Having found media studies after formal training in fine art, I was often at a loss to make myself understood in the humanities. My only "translator" was Rudolf Arnheim. Cinema Studies 101 assigned Film As Art, but my favorite book of his was the comparatively new Visual Thinking. As his preface put it, "artistic activity is a form of reasoning, in which perceiving and thinking are indivisibly intertwined," a definition I understood to apply as much to consumers as creators, in physical and electronic media alike. Years later, I opened an issue of Leonardo and found a letter to the editor from him, complete with a home address! I contacted him about my academic homelessness and he was kind enough to reply. Unfortunately he admitted being out of the loop for long enough that he couldn't give me much advice, but he did invite me to lunch. I was afraid we'd have nothing to say, so I didn't take him up on his offer. (Meeting Robin Wood for the first time only to discover he was burnt out and trying to write a novel in San Francisco was one of the most depressing non-conversations I've ever had.) However, I'll always have a piece of his homemade stationery - personalized with his initials in red felt tip!