Q: Kurt Schwitters called what he was doing merz.

A: I called what I was doing razz, I called it a heap, I called it my stack.

I called it daily typewriting.

A cross between what Truman Capote said about Jack Kerouac, "That's not writing, it's typing," and what Milt Jackson said about Dizzy Gillespie, "Every time I hear Diz play, I think: `He was just nw developing into what you heard tonight.'"

I am just now developing into what you read right here.

Q: Plus, there's a longitudinal dimension.

We can trace the development of your thought in the record you leave.

You are the official historian of Shirley Jean Burrell.

A: No, that's the Statler Brothers.

But I'm my own historian. And my own anthropologist.

I see the Mall Builder culture the way an anthropologist sees a new tribe.

Q: The way the town creep sees his native town.

A: In The Necessary Angel, Wallace Stevens says it's hard to see your native town.

Q: Sitting under the statue of a famous general.

A: Or sleeping under a bridge named after your father.