I'm not opposed to posting a photograph of my desk here, but the latest one I have is from about 25 years ago (originally posted for a previous issue of this column, linked by another, different,  associative thread of thinking). If I ever get around to taking a new photograph and digitizing it, I promise to post it and link to it. In the meantime, a partial list of what's covering the desk, perhaps I should write cluttering it so that it's unclear whether or not there's a real, or perhaps only a virtual, desk underneath, will have to suffice.

• about fifty disks the contents of which are not fully clear (some are labeled, too many aren't)
• three rolls of scotch tape
• one container of glue of a sort that I dislike using and might as well simply throw out
• one stapler (one of the more useful items)
• one screwdriver
• one dysfunctional flashlight
• five or six books presently under examination, two of which have to be returned to the university library
• six or seven CD-ROMs which deserve a better place to be stored but haven't found one yet
• one Pesach Haggadah which it would be easier to return to the shelf than to write about
• both this year and last year's calendars which are actually very useful and functional and which I hope I don't displace
• seven or eight small note pages that contain various beginnings of ideas waiting to be saved digitally in word-processed documents
• after fifteen downloaded and printed-out articles on various aspects of internet in education, each, I'm happy to report, in a separate nylon envelope
• about three piles of newspaper clippings that used to be separated from everything else but have slowly but surely worked they way into being an integral part of the mess
• two computers (I almost forgot about these)
• one plastic container of spray-on Guilt-Away for Relief from Guilt
• and,  sadly, lots, lots more