as poking fun at the publishing business. for example, i said last year that publishing was a sinking ship. and i meant that in a positive way. [laughter] i did not say that publishing was a sunken ship. i said, and i believe, that publishing is still very much in the process of sinking. you know, publishing is a carnival cruise ship. it s on fire, the toilets don t work, but we are surviving day to day on pop tarts and spam. [laughter] and i think we can all agree that is a pretty darn positive assessment of where publishing is right now. [applause] i m glad there is some agreement. but just to be clear, if in the course of this evening i do poke fun of publishing, it s not out of disrespect. it s because i m an ice hole. there s also agreement on that. that s what i m paid to do or what it would be paid to do if i were being paid tonight. [laughter] tonight i am a pro bono asshole. and i relish that task, i really do. if you want to switch things up a little bit to do somet