Published in 1996 by the Hereford Salon in London, my first public edition of Residua comes with a straightforward subtitle: 1976-1995, Selections. Twenty years of relentless writing, that is, but why the remainder of the subtitle? Because there were many juicy bits to it back then that were best kept private, as it were. Still, a surprisingly large number of them remain in this hefty edition of my magnum opus. And many is the word. As the bulk of them are in the addenda, though, careless readers do not pay much attention to them. They focus on the pieces of writing with titles of some weight, such as socialism and planning. Thus I have decided to go from cover to cover of this erstwhile edition and mark the pages with juicy bits.

And here are all the pages I have found: 68-69, 113-115, 156-157, 170, 179-181, 213-215, 392, 396, 444-445, 528-531, 542, 546-548, 575-578, 603, 605-609, 615-617, 626-628, 630-631, 642-644, 647, 663, 677-678, 702-703, 707-709, 712-722, 728-729, 733, 751, 759-761, 807, 828, 836, 844, 871-872, 905-905, 927-929, 960, 1059-1061, 1101-1115, 1117, 1155, 1158, 1162, 1184-1185, 1195, 1203, 1214, 1225-1227, 1231, 1232-1233, 1234-1236, 1238, 1248-1251, and 1264-1267. Altogether, this amounts to no less than one-hundred and thirty-one page.

Now, the entire edition counts one-thousand two-hundred and seventy-seven pages. The juicy bits thus come in a bit more than ten percent of the total. Which is perhaps why the 1996 edition of my Residua is far from popular nowadays. Hey, what is a book without the juicy bits? I can only hope that the listing of pages from the previous paragraph will be appreciated by a good number of assiduous readers. And I am more than happy to provide all the guidance required, as witnessed by this particular piece of writing. Anyhow, it is good to remember that all the juicy bits are always available on my Residua website. No secrets there. None whatsoever, as a matter of fact. Everything about my life is in plain light for as long as the World Wide Web keeps twirling around. Hooray!

Addendum (October 24, 2025)

The same day that this piece had appeared on the World Wide Web, I sent its link via electronic mail to more than twenty friends who had gotten this book as a gift over the years. About two-hundred friends and acquaintances have gotten it after its publication in 1996, but I have just a few of their electronic-mail addresses by now. In my message, I claimed that this was the kind of humor that is very close to my heart:

In my mind, this piece is pretty funny, at least according to my own idea of humor. I hope you, too, will enjoy its funny side. After fifty years of persistently adding to my book of books, only humor makes some sense still.

Anyhow, I have received only a few replies so far. All of them are cordial, but they do not even hint at my purported sense of humor. Even for my British friends, let alone all the others, it may be way too sarcastic. That is, mocking, sardonic, cynical, acerbic, mordant, derisive, satirical, or even caustic, as any thesaurus would instruct you point blank. One way or another, this could well be one of the characteristics of my writing that is not appreciated by most of the readers that happen to come across it, no matter how. Alas, much of what I have written to date is sarcastic to boot! And this is not likely to change before I hit the bucket, I am quite sure. My sincere apologies, dear friends!