AHHHHH!!! You always cut off just when you're getting to the good stuff! I'd better go plot Gamma Virginis, a pattern is forming. I knew Mary Magdalene was nothing but a smokescreen.

I am very confused! Even though all my teachers at Tbilisi No 2 Maxim Gorky Technical School tell me that I am probably the most stupid pupil they ever had in the school, at least I existed and I thought I was real. Now I don't even have that! I hope very much in next week's unreal Stella Maris adventure installment that Mrs Maris explain that all these scary messages from handsome strange man are rubbish and that we can all be existing and real again...<br /> The tanks all seemed very real two weeks ago, but what do I know... <br /> from Kam (or maybe not!)

A friend, who may not communicate with you, has asked that I send you a message. You made reference in your article to a comment he once made privately to your amanuensis. He is grateful for this honor and hopes (and believes) you have understood to what he was referring. I too have seen your writings and believe that you are making good progress. You are not the first. However, I am certain, beyond peradventure, that you will arrive. Keep your eyes open for signs and do not allow yourself to be disoriented by those who choose to commit the greatest sin, which, as you know, is cowardice. Many of your predecessors can guide you, should you need and seek guidance. They, and others, are there to provide fortitude and direction. Remember your Burton: "Doth the moon care for the barking of a dog?" There is nothing further to say at this time. Vale

Thank you for the confirmation, ProfessorW, that this communication 'circuit' is now 'operational'. Chip and the Mania Team have very graciously allowed me the use of this bandwidth as a kind of 'cyber secret letter drop' where I can broadcast through the aethers to parties that I can't reach by normal means... but one is never sure exactly WHO one is beaming to, and I haven't been able to post here directly until recently. Your friend is correct in that my reference was in response to his comment and I'm pleased that he understood that it was meant to be a tribute. Thanks also for your additional comments... keep in mind that this has been a long, convoluted journey and that I am now relating events that happened a good fifteen years ago with the benefit of a large degree of hindsight. I'm not sure how long it will take for me to convey the entire process, if ever... but there is quickly becoming a point where events in the Real World are going to converge in a very intriguing manner with my cyber-adventures - or maybe vice versa! So, stay tuned... In the meantime, feel free to check in as the spirit moves you. It's quite typically perverse that my mind wants to transmute your literary references into art, although my friend Jehan l'Ascuiz would have certainly understood the more lycanthropic aspects:- http://www.globalgallery.com/enlarge/018-21343/

Hello Professor W-- I see The devil's in the moon for mischief...

Hello Mnemosyne, You are misguided. A seasoned herring should have fathomed that a wise old fish never rises to the bait. Besides, honi soit qui mal y pense. I had no no mischief in mind. I merely carried out a favor for a friend, who is indisposed. I am but an innocent bystander. There is no requirement for me to play a more active role at this juncture. The term "devil" is oftentimes abused, as is the moon which plays only a positive - perhaps sacred - role. You of all with your chosen persona must surely remember this... Throw your bait as much as you like, this fish shall not bite! PS I appreciate Stella Maris' kind offer, which I shall take up when the time is ripe.

Misguided?! Yet there is a pleasure in the pathless woods--To mingle with the Universe, and feel what I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal. And this friend can you describe him for me? but...you did already bite.

Oh, the same tired, old dance! I smiled at the symmetry of your question. However, I shall indulge you this once, but fearing to be thought shy (an improbable eventuality!), I shall not be bitten twice. You are indeed true to your persona, since, as we know, memory does plays tricks upon us and the female of the species is so much deadlier than the male. My friend is an acolyte, still seeking the light - not yet bathing in it. He enjoys his infantile word games from his childhood and fancies himself a wordsmith. He misquotes other wordsmiths and derives pleasure therefrom, but he is mostly harmless. He is safe now and will find his path - but not in the woods... Remember the words of the Chinese sage: "In life they dream they are awake". It may be premature, but my old, aching bones tell me that Stella Maris has understood this... ... and, as the other wordsmith so succinctly said: "The rest is silence".

My! Professor you rise like lions after slumber and shake your chains to earth like dew! And may I ask, dear traveller from an antique land, as to why I, alone, am privy to your barbed tongue which rains fire, and hail, with such burst? As to your friend, I'm glad to hear the right road was not wholly lost are gone as I do believe the woods were getting to him.