To all my faithful readers from years past and to new readers in 2004:

Lucia's Symposium is revived again for the fifth time in 20 years; it has appeared internationally online and offline in newspapers in Chicago. Three years ago I moved back to my home town of New York City happy to leave the provinces and wondering why I stayed so long in the Land of Daley. When I see Chicagoans from a true cosmopolitan perspective they appear like true denizens of a Metropolis in the Cornfields. On the other hand I have a great Negative Capacity and see the contrary side of every experience like those Indians who rode backwards on their horses. Someone has to be different in this Toquevillian/ Huxlian/ Orwellian .... you get the picture.