For those of you who are new to weblogs: When the operator of the page you're visiting is swamped with deadlines and just too busy to post witty observations, pithy remarks and links to items of great interest elsewhere on the 'net, it is traditional to put up a picture of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup as a means of saying, "I'm occupied and I may not be posting for a while but I haven't abandoned you and I will return shortly." Of course, by "traditional," I mean that I do this and almost no one else. But it's a tradition around here, and that's all that counts.
Yes, I am busy. And yes, I am way, way behind in answering e-mail so if you're waiting for a reply and you aren't the child of some high Nigerian official who wants to use my bank account to transfer $47 million bucks into this country, my apologies. I'll be back soon. In the meantime, thanks to all of you who have made donations to feed the raccoons that invade my backyard and devour a large size bag of Friskies almost every evening. They are also lately engaging a game which seems to involve knocking over the water dish and playing some kind of Raccoon Hockey with it, rolling it all over the yard. This seems to cause them to work up even more of an appetite so keep those donations coming. Muchas gracias.