While the esteemed members of this list have been tusseling with taxes, rights and the rummy roles of religion, I have visited the library bookstore, where finally I found the "Meditations of Marcus Aurelius," a work Jeeves is always quoting. And what do I find in this old but undated edition? An envelope, addressed to Miss L. R. G. of Riverside Drive, New York City. It's postmarked October 30, 1918. The return address is Co. 594 Barracks 942 East, Camp Farragut, Great Lakes Ill. What a Wodehousian plot is here! Boy goes off to war. Girl takes up Marcus Aurelius to distract herself, reaches page thirty two and marks it with the envelope from a letter sent by her beau. But then what? Aunts and movie moguls and gangsters must be involved. Perhaps one of you would like to draft it? You don't know M.A.? After some stuff about the Cynic Monimus, a good many pages later we come to an interesting version of the "nothing comes of nothing" scheme, linking it to the usual "we're all in this together" wheeze. "If our intellectual part is common, the reason also, in respect of which we are rational beings, is common; if this is so, common also is the reason which commands us what to do, and what not to do; if this is so, there is a common law also; if this is so, we are fellow citizens; if this is so, we are members of some political community; if this is so, the world is in a manner of a state. For of what other common political community will any one say that the whole human race are members? And from thence, from this common political community comes also our very intellectual faculty and reasoning faculty and our capacity for law; or whence do they come? For as my earthly part is a portion given to me from certain earth, and that which is watery from another element, and that which is hot and fiery from some peculiar source (for nothing comes out of that which is nothing, as nothing also returns to non-existence), so also the intellectual part comes from some source." The war connection continues. I also picked up at the library bookstore a signet copy of "Nine Stories by the Author of The Catcher in the Rye." You, of course, knew that Salinger, who served from 1942 until 1946, had written a story called, "A Perfect Day for Bananafish." I do think you might have mentioned this when I wrote about cooking bananas with fish. Further in the volume I find that "Uncle Wiggly in Conneticut," features Ramona, a girl with an imaginary friend who goes everywhere, baths included, with his sword. Further fodder for my book. Carry on. David Ritchie Portland, Oregon ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html