Acknowledgements

It takes a whole hamlet to write a book and to list everyone who turned a random collection of words into a published volume is probably impossible. However, there are some noteworthy citizens whom I would particularly like to thank. First of all, Becky Morgan, my editor, has a wonderfully gentle way of telling me that my prose has become gibberish, my illustrations are upsetting, and my captions seem copied from an old Bogotá telephone book; thank you very much. Many thanks to Production Editor Myrna Vladic for her tolerance in my unfortunate way with screen shots and naming conventions. (I still feel guilty about the naming convention thing.) Thanks to copyeditor Tiffany Taylor, who ensured my words at least roughly corresponded to the English language and to compositor Jerry Ballew, who managed to somehow place everything on the pages in a pleasing manner. And finally, thanks to indexer Julie Bess who has a job not for the faint of heart. There are undoubtedly other people, whose names I don’t know, who made this volume come about; I thank them all.

At home, I thank my wife for her tolerance of my turning for several weeks into He Who Types and Occasionally Eats; she had great patience for an inert husband whose only signs of life were moving fingers. And thanks to granddaughter Elizabeth, who periodically insisted I chase her around the house; some days it was the only exercise I got.