Forwarded for Dr. Thomas.

I thought my reply to Van Sickle's unsollicited self-promotion in BMCR 2000-10-19 was, rather than angry, mildly ironic, and meant merely to amuse, if  perhaps in a slightly mercenary way (in its urging readers to judge for themselves by purchasing my book -- which they may still do by going immediately to  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0472108972 /instrvmentvmlitt .

I also allowed as how "scholarly erasure" might be more common than Van Sickle allowed. For instance it could occur if a learned journal (such as AJP) sent in 1988  a two-volume commentary on Virgil's Georgics (let's say, by myself) to a reviewer (let's say, John Van Sickle), who then failed to produce a review, or at least a satisfactory one, of that commentary, with the result that AJP never covered it. Which actually happened.
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Richard F. Thomas                       E-mail: rthomas@fas.harvard.edu

"Right now I can't read too good
Don't send me no more letters no
Not unless you mail them
>From Desolation Row"   Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited