I had the pleasure, a few years back, of meeting Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket) when he served as the Guest Author at a graduate arts program in Kentucky. I also had the pleasure of delivering the plenary lecture on this brilliant chameleon writer. Which meant, of course, I had to read all the Lemony Snicket oeuvre, and the deeper I read, the deeper it got. When Handler told me, later, that A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS could be read as a haulocost story, I wasn't a bit surprised. To find out why, you should probably listen to my lecture, which is recorded below. The only thing you'll miss is the candy I threw into the audience during my opening lines!