Today I received a lightweight box from SS Sam, who made up for his not inviting me along on his jaunt to Machu Picchu, by mailing me a paramilitary cap that looks like any old navy blue, I make $20 bucks an hour walking back in forth in front of this fence, cap, but is really a piece of light armor. I could take this thing off by the visor and break a hoodrat nose with the flick of a creaking wrist!

Also, he included “badges from the most prominent failed political movements of the 20th century, so [I] may accessorize according to my mood.

And, of course, a book, Giles Milton’s White Gold, the story of North Africa’s One Million European Slaves.

Thank you, Sam.