Expanded Universe

FOREWORD

One of the very few advantages of growing old is that one can reach an age at which he can do as he damn well pleases within the limits of his purse.

A younger writer, still striving, has to put up with a lot of nonsense - interviews, radio appearances, TV dates, public speaking here and there, writing he does not want to do - and all of this almost invariably unpaid.

In 1952 I was not a young writer (45) but I was certainly still striving. Here is an unpaid job I did for a librarians' bulletin because librarians can make you or break you. But today, thank Allah, if I don't want to do it, I simply say, "No." If I get an argument, I change that to: ''Hell, No!''

"Being intelligent is not a felony.

But most societies evaluate

it as at least a misdemeanor."

- L. Long