I prefer not to work, and so I spent about half my adult life in schools. You don't want to believe me? Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1945, I earned a BA in Russian from the University of Minnesota, and an MA and PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures from the University of Michigan, where I specialized in 20th century Russian poetry and had the good fortune to take three Russian-language seminars from poet laureate Joseph Brodsky. I also have a law degree and a masters degree in Library and Information Science. Do you want more? In addition to the stuff above, I spent 1 1/2 years learning Russian at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, and a term at Leningrad State University. When forced to take a job, I worked as a college professor, a lawyer, a waiter, and as a legal reference librarian. In my dotage, I am the adoptive father of three Russian children: Amelia, born in 1999, Millicent, born in 2001, and Franklin, born in 2002. They age me. They keep me young