[Mike Slippkauskas]

Marilyn,

There might be a bit of plain-spoke Fargo tactlessness in Tim's comment and I don't really know what he means, but -- both you and Tim Steele have good-looking, clean-cut features and beautiful brown eyes. I'm sure Mr. Murphy meant it as a compliment.

Slipp

[This message has been edited by Mike Slippkauskas (edited June 13, 2006).]

[Tim Murphy]

I meant it as a compliment. They are both beautiful humans, Timothy on the emaciated side of the spectrum, Marilyn on the opposite. It's the eyes, the chiseled cheekbones, the intensity of certain personalities....

[Janet Kenny]

Originally posted by Tim Murphy:
Timothy on the emaciated side of the spectrum, Marilyn on the opposite.

Marilyn, sue him, sue him
Janet (who is definitely off camera)

[Marilyn Taylor]

Tim! Think!! WHAT IS THE OPPOSITE OF EMACIATED? Don't even SAY it. And I'm NOT, you dirty rat. Now all these people in Australia and Yorkshire and South Dakota are going to think I'm a humongous person. How COULD you, after all the money I spent at Jenny Craig???

Marilyn
(--who may not be emaciated, exactly, but who is a normally proportioned indivdual which you will plainly see when Robin Kemp posts her great photos.)

(ROBIN! POST THOSE PHOTOS!!)

[Michael Cantor]

I was at the same breakfast table when Tim made that comment and, while I never thought about it before, there was a striking resemblance. Same nose, same good cheekbones, same skin tone and color.

Cheer up, Marilyn - it could have been worse. Tim didn't say you looked like me.

[Marilyn Taylor]

Michael--
It could have been MUCH worse. In fact, I think Timothy Steele is quite attractive, so I'm actually rather flattered. I'm only waiting for an explanation from Tim Murphy about that, um, opposite-side-of-the-spectrum thing.

Marilyn

[Michael Cantor]

I suspect the explanation, Marilyn, is that Slim Tim's "spectrum" stops at about size 8.

[Janet Kenny]

(Here's an in joke for Michael Slipp. I shared a lunch table with a conductor and a soprano. The conductor told the small vivacious soprano that she looked like Schumann. "A lot of people have compared me with Elizabeth Schumann" she said. He replied: "I meant Robert Schumann".)

[Marilyn Taylor]

Ha, Janet, that's funny! And Michael, you are very gallant and reassuring. I hope that you and Tim and others realize, though, that I think this whole thing is hilarious, and I am not at all offended. I don't offend easy, as we say out here in Cheesehead Nation.

Marilyn

[Tim Murphy]

Mike's right, my spectrum runs to size eight. Has anybody read Tim's new book? I approached it with dread, because I'd seen some pretty unambitious stuff in the last decade, but my dread is past. Through the slow, patient accretion of mind boggling power of observation and expression, he has produced a significant advance. I'll assay an essay (Run for the exits!)