I plead extreme extenuating circumstances, to wit: midterm examinations and a "killer" [oops, John--look where your baby stuck that first quotation mark!] term paper (Descartes in six pages, for my epistemology class), followed by sudden and unexpected notice that my apartment had been sold--and a strong request to be out within one week.

That of course launched me into a week of frantic apartment-hunting, paperwork, packing, moving, cleaning, etc., which brings me up to yesterday... Sasha and I are still living out of unmarked plastic bags (which makes for an amusing game of clothing roulette each morning before class [Gad, John--it did it again with the parenthesis!]) and I have many happy hours of unpacking and sorting ahead of me.

Just to frost the cake, my favorite cat got sick, my daughter hurt herself, and my former landlord tried to do me out of my deposit--all yesterday. I have a psychology exam tomorrow, which means three chapters to read and three assignments to do before 9:00 [Ahem!] A.M. tomorrow, and several other matters which also need attention within the next day or so--all of which I am neglecting so that I can write this.

Need I apologize for not tossing in a few essays and book reviews while I am at the keyboard? Thank you--I thought not.

Whoops! I just remembered that I also have a class in less than an hour. Here's a brief rundown on my latest occupations: 1) I am ardently romancing my new love, philosophy, and hoping that I have not come too late to the Pyreian spring. 2) I am teaching learned helplessness to my cats, who have been somewhat slow to acknowledge me as the Alpha cat. 3) In a similar vein, I am attempting to teach my daughter a few behavioral niceties, such as speaking at something lower--in pitch as well as volume--than the wail of a steam caliope.

In ascending order of difficulty, I would rank these 2, 1 and 3, Wittgenstein being only slightly more challenging than the cats--and infinitely easier than the daughter--to manage.

Other than these, I have only a blizzard of academic demands to occupy my time. Perhaps in the three weeks between semesters I will rediscover leisure reading, leisure writing, or leisure itself--if such a thing exists apart from content/activity (sorry, I'm clicking into "philosohpy mode" again)... Perhaps J.C. will give us a review of the book he just read on the subject for the next issue of Archipelago.

Hello and best wishes to all of you, individually and collectively. I hope to get to know you better in the months ahead.

D.