(1) Mags, a giant THANK YOU to you and all the other Eastern PA volunteers who made this conference work! I do have some idea of how much effort it took to make this go smoothly, and you all did a stellar job!

(2) I too made an impromptu purchase from Austentation: a silk evening cap in golden tan and navy blue stripes with an ostrich feather trim. I wandered happily through the Regency Emporium wearing this confection with the price tag still dangling from it for some time, and was with difficulty persuaded to remove the tag for the banquet and ball. (I had visions of emulating my fellow native Tennessean Sarah Ophelia Cannon, a/k/a Minnie Pearl, by arriving at the banquet and yodeling, “How-DEE! I’m just so proud to be heah!”)

(3) And in another fashion note, wasn’t Alert Janeite Lisa’s presentation great? As her faithful Syracuse sidekick and chauffeur, I’m so proud I could bust!

(4) The breakouts I attended were Juliet McMaster’s “If You Don’t Marry My Sister You Will Mortally Offend Me” (a wonderfully McMasterly discussion of sibling matchmakers, with emphasis on the juvenilia, of course); Celia Easton’s “The Sibling Ideal in JA’s Novels: When Near Incest Really Is Best” (less shocking than it sounds–Celia compared JA’s ideal to the concept described by Plato of rearing all children as pseudo-siblings); Elaine Bander’s “Brothers and Sisters in Austen’s Mansfield Park and Burney’s Camilla” (Elaine, with her typical goodness of heart, took pity on those of us who haven’t read as much Burney as Mags has!); and Deborah Knuth Klenck’s “‘You Must Be a Great Comfort to Your Sister, Sir’: Why Good Brothers Make Good Husbands” (notable for, among other gems, Deborah’s description of John Thorpe as a “locker room” type).

(5) I thoroughly enjoyed the Elizabeth Garvie “curtain raiser,” although I was disappointed that (a) none of my photos of EG came out well, and (2) she signed no autographs. One major surprise was that, in addition to being a hard-working actress and mother, she has earned a PhD in psychology and is a practicing therapist! Who knew?