Congratulations to Noah Hagan; he has, indeed, fingered me as a prime "Spode" suspect and is deserving of the $25 prize.

Howsomever -- have you ever considered that instead of "John being Spode" that the real relationship might be that "Spode is John?"

Actually, Spode is one of my two evil twins.

Carol and I have enjoyed Rico and the people of Rico. We leave with regrets and fond memories. I continue my writing -- and I share with you this rejection slip I received recently:

"Thank you for your submission to our magazine. We are so sorry that we cannot print your article. You see, your article is so excellent that, if we printed it, we could never again hope to offer another article of such quality. Therefore people would think that the issues of our publication which came out after the one in which your article might appear were inferior, and they would stop buying our publication. As a result, we would finally have to stop publishing. We are sure that you see our problem, and that you would not want us to stop publishing. Therefore, we are returning your submission, having been honored to read it."

Spode (aka John Burgeson)