Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1998 21:42:45 -0800 (PST) From: Frank Marquardt Subject: Re: Rettberg’s Holiday Greetings to Unknown Staff To: The Unknown List Scott, Colleagues, Fellow Literary Travelers and, yes, my Unknown Friends: The road we all take is a road to a destiny and nomatter the advances in semiconductor technology, broadband, or surveillance equipment the global positioning satellites right now observing me type this have no better idea of our individual and respective destinies that this booger I flick from my index finger out my window and into the ever-changing elements of San Francisco’s maritime climate. It is an often unnoticed fact that outside holidays, birthdays, and deaths our lives pursue their individual and respective destinies usually without the support of strangers, bosses, and the French and often without the support of acquaintances, family, friends, the government, foundations, and philanthropists. These may be ever-warming times, but don’t let the surface realities of rising oceans mislead you: Our lives are as cold as ever, we are as alone as ever, and the day-to-day motion we go through has no more than speculative meaning and, quite possibly, much less. And yet as a group we have proven ourselves undaunted if perhaps dauntable; generally unwary although many times unsteady; and occasionally impressive if repeatedly dismissable. These are no small feats nomatter how small our lives, the packet-switching optic wires that brings this data to your PC screen, or the aluminum bits in the odorless antiperspirant which typically causes my armpits to itch beginning a few minutes after I apply it in the morning. Thus, on the occasion of Rettberg’s Holiday Greetings to Unknown Staff, I would like to say a few short sentences on behalf of the Unknown who have drug me unknowningly into an utterly disorienting hypertext landscape, literary project, and future that before this year and in fact before next year I did not know existed. Thank you. Thank you very much. I have nothing more to add. Sincerely, With warmest regards, F. Marquardt