-- Messages from file: [SUMEX-AIM]<LENAT>MESSAGE.TXT;1
		 -- Friday, April 20, 1979 11:14:17 --

Mail from MIT-AI rcvd at 20-Apr-79 0825-PST
Date: 20 April 1979 11:23-EST
From: Randall Davis <KRD at MIT-AI>
Subject: (Response to message)
To: Lenat at SUMEX-AIM
cc: KRD at MIT-AI

First the direct question: yes, I got the two ms's; but not I don't have
a copy of your thesis (somebody stole it).  So you (or your secretary)
will have to prepare a TOC.  It'll only take a few minutes; I have that
on reliable authority.

Whenever you get around to doing it, mail it to
Lenore Stanoch
McGraw Hill International
30th floor
1221 Avenue of the Americas
NY,NY 10020

Now to the more general issue. (Sit down.)

For the past nine months I have given you and had sent to you various
forms, papers, requests, and information about getting this book into
print.  You have lost, ignored, or simply reflected back to me virtually
every one of those items, with the exception of getting your ms into Tek
(which was of course no small effort).

I made a serious mistake several months ago, in effectively taking
charge of this operation, mostly because I was in CA, and because I
though it would be easier if McGH had to deal with just one of us as a
contact point.  That has turned out to be a terrible mistake.

I cannot any longer continue to harras and cajole you into doing what I
would have thought you were interested in doing.  I refuse to continue
asking for information and have you tell me in effect, "oh it'll be easy
for you to find it, go look here or there..."  (eg., "oh I guess just
use the Unbiq. of Discov. paper"; sure, I'll look it up, after all,
you're too busy and it'll only take a few minutes.  If it's your reference,
why the bloody hell don't you do it?   After all, it'll only take a few
minutes.)

I refuse to continue asking you to do what McGH needs done, spending six
months trying to get some response, and then get back that haphazard
bunch of stuff you finally put down on the form.

Item: nine months ago I gave you a folder of reasonably important
information about the book.  You lost it.

Item: over the past six months, I have sent or had mailed to you four
copies of that marketting form.  You either ignored or lost every one
of them but the last.

Item: You knew as of January 2nd that McGH needed an updated TOC from
us.  You simply ignored that letter.

Item: A few weeks ago I had the production people send you a copy of the
stylistics book, just so you'd know what was going on, and what we had
to do (I had done all the talking to them and was working on ways to get
that done; it occurred to me, obviously mistakenly, that you might be
interested).  You said "oh I ignored that".

Item: when it came time to sign the contract, you were prompt and
conscientous.  When you got a hint that I had given up on getting you to
do anything on the marketting form and was going to do it myself, it
took no time at all for your to whip up a biography.  Some things are
easy, I guess.

Item: after six months, you finally filled out that marketting form.  It
was clear that the first four questions were meant to draw out a few
issues, and that the fifth ("now write a coherent overall description of
the book, using the information from previous questions") was what the
form was really all about.  You answer, verbatim: "Aside from the above,
I have enclosed some material from the book itself, which is relevant to
your question.", and you enclosed the first chapter.

Item: you claimed to have spent 3 hours on that form, yet it was clear
you never proofread it.  Your answer says something about including a
reprint of one of your papers.  It isn't included.  It is clear that you
put in the absolute minimum amount of effort you thought you could get
by with.

As I said, I made a mistake.  I had assumed that you would accept some
reasonable amount of responsibility in this project.  That clearly isn't
the case.  I goofed, and it has caused enormous frustration and put a
serious strain on our friendship.  I have to change the situation.

So from now on, here's how it's going to be.  We are individually going
to deal with McGH.  As I said above, if and when you decide to send them
a TOC, you have the address.  Your msg of a few weeks ago containing
your bio got deleted by a bug in the mailer here, so, whenever you get
around to it, you can also send Lenore your personal info.  If you are
concerned enuf, you can also send them that reprint.  Up to you.  I have
got to get out of that loop to preserve my sanity and our friendship.

I will expect you to contact Ed about the money for a Tek hacker.  When
we get the money, I will do the best I can about getting someone to do
it, but (so you are forewarned), it will very likely be a matter of a
set of macros that get written.  I will then convert my half of the ms
and it will be up to you to do your half.  When that is done,
responsibility for getting the actual film produced will be yours,
because DEK's typesetter is at Stanford.

That's the current set of responsibilities that I can forsee.  If
anything else comes up, you will take care whatever part concerns you
and I will do the same

Today I'm mailing Lenore a ms copy and the current collection of info
relevant to the marketting form.  I am also going to explain the change
about dealing with two of us, and am going to give her your address and
phone.  She's a very pleasant young lady; feel free to call her if you
have any questions. 

	cheers
	Randy