So here I am on the plane with a row to myself, sipping Scotch and pondering what the Fair might be like this year. You know, the usual stuff — will Klaus Flugge have trimmed his eyebrows, will the neon (a/k/a Pink or Bubble) bar still be the place to hang after dinner, will there be any editors there to buy books?

Actually, this is my twenty-seventh trip to Bologna and I'm still riding at the back of the bus, paying for water and wondering just how weird the Fair might be this year.

What I expect, actually, is a skeleton attendance with few editorial staff and abundant rights personnel. Both editors and rights people will be lying about how good business is. Well, maybe lying is too strong a word, but you can bet there will be enough spinning going on to clothe most of Western Europe.

And let's see, Kate Wilson has moved from Scholastic to Headline without taking a breath, and we can only wonder which of our colleagues from over the last twenty years will have either bailed or moved on. For the last several years my wife and I have been keeping a list which we call, unkindly, "Fired. Retired. Expired." Who is new on the list? (No one, we hope.) Any new candidates? (Hope not.)

To tell the truth, it's too early to ruminate about what will happen until we have a chance to see who and what. I hope to uncover some pearls during set-up tomorrow and Sunday. First big event is the Random House party on Sunday night, and I'm hoping there will be plenty of people to toast—people with new jobs, those who earned retirement, and those who built the business we love.