Dear Cyndy,

Please tell Elizabeth that I'm much appreciative of the equanimity
with which she apparently tolerates me flaunting my ignorance, and
thank her for me.

For reasons that are not at all apparent, I've been preoccupied
with the fable of the Doberman and the Panther. I've translated
it, with some expansions, into German and deputized Charlotte to
repeat it to friends and "family" as a curiosity worth telling,
a tale for which Charlotte herself offers no exegesis. I haven't
yet heard the comments of Mengs, Joachim and Moritz Schwiegel.
Just possibly they will tell me that the Doberman fable has no place
in the novel. I'm open minded. I will report to you what they have
to say.

Of even greater interest to me was the comic sequence to which
Elizabeth provided the URL: 
http://xkcd.com/451
which you may or may not have looked at. 
This I interpreted as a commentary on C.P. Snow's assertion of
two irreconcilable cultures, Science and the Humanities,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two_Cultures
a dichotomy which I have been unwilling to accept.
The cartoon presumes to compare the periods required for
a graduate student to determine the ignorance of his or
her professor. In "science" this period is purportedly a
mere 48 seconds, for "literary criticism" the period is
unending, presumably because "truth" in this discipline is
not ascertainable. The comic sequence pointed, derisively
I thought, to the Wikipedia essay on "Deconstruction"
and here I found a link to the specialized terminology
of Martin Heidegger. From these various references I draw
much stimulation; they are grist for discussions I'm 
planning in the novel.

I'm getting tired now. I'll possibly have more to tell you
in a day or two. My best to both you and Ned.

Jochen