Date:  Thu, 23 Oct 1997 08:25:17 EDT
From:  Julia Cochran <COCPROFS[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: thank you . . . thank you

Lynne Murphy writes:

>people (projecting their own fears of being alone onto me, i presume) insist
>on talking to me--and making small (high in quantity, low in quality) talk.
>here i am with nabokov in my hand and i have to grunt my agreement with this
>stranger's assessments of the weather, the big game on saturday, and the
>political situation.

No amount of commentary on my part would be likely to alter your interpretation
of their behavior. Still, I cannot resist observing what a classic passage your
comments would make in yet another modernization of Dickens's "A Christmas
Carol." In fact, you have inspired me to give it a try.

:) <----- yet another bourgeois banality