Ran into my neighbor this afternoon in the front yard, and we chatted. Caught up a bit on who’s doing what, how the world of scant bucks affects his professional world of words these days, that sort of thing. One of his many jobs involves being in charge of something at Thomson-Gale.

I grinned. He asked why. And so I tried to explain what Distributed Proofreaders is, and how Barbara and I have a house full of books that we own and digitize (on our own time), give to 5000 volunteers who proofread the scanned text (for free) and produce semi-authoritative electronic editions, which they then give away for free — for any use whatsoever.

He smiled and said how cool it sounded, if confusing, and something about how Thomson might “buy us” some day.

Not sure what there is to buy from a true agalmia. Which is probably the best insight of the week.

Not standing in sandals in the middle of a maddened ant colony you’ve just dumped out onto concrete is a close second. But that one I kinda knew already.