I'll add my voice to the choir of praise for Elmira 2009. In the twenty years I've been giving papers at conferences, I have never described a conference experience as amazing. Others have singled out some obvious highlights of this one, so I won't repeat them, but for me attending all of the panels I could and hearing papers of the highest quality was such an affirming and stimulating activity. So many of the new people I met sang the same refrain: "I really wanted to hear that panel, but I couldn't miss the one on (fill in your blank here)." For example, on Saturday morning I heard five papers in a row (from the "Mark Twain and Contemporaries" and "Mark Twain and Imperialism" panels) that knocked me out and kept me riveted from 9 a.m. (and I was closing out the Pone Pub the night before!) till 11:30 a.m. Of course, I'm sure I missed five in a row (from the "No. 44" and "Mark Twain and Gender" panels) that would have done the same to/for me. On a personal note, this was my first Elmira Conference, and all the Twain scholars I met were so gracious with their time and advice. They couldn't have been more welcoming to a scholar from different field in English studies. Other highlights for me included playing blues piano as John Bird strolled in with his mandolin and began jamming with me--that spilled over from the dorm to the campus center where an amazing pan flute player (dude, I didn't get your name) joined John and me on a bluesed out version of "Heart and Soul" with Shelley F. F., Sharon, and others listening (Shelley, you must find a double bass next time!). And lastly, swapping baseball stories with Tom Quirk while our British friend Thomas Ruys Smith politely listened and the Sox politely lost in the 15th. I met many new friends who I'll write to individually, but as a collective whole you Twain people ride on greased wheels as far as I'm concerned. And one last thought: Barb Snedecor deserves a raise, and the planning committee deserve medals. Cheers, Ben