Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 12:58:48 -0700
From: library@libcong.com
To: bhance@azstarnet.com
Subject: Smashing Time, et alia

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Dear Mr. Hance:

 First, best wishes on whatever new life you are now beginning, whether
it be south of The Golden Gate, or elsewhere.  Wordsworth is not
immediately at hand, but he wrote something to the effect: ^Óthen to be
young was very Heaven.^Ô  Certainly to be a CyberWhiz in these times, at
your age, is a delicious prospect.

 Please be sure to supply your less-than-luminous postal people with a
forwarding address.  This point is a matter of some existential moment,
as a sub-Plenary is scheduled shortly.  (No announcement under the
heading of ^ÓUnscheduled^Ô has appeared--the conditions are too delicate
for that mode of transmission.)  It is expected that Dallas will ship
additional information to Mr. Hance as a concomitance to matters that
first came to the attention of the perceptive Repubgirl.  A ^Ósmashing
time^Ô is expected, as it were.  It is suggested that you note the
postmarks.

 One final point, Mr. Hance, in regard to your analysis: The term
^Óweird^Ô occurs repeatedly in your writings.  Perfectly apropos and you
are welcome to describe whatever you wish in whatever terms you desire.
It is suggested, however, that you consider the Ontology of
^Óweirdness.^Ô  What, exactly, is it?

 Allow those most concerned to offer you an exemplum, which might
provide Bryan with an (analytic) door.  When the Spaniards first sailed
into what is now Veracruz, the aborigines literally could not see the
Spanish ships riding at anchor^×at least not the first day.  The invaders
seemed to appear out of nowhere, rowing ashore in small boats^×the great
galleons, from which the rowboats came^×being (initially) invisible to
los indios.  In nuce, the human mind does not deal well with Novelty.
The indios quickly learned that the conquistadores were all too
real^×weird as they no doubt first appeared.


With all best wishes,

The Orphanage