I was born on Morton Street in Greenwich Village, New York. At that time, within close proximity dwelt a disproportionate concentration of the world's prominent artists, writers and assorted intelligentsia.

My parents recognized that this was an unsuitable environment in which to raise a child. When I was a year old, they moved us to the suburbs.

They were thus able to shield me from geniuses for more than seventeen years. I am grateful. Who knows what might have resulted had I, an impressionable youth, chanced to encounter e.e. cummings or Marcel Duchamp on the way to the grocery store.