My journey began shortly after the Pittsburgh Pirates clinched the National League pennant in the fall of 1960. My heartfelt thanks go out to the Pirates' players, managers, and team officials for inspiring my father and mother to celebrated your achievement by conceiving me. Your subsequent World Series victory helped to keep my parents' marriage happy and provide me with a stable home for years to come.

I would also like to thank my twin brother for his companionship during those gestational months together. Our telepathic conversations and shared memories of the origin of the human species were an endless source of encouragement, enlightenment, and delight. I can only hope that our time together contributed in some small way to his ascendancy to president of his class at Winslow Elementary School, the youngest third-grader to hold such office.

The many teachers who have given of their time and energy to guide my education deserve so much more than my meager thank-you's. Without their support, my eighteen weeks of public school, six months of college, and two years for the combined medical and legal degrees at Yale University would have taken much longer and delayed my path in life. We are all learners, but these people with great minds and hearts and spirits, I am proud to call my teachers.

I would be unforgivably remiss if I did not mention the many wonderful men and women on the Professional Bowlers Association who gladly granted me an age exception so that I could tour the great cities of America and pursue my passion for the pins. Although it is not enough to show my gratitude, I would like to donate my $800,000 prize money from this year's tournaments to the Kegglers Against Cancer Fund.

To the editors of all the magazines, newspapers, and anthologies that have printed my early scrawlings, I send my thanks for your support and encouragement. To everyone at Doubleday who helped me realize a new dream with the publication of each of my seven novels, four short story collections, seven books of essays, and twelve volumes of poetry, and to the great people at Oxford University Press for championing my textbooks on physics, organic chemistry, prosody, and social theory--what can I say? Thank you so much.

My appreciation also goes out to President Richard Nixon for inviting me to the White House so many times. You have often told me how much my counsel has meant to you as you perform the duties of your esteemed office, but I pray that I have shown a fraction of the guidance that you have provided me. I only wish we had kept some kind of recording of our many conversations on foreign and domestic policy to enlighten future generations.

Tomorrow, as I meet with leaders from around the globe at the World Conference on the Peace and Prosperity for the 1970s, I will do everything that I can to live up to the honor bestowed upon me this evening. Perhaps if we can all come together and show one another the same care and commitment that my parents gave to me through these nine wonderful years, the coming decade will indeed be one that brings the world together.

Thanks Mom and Dad. I love you!