Twain would have undoubtedly considered Keith Richards a kindred spirit. Consider this quote, long available from any of the editions of the Autobiography: I have always felt friendly toward Satan. Of course that is ancestral; it must be in the blood, for I could not have originated it. Twain would have appreciated the bow to family connections in the great Jagger/Richards composition, "Sympathy for the Devil." Martin Zehr Kansas City --- On Thu, 12/2/10, Lawrence Howe <[log in to unmask]> wrote: From: Lawrence Howe <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Re: Cigars and whiskey on the ready... To: [log in to unmask] Date: Thursday, December 2, 2010, 9:24 AM Alex-- Keep your anti-Rolling Stones rants to yourself =A0;) --LH --- On Wed, 12/1/10, Effgen, Alex Brink <[log in to unmask]> wrote: From: Effgen, Alex Brink <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Re: Cigars and whiskey on the ready... To: [log in to unmask] Date: Wednesday, December 1, 2010, 8:51 AM I thought the emoticon of semicolon and close parenthesis indicated a jest,= =3D not a rant. I'm still so new to this digital world. And for the curious the four books I list as alternatives... DECISION POINTS, by George W. Bush UNBROKEN, by Laura Hillenbrand DECODED, by Jay-Z LIFE, by Keith Richards with James Fox ...are currently ahead of our favorite autobiographer on the New York Times= =3D list. Come on, people! 19 bucks on Amazon gets you, what Adam Gopnik of th= =3D e New Yorker recently described as, "a reshuffling of the same deck of dict= =3D ated and written fragments and pieces published in the last decades of Twai= =3D n's life (slightly altered here by Twain's revising hand and ostensibly in = =3D his intended order)." ;)=A0 =A0 [indicating jest] Seriously, for 19 bucks everyone I know is getting this as their Christmas = =3D present. Forget JZ, GWB, and whoever that Keith Richards guy is. Alex