dear paul,

we send our deepest thanks to you, to pete, manny, diana and to

*every* person at acme who made PALEONTOLOGY happen so swiftly and with such a high standard of craftsmanship. i wish i knew the names of each of you who had a hand in this, and could look each of you in the eye and share a handshake.

sylvia and i drove the advance copies to vermont yesterday and met with jeff, who was aglow with pride at seeing them. it was such a sweet reward to watch him looking at the spine, the headbands, running the pads of his fingertips across the soft surface of the dulcet, feeling the weight and substance of the book, holding the pewter foil in the light and watching it change color as it reflected different parts of the surrounding area of the room. his spirit and twenty years' work, now securely captured within the boards of this beautiful volume.

to top it off, after we had been there for a few minutes to enjoy the pleasure of the advance copies, UPS came with all the boxes! the timing was so perfect, it almost felt theatrical.

we who believe in doing things the right way, have the good fortune of taking pride in what we do every day. but once in a while we get to do something extraordinary, and this project was one of those. with our combined skills and desires, and the help of some new technology, we made a complete book appear in just a few days' time, for the author to behold while he still had a chance to appreciate it fully with all his senses.

although acme has set up the printing-on-demand division to do special projects like this, and that the goal is to produce things in a short period of time, we know that there were extra measures taken to get this particular book through the works as quickly as possible. we recognize the effort that you all made, and we thank you for it. we thank *each* of you for it.

with respect and pride in our association with you,

bruce and sylvia