dr. wilburn. it's a real pleasure to be here. i appreciate -- i'm honored by being invited to deliver this lecture. dr. wilburn graciously said my latest book. i've got to confess, it's my only book. [laughter] but i spent 30 years, as he said, going to saudi arabia mostly as a reporter or foreign editor talking to saudi officials about oil, iraq/iran, arab/israeli, so geopolitical issues. and when i retired from the journal in 2006, the one thing i was really interested in doing with my newfound time was trying to understand saudi society. how did saudis look at each other, what was the society like, how did they look at their rulers, how did they look at us. and as i speak about saudi arabia, everyone constantly asks me why did you do that, why did you spend five years month after month going there dressed in my long, black clothes? my editor asked me that, actually, when i turned in the manuscript. she said, you know, why did you do this? and i said because it's interesting, and she said paris is interesting. [laughter] so why