Ted, Thanks for the birthday note, even though I didn't see it until late January with the outage and the fact I rarely hit the off-topic board. Degreeinfo has been extremely valuable to me, and I hope that my somewhat irregular postings prove helpful to someone. --Fortunato
My high school English teacher, Mr. Tolegian (claimed to be a cousin of Saroyan) insisted that he had made a major study of the matter, and had chosen the best "first line" in all American literature -- from Poe's Cask of the Amontillado. We were all required to memorize it, and it stuck: "The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge."
