I realize that yesterday was April Fool's Day, but I'm not sure that
Karl Petersen's "Letters" submission was a good idea, considering the
mud the "Letters" throw into the historical waters when they get picked
up a few decades down the road and repeated as fact by some researchers
into mechanical music history.

Unlike the spoof that was published in last year's MMD on April 1,
Karl's "Letters" cannot too easily be detected as the joke they are
meant to be, once they are separated from their date of publication.

Matthew Caulfield
Irondequoit, New York

 [ Those who relate stories as factual without providing documentation
 [ of the source of the facts are not researchers -- they're simply
 [ propagating rumor, and so they're gossips repeating titillating
 [ stories (just like daytime television) which is a traditional form
 [ of entertainment!  The troubles arise when we believe the stories
 [ are factual; rumor is usually more entertaining than fact.
 [ -- Robbie