Joseph T. Major, Louisville, Kentucky

http://members.iglou.com/jtmajor

Welcome: Yes, she is, very welcome. In an age of fronts that span from the Brass Bra’ed Babe of Planet Stories to the Baen Battle Babe, that cover sticks out — STANDS out.

A Symphony of Books: “My ear was sore.” If speakerphones had been as cheap then as they are now (I just bought a speakerphone/caller ID phone for $9.99) John and Pat Adkins might never have quit talking.

Earlier this year, on the last day of the Friends of the Library Book Sale, they were having the clear-out sale; two dollars per box. We packed them as tightly as possible, and I still think that Modesty Blaise book fell out when the one box burst. (Quote appropriate psalm here.)

An entire box of Sabatinis for 10¢ each? “He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.”

Are you talking about Scaramouche or John Guidry, who found those gems? By the way, John reports that his Sabatini collection came through Katrina and the flood untouched.

Almost Half a Century: “It was on December 10, 1954 ...” When I start feeling old I get some reminders like this. That day was two weeks before I was born. (Insert obligatory remark about kids who don’t understand How It Usta Be.)

And then insert obligatory remark about poor kids born the day before Christmas. I was smart: came down the chute in July. Presents twice a year.

The Easter Bilby: And now you know why the Australians have such ambiguous feelings about Warner Brothers’ Tasmanian Devil cartoons. If he actually managed to eat Bugs Bunny, now . . .

Spam Are Plentiful This Year: Spam are adventitious fauna, even more plentiful in their original homeland of Nigeria, where it is estimated that there are 419 different types, many named after famous politicians.

The Chorus Lines: Rich Zellich: Lisa wanted to go to Cooperstown, but we couldn’t make Goshen, Saratoga Springs, and Cooperstown all in the pre-Boston portion of the trip. Now she’s doing baseball even more, unfortunately the most-local team (the Reds) is in the cellar of its division.

Charlie Williams: I remember the six-ounce Coca-Cola, too. When I could drink soft drinks with sugar in them. Try Kosher for Passover Coca-Cola, which has sugar. Corn syrup — “high-fructose corn sweetener” — ferments and so is treife for Pesach.

Grant Kruger: Well, Guy may forgive the author of The Dispossessed anything, but Minik probably wouldn’t. Read Give Me My Father’s Body by Kenn Harper for the story of Minik the Inuit and what the museum people, including Alfred Kroeber, father of Ursula, did to Minik’s father’s body.

I used to visit Kroeber Hall, the anthropology school at Berkeley. Beautiful museum ­ and it was a hoot to know the daughter of the man it was named after.

Monster’s Brawl: Remember that Randall Garrett’s “The Napoli Express” was written as a refutation of the “Murder on the Orient Express” theory of impromptu conspiracies.

The End of the World: I was reading the novel of Vampire Hunter D, which is better known as an animé. The Yokohama ‘07 people had been passing out booklets of the first chapter to prove that hey, they did have written stuff too. So I got the entire novel. The catastrophic nuclear war which bred the creatures in the book took place in — 1999. Were you too busy to notice, too?

Last Words: Personally, the hero of the Red River Campaign was the general who marched his cavalry brigade unmolested across what was proclaimed as Union territory — General James Patrick Major, my fifth cousin twice removed. We are part of history.