First, thanks to all who responded to my posts. If nothing else, I seem to have rekindled some activity on the list. Secondly, I am not a typist, so I can't jot off rapid replies like Mr. Ansley <g> , and I'm a little overwhelmed by the volume, as I subscribe to the daily digest, not the individual messages, which makes it hard to cut-and-paste and still maintain attributions. Also, I don't get the digest until the wee sma' hours, as I am two hours later than the west-coast mailings.
That said, I would like to thank Mr. Millman for his welcome. And "Roy" will do.
To Mr. Ansley: First, you are correct about my assumption re. the alphabetical nature of roll calls, as I, personally, have never experienced them to be otherwise. Perhaps the fact that the Ws were at the top of the stairway, rather than the bottom, is suggestive of an alternate ordering convention. (Or maybe Wolfe was just making a not-so-subtle evaluation of his work!) <g> At any rate, as I said in my previous post, it is a small point, not worth the argument. Finally, my wife said that you are probably right, and I am probably wrong about the roll call. I concede. Will that suffice? Besides, it is stated somewhere in the archives that Wolfe is purported to have stated explicitly that the narrator's name is "Wolfe", and it would make no sense for his first name to be other than "Gene".
Roy