Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a pleasure to be here. But I confess that there seems to have been a misapprehension, and I further confess it seems to be mine. I was under the impression from conversations last year in this same venue at this same time that my defined role as one of your guests of honor was to amuse and entertain Farah Mendlesohn and Christine Mains in any way I could and using all means necessary. I admit that Farah and I were not entirely and utterly sober when this was discussed. Accordingly, I rounded up the usual suspect jokes and trimmed my beard.
