just to revive this thread a bit - you may recall from last week's episode (or was it the week before?) how WM and I clashed over the issue of the incarnation of minstrelsy in the 20th century medicine show, which he labeled just more racism and which I argued was a significant and positive cultural force - well, as I've been researching my blues book I came across an ecstatic description of a 1930s medicine show in Paul Oliver's book, Songsters and Saints, by - guess who? A.B. Spellman, none other. So I sent him a somewhat detailed email about what I've been working on, and on WM's response, and he reponded last night and seems quite interested in discussing the subject - so I will be talking to him probably some time after the new year -