Dr. Wigand is a brave man. North Carolina is one of the biggest tobacco farming states in the USA, so I suppose a frosty reception was expected. Still, I was surprised at the question and answer session, which ranged from accusing him of placing the bullet in his letterbox, to asking whether there were any benefits to nicotine (after he'd spent over an hour going into the details of nicotine abuse). Apparently, Michael Mann was still being threatened up to the day of the Oscar ceremony over the film. Wigand paints a rather depressing picture of today's corporate America; the lies and deceit present in the cigarette industry seem to have spread to other companies with disastrous effects for the entire nation. What's worse is that people know this is true. Last week's Question Time had the entire American audience laughing at Ed Koch's depiction of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld as honest men of integrity. But no-one seems to be doing anything constructive to change things.

Glad to hear that you don't have writer's block, Joanne. However, the book was supposed to be out last year, was it not? Mind you, she's in an envious position; she can tell her publisher to jump and they'll outpace Jonathan Edwards....