Did Liszt Have a Little List?

"I've got a little list," Ko-Ko sings in The Mikado. Ko-Ko then goes on to document "a little list / Of society offenders who might well be underground, / And who never would be missed." I've always been a list-maker, but not for the same reasons as Ko-Ko-San. My "enemies list" has always been short, unlike Richard Nixon's, which started with 20 names compiled by one of his aides and reportedly grew into the many thousands. Paul Newman, the American movie actor, reportedly said that being on the original list of 20 was his greatest accomplishment. Hunter S. Thompson, the gonzo journalist, was disappointed that he did not make the original list. The intent of the original list was to focus on how to use income tax audits and other federal weapons to "screw" Nixon's enemies. No, the lists I make, just about every day, are the benevolent sort, mostly to-do lists or lists of things that didn't get done the day before. When I was a kid, in the fifth grade, as a school project I made a book which was essentially a compilation of lists of Civil War battles, generals, etc. It won me a prize from my teacher, a book inscribed by her for "outstanding work in social studies." Another time I recall compiling my own lists of the ten most populous cities in each U.S. state, typing them out hunt-and-peck style on a small manual, portable typewriter. And, even nowadays, in my little black moleskin, I keep lists of books I've read, movies I've watched, trains and planes I've ridden on, beers I've drunk, names of my high school senior classmates (to see how many I could remember) and so forth. Lists are my way of bringing a small tad of order to an otherwise untidy universe.