Phantom pains,--all kinds, chinamen, gringos, --all sizes, big and small; from a slight pinch to a fat cheney caught in the fly...(cheney is the polite way of saying "dick"...) But pain,dear friends, is the price for being alive. In my case the urgency is tenfold since I've got to get my hand back on the million dollar jobs.* A friend from the past called me to complain that Kinji is so wonderful--almost everybody loves him except you Ben, and that you should gladly support him being made "the Most Distinguished Artist" since it is a title recognized by thousands of Minnesotans, and so on. I thought I don't have to get down to the debate level with anyone--I thought a true rebel is a law unto himself, but still it is not like Ben to pass up the chance for a good argue. Thereupon I answered, Kinji I like, and Ari, I like, too-- as much as anyone else. Yes,they have thousands of fans, I mean Kinj himself alone. However, I never mix up the personal with the truth about art. Even one hundred thousand maggots at it does not make the feeding right! Little did she expect the high voltage in a Benlau tongue lash, for I believe I heard, or imagined hearing some sobbing, silence, and the line was dead... Well, the whole of Paris supported the Salon, but it only took one Cezanne to run it into the dump! Rimbaud said this: "When shall we go, over there by the shores and mountains, to salute the birth of new work, the new wisdom, the flight of tyrants, and of demons, the end of superstition, to adore...the first ones!...Christmas on Earth?" To which Ben adds the following: Hurrah, Hurrah! The revolution is hah! (hah= here) Follow the trail, follow the blaze! Come what may, sing what may,... Till our cattle have come to graze, And lying on that lush pasture, At all the stars we gaze! Ben Lau * The author has lost part of the function of his hand in a freak accident earlier this year. Ben always refers to his art as million dollar job.