The draft of the essay (two short essays, actually) that I plan to post on August 17 is now available at http://mathenchant.org/038a.html and I would welcome comments. Regarding the first of the two essays (an intro and accompaniment to Thurston's video "Knots to Narnia"), I'd be grateful for references related to the video. I'd be especially curious to know whether, for every knot K, the space you get by inserting a doubly-branched K-shaped portal is a finite-to-one branched cover of 3-space. (Thurston shows that when K is an unknot you get a 2-to-1 branched cover and that when K is a trefoil you get a 6-to-1 branched cover. In my essay I show that if instead of a knot you use a two component "unlink" you get an infinite-to-one branched cover.) Also, am I right in thinking that when you use a two-component link (as shown in the article), you get a 4-to-1 branched cover? I want to make sure I've done it right before I insert my "proof" into the endnotes! As I see it, if we label the three windows A, B, and C, then we get the relations C=BA and A=CB, yielding A=BAB, so that ABAB is the identity. Thanks, Jim Propp P.S. It's no longer possible for me to get feedback via WordPress. So just send me your feedback using ordinary email.