How sweet to find the origins of THE2NDHAND as articulated by the ever-astute Mr. Jonathan Lethem in a Harper's essay on artistic appropriation Mickey Hess might be proud of filtered through a letter from Mark Twain to Helen Keller, of all people, who was herself accused of plagiarism: "For substantially all ideas are secondhand, consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources, and daily used by the garnerer with a pride and satisfaction born of the superstition that he originated them; whereas there is not a rag of originality about them anywhere except the little discoloration they get from his mental and moral caliber and his temperament, and which is revealed in characteristics of phrasing..." Well said, Twain, Lethem, etc. Thus in 2000 we set forth unencumbered by the burden of originality -- let's hope we're still blustering just as valiantly as ever.

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