the final draft at the end: "Wow." I had a dynamite last paragraph quote from Mark Twain about readers of his pages in "1960," the very year I'd written my paper. I love pleasant surprises. YEA!" Carolyn, thesis was written in 1963 instead of 1960, but I was still struck by quote I mentioned. Also, I'e thought over the copyright question and assume it is because even though I wrote it, THEY made digital copy so finders keepers. Still seems a bit odd to me. I have since found the missing papers, my research on the topic I mentioned I stumbled upon while doing research at the Mark Twain Papers. I still haven't reread the thesis, except for parts. One thing that delights me is that I have a photocopy with Fred's (The editor there then) remarks. He actually told me he'd be glad to edit anything I wrote since he ended up seeing everything submitted for publication about Mark Twian anyway. Wish I could attend the ALA conference in SF. So near! But I'm booked for another \conference that weekend. A pleasure meeting you here, Warm regards, Arianne