Dear Marion,

Thank you for your letter. I marvel at your energy and
the versatility of your interests, your ability to assimilate
and to enjoy such a variety of intellectual and emotional
experience. In comparison I feel like a cripple. I can't
keep up, and think I deserve to drive around town with a
license plate: "Culturally Handicapped". I'm much appreciative
of your efforts to give me a glimpse of what goes on in your
mind; perhaps we should consider it as culture by proxy.

Almost all of yesterday, I spent reading Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter.
It's an assigned text for Benjamin's 11th grade English, and my
reading it is long overdue. I'm embarrassed by how much I dislike
the book: the gingerbread prose, the cartoon characters, the demonization,
the pervasive superstition, and overshadowing the contrived fairy tale,
the esthetic and ethical insensitivity of its author, a traitor to
transcendentalism, a proponent of slavery and a propagandist for Franklin
Pierce. I don't know much about Pierce, but Gail Collins says he was worse
even than G.W. Bush.

I find it dispiriting to talk - or write - about books, or about people,
that I don't like, so I'll try to put the Scarlet Letter out of my mind
and get back to my own writing, - and perhaps more important, putting
my house in order. I have a long list of things to do here in Belmont,
such as replacing the radiators in the old section of the house
with separately zoned baseboard heating units; replacing very drafty
windows, refinishing floors, all the while worried that I will run out
of energy and time.  I'm diffident about starting projects which I might
not be able to complete.  I keep telling Klemens: There's nothing but
trouble ahead.

Margrit is recovering but slowly. Her clostridium difficile diarrhea is not
yet cured; it fluctuates, but presents no immediate threat to her life.
She is determined to resume her itinerant lifestyle, for which, in my
judgment she has neither the strength, the energy, nor the memory. But I
can't stop her and wouldn't want to stop her, if I could. She is still
toying with the notion of going on the Caribbean Cruise. She tells me that
she has reserved the airplane tickets, - whether she's paid for them, I
don't know. She has made a $100 deposit for the cruise itself. I explained
to her that neither Klemens nor I could take professional responsibility
for the presumably small risk of her spreading the clostridium on board ship.
My realistic logic is that if Margrit is able to resume her independent
life style, she will also be able to get her car packed and out of the
Konnarock garage. If she can't get packed and get started by herself
it's unrealistic to assume that she is able to drive from town to town
visiting friends and to take care of herself in her apartment in Detroit. 
She may stay here as long as she wishes, and if she leaves she may return
at any time. So we'll see what happens.  I welcome your involvement in her
affairs in any way you consider appropriate.

In response to your question. I've looked into the yogurt manufacturing
process. Heres what I find:
www.Yoplait.com/Original

"For a dairy product to be called yogurt, it must contain two bacteria:
Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus.
Many types of yogurt incorporate other species as well,
including Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactobacillus casei.
In many countries, yogurt must also contain live bacteria
and remain unpasteurized, with pasteurized yogurts being specially labeled.
Pasteurized yogurt has a long shelf life
and does not need to be kept refrigerated,
but it also doesn't have the health benefits of live yogurt."

The yogurt that I have been buying for Margrit is made from
"cultured pasteurized skim milk" - whatever that means.
It is labelled "live and active Acidophilus & Bifidus cultures,
Keep Refrigerated". I assume that although the milk was originally
pasteurized, the yogurt itself, since it contains "live and active"
cultures, has not been pasteurized. A question that hasn't been answered
is why the acidophilus and bifidus cultures should not be inactivated
by the metronidazole Margrit takes to kill the clostridium difficile.
Maybe the yogurt is nothing more than a gesture.

Jochen