Letters from tenure and promotion committees at institutions all across the country come in requesting evaluations of their candidates based on my examination of their publications (one institution even sent a dissertation), which of course involves hours of reading. Different kinds of letters come in from appointment committees, who want me to recommend someone to teach Afro-American music and whatever, invariably at the assistant-professor level. Then there are letters from foundations, who want recommendations---particularly in recent months from MacArthur, Guggenheim, and NEH---and from publishers who want evaluations of manuscripts. Finally, there are requests from institutions inviting me to lecture, from grad students and scholars asking for help with their projects, from performers asking for suggestions for pieces to be sung or played on recitals of the music of black composers. Help, help, I’m drowning! I haven’t even yet mentioned BPIM. But I am not winding up my “complaints department” properly: I have finally learned to ignore some requests (particularly if a stamped, self-addressed envelope is not enclosed) and to “just say no” to other requests. Still it takes time to answer letters even when I’m “just saying no." No doubt you’re drowning at this point, what with this immense amount of detail about my correspondence. It relieves my guilt about being so late with Obi, however, to bore you with my “distractions,” and I console myself that if you trash it, I’ll never know the difference.