This morning on the Trollope list - also gone `suddenly very quiet' - a wag living in Australia (no, not you-know-who...) suggests it must be because everyone in America has become mesmerised by the `boy wonder's exploits on & off the battlefield...' Another correspondent writing from within the Washington beltway explains that everyone there is too busy filling sandbags to protect their estates against the reprisals that are `bound to come...' I presume the same explanation applies to Bananafish. From time to time a ripple of laughter spreads across Europe at the news of some indomitable American hero (Sylvester...Clint...) cancelling trips in the face of bomb threats. And recent exchanges here have certainly illustrated the new, deeply eirenic strain in the American psyche. But I do urge my transatlantic cousins to be of good cheer. Lift up your hearts. Look towards higher things. Become non-attached. Remember all those Buddhist insights. No one lives forever, you know. Scottie B.