He writes me a gracious short email today, noting that I recently seemed to suggest that "this old guy has not totally lost his fastball!"

Ahem!

Given my rather churlish review of his last book (and no, I don't want any more emails chiding me on this . . .), this note was clearly a devious attempt to show me up on the maturity index.

Damn if he didn't succeed . . .

So I replied as politely as a Wisconsin native can to somebody with a Minnesota pedigree, keeping my promise to my mom that I be sure and tell him that she's "his biggest fan" (and yes, I HAVE considered how her starry-eyed exuberance for the man perhaps fuels my criticism) and I thanked him for writing "Lexus and the Olive Tree," because that truly was a life-altering book for me, and one needs to thank people for that kind of thing whenever possible.

And no, I have no similar words for Kaplan. I want to hold onto that one-sided feud for as long as possible--just on principle!