there's a l.p. hartley who wrote the go between and such came out in a statement which i like, the past is a foreign country. they do things differently there. [laughter] well, william faulkner said the past is never past. [laughter] but in this case, i think it's what hartley had to say that sort of -- and i became a foreign correspondent. i began covering this material. and i began to think as i looked at what was happening around here, i thought -- and i began dugging -- digging into this before i introduce you to some of my favorite characters in the book that are not named ethan allen. let's see, where was i. one thing i want is that you have to remember when writing, and i'm quoting antonia frazier who i quite admired as a biographer, to -- lost my place again. she talked about two problems when you write, and i think they're going to certainly fit into this. and one was the peril of anachronistic judgments. i'll talk about this, and i'm going to tell you some of the, for instance, the african