It's a strangely frequent story: you hear people say they want to become artists, and the first thing they do is go out and buy hundreds of dollars of supplies. "I want to learn to draw!" They say as they buy a library of How-to-Draws. It makes one wonder, 'what are you really trying become?' You already have scrap paper, pencil–what else do you need?

Case in point. Earlier this year I took an art class and the syllabus came with a long list of things needed...now most of it's sitting in the closet, unused–and I only bought half the list! It's embarrassing: the idea that somebody so bad needs so much, such nice material (to say nothing of the extravagant syllabus). Clothes do not make the man. Neither, I'd remark, do words.