To write: that phrase sounds so scholarly, so purposeful, so respectable. But that's not me. I must seize words by force of will, and with might and main hammer the things into shapes of workable form. I must beat words and twist them and melt them and start over, and let them cool to see what I've got. Thus it is, for my own geeky purposes, I think of myself as a wordsmith. Make of that whatever you will - but could you meanwhile hand me the tongs?