my dad liked mitscher, i used to say he would read by the pound. my mom loved true crime, and it would be embarrassing riding the train into the city with her because she'd be reading something like the i-95 killer, you know, and on the front cover there'd be somebody stabbing somebody. but i was lucky to grow up in a house like that. i rap into a friend from high school -- ran into a friend from high school a few years ago, and he said, you know, whenever i went over to your house in high school, your parents would just be sitting in the living room reading, no tv, no radio, no nothing, and i always thought that was so weird. but now that he has kids of his own, i think he appreciates that that was really a good atmosphere to grow up, and it fostered my love of books. i went to college in philadelphia at the university of pennsylvania, graduated in 1988 with a degree in folklore. any other folklore majors here today? [laughter] this was, and david went through the list of other occupations i've had. i've, obviously, chosen many nonlucrative occupa