Oh, thank you so much, you lovely flutherfolk. Your kind words touch me. I don’t think I deserve any credit for the tone of this place, which was here when I got here and is one of the main reasons I stayed. But I am glad to feel at home in this community.
I’m sorry I’ve been absent all day—it was our day to return home from vacation at our favorite near escape among the redwoods. I still have much unpacking to do.
But it’s ever so nice to stop in and find a party in progress. Thank you for coming! Have something fizzy (champagne? diet cola?) and stick around for some rousing entertainment. After we read aloud from the dictionary (the OED, of course), we’ll have a game to see who can guess the number of dots in a Seurat painting, and then we’ll make a collage by cutting out the words from operatic libretti and rearranging them to form verses by three Romantic poets. Finally we’ll have a race to see who can get to sleep first. Something for everyone!