Rice, Reason, and Roses: Reference Rations on a Deserted Island

If stranded on a desert island, which ten sources would I pick to take with me to form a core reference collection? As I pondered Jim Rettig's question, my reading of its meaning shifted. Initially I thought of the Congressional Record, New York Times on microfilm, and Encyclopaedia Britannica 3 — the Congressional Record because of its mirroring of contemporary America's political life with all of its unin‐tentional humor, hokey homiletics, wealth of information and insight into the workings of government; the New York Times for retrospective news coverage and because for me New York City will always be the world capital of culture and intellectual ferment; and EB 3 because it is the most generously endowed encyclopedia, and the lack of an efficient key to its content would be a minor failing in the languid, sultry, South Seas setting I had established in my mind.