Don and I spent New Year's together and discussed the very idea of making presentations more interesting by not reading straight from a paper. I haven't een to that many conferences lately, but I know the presentations I like the best--the ones that stay with me the longest--are the ones where the presenter doesn't appear to hide behind his/her paper. I like what Nat, AMy, and I did at the presentation in Ohio .. . visual aids, personal experiences, handouts . . . that's the kind of stuff I find interesting. Of course, it was a humor conference . . . .

I had a wonderful Christmas in Italy, by the way, and I came back to work on the 2nd, a day I elieve even the mail carriers had off so they wouldn't go postal. My plns for the New Year ( or at least prior to a writer's retreat) are to get all the paperwork junk done throuh IUP anf start setting up and conducting interviews with my subjects.

Finally, Amy, just to let you know, your friend should be receiving three postcards soon: one from Philadelphia, one from Sicily, and one from Chicago. Two of them have handwritten addresses and the monkeys on the front are from postcards some of the students at my school drew about 10 years ago when they were raising money for a trip to Africa to meet Jane Goodall (They went and she came and spoke here, but that was before I began teaching here)

Andrea