I love paper. I have always loved paper. Among papers that I love are hasti-notes. That's a cute name that Hallmark or someone coined for cute little, quicky, short letters that brides (and others) used to say thank you. They were cute, still are, even beautiful. I joined the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York not because I get to NY to see the exhibitions (they look lovely), but because I get catalogues online and a discount on purchases. I have a friend who saves all my Met thank-you notes and pins them on a bulletin board, not because I write great notes but because I write on great notepaper. I got carried away recently and bought more really pretty ones and now I have a large collection that I must use soon. I wish someone would have me for dinner, so I could thank her.

But I worry about the future of letters. Wonderful collections of letters by famous people to other famous people are being published, dating from a time when people chose to write rather than twitter. Well, twitter didn't exist, of course. On the other hand, neither did blogs. Maybe those who would have been letter-writers are communicating via blogs now. I can believe that. I'm having trouble keeping up with everything I have to write these days: my diary; my correspondence (with people my age who don't have commuters although they are catching up with iPads and beginning to write) ; notes for my mentee; regular generic letters (I wrote one in August, haven't mailed it yet, either e- or snail-); my blog and, of course, the book I am trying to finish.

Anon, anon....