Hardly hidden even beneath the thick skin of country vernacularKillams keen intellect and droll Yankee wit repeatedly endorsecommon sense and practicality. His northern New England sense ofhumor oft comes across with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Little sympathy is shown for business representatives who after utterly failing to address your problem apologetically proceed to ask if there is anything else they can do for you. Focus recurrently pinpoints the lost art of listening, service personnel who fail to provide service andthe irony and diffi culty of communicating via modern technologywielding the capacity but not the brainpower. Fun is poked at ourcurrent propensity for serving rules and regulations rather than eachother. Yet overriding all is an innate concern and compassion forpeople, particularly for young folk. In this new collection of poems, essays and stories Killam is quick toevoke tears, pathos, laughter; -----to preach or to ridicule; ----- butabove all to entertain.