Thanks to reading The New Yorker, I get to "meet" interesting people, usually artists, who make me feel how dull, and boring, and safe, and conventional my life has been. I never heard of Niki de Saint Phalle until I read Ariel Levy's April 18 article. I also learn things that I find interesting. Thanks again to the April 18 issue, I now know more about the Spanish Civil War and the Americans who fought in it than I ever did before. Until I read the article, I knew Franco was a Fascist, but I really didn't know who were the Nationalists and who were the Republicans, and now I do.