I received electronic mail today from an old acquaintance. He had seen my picture on the Journal’s web page, looked at it again and again, day after day, until it dawned on him:
I see your face every day, which is no problem, except it is an excellent representation of infamous NM lawman Elfego Baca.
Ah yes, the tale of Elfego Baca. They say he shot 10 men, or was it twelve, and this is New Mexico, so they say the men he shot were Texans. I once, in my youth, won a Franz Kafka look-alike contest. And it has long been obvious how much I resemble the late Frank Zappa. But he was the ugliest of rock stars. Ah, now I have, to cling to, the legend of Elfego Baca.
Do not concern yourself with your looks! They could, you know, be much worse. I say this because I’ve been told that I look exactly like Quasimodo. This use to really bother me until I saw John Kerry on TV.